No superlative can go too far in describing the preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games in China. In pursuit of its ambitious vision, the Chinese government has brought in star architects from the West. That vision includes not only staging 'the best games of all time', but also re-making the capital Beijing as an ultra-modern, cosmopolitan city for a globalized world. And the Chinese are doing whatever it takes to achieve their vision. The construction boom did not start with the selection of China to host the Olympics - it was already moving at a breathtaking pace, realizing plans for an urban development without precedent in history. German architect Ole Scheeren, for example, a partner of the prominent Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, has been planning what has to be the most spectacular of all the projects: a 250-meter-tall skyscraper in the form of a skewed pi as a colossal broadcasting center for China's largest state television network, CCTV.
Beijing's fast-paced urbanization brings not only new opportunities but pitfalls, as well - even more pollution, for instance. Can anything be done about it? Around 30,000 new registrations for cars are issued each month. How can the traffic be controlled? Wherever the new buildings go up, old ones had to come down. Beijing's once flat skyline was a maze of Hutongs - narrow alleyways connecting millions of tiny dwellings. Most of these quarters had to make way for the new skyscrapers; their residents had to re-settle to new high-rise developments along the city's outskirts. Little of the old Beijing remains. Even the historic center is feeling the effects. The Chinese National Museum on Tien 'An Men Square, housing five millennia of cultural treasures may appear unchanged from the outside, but the inside is now a vast construction site.
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