These images are just a little scary considering that I have just moved to an apartment on the 26th floor! This 13 storey building simply fell over in Shanghai last week - thankfully it had just been completed and therefore no-one was living in the building. One construction worker died. Luckily, it wasn't built so close to the other apartment buildings nearby, otherwise an apartment domino effect would have occurred.
"According to Shanghai Daily, initial investigations attribute the accident to the excavations for the construction of a garage under the collapsed building. Large quantities of earth were removed and dumped in a landfill next to a nearby creek; the weight of the earth caused the river bank to collapse, which, in turn, allowed water to seep into the ground, creating a muddy foundation for the building that toppled." (from Wall Street Journal)
So, whilst I was already feeling a little bit nervous about living on the 26th floor, now I'm even more concerned! It was only a matter of time before something like this happened during my time in China - every day old buildings are quickly torn down and new ones replace them, nearly always being constructed by unskilled migrant workers. Six weeks in an Australian second floor apartment will hopefully put my mind at ease and I'll have forgotten my worries once I return to China.
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