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December '99 Issue 73 |
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December '99 Issue 73 |
| CONTENTS
Temple Preservers Precious Pictures
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Dream
Believer
Zhu Xiangyuan had his one millionth big crazy idea in spring 1994. What if China built a monument to herald in the new millenium? Not just any old monument, mind, but, say, a 4.5 hectare space, 35,000 square-meter structure glorifying 5,000 years of civilization, including a center for cultural, artistic and scientific exhibitions, an eternal flame and a rotating altar. And so on. He had been feeling blue over Beijing's failure to bag the Olympic Games when the idea suddenly struck him. He caught a train to Xuchang, Henan for a business trip. Within minutes, he found himself sharing his vision with a crowd of enthusiastic young passengers. They all heartily approved. "When I got off that train, I thought my idea might work," says Zhu.
"When I had this idea I wanted to see first what young people thought, fearing maybe I am getting old and out of touch. "When I told them my ideas, they really loved it. They all said they thought it was terrific." So far, his idea appears to have cost the city 200,000 yuan. He points out this is a lot cheaper than the £758-million Millennium Dome in London. A more apt example might be the Swiss equivalent of the Millennium Dome, Expo 01, recently postponed to 2002 due to funding difficulties.
Work began here in November 1998. The building activity near the Military Museum seems about the busiest in Beijing. More than 2,000 Beijing City Construction Company hard-hat workers, skilled and unskilled, are hammering, chiseling, sanding marble, carrying ropes, hoisting scaffolding, shoveling dirt into bags, eyeballing plumb lines and more besides. Zhu pauses to chat at the control center, a wooden desk on a raised outdoor platform with a single telephone. Men in yellow hats, cheap suits and fat ties surround him. "This isn't a solo project, you know," says Zhu. "It's really the combined efforts of workers and intellectuals." "I feel so good about all this. So many people are working so hard. They are very patriotic people. "You know the workers all recognize me now. They are so casual. They shout 'Hey Lao Zhu! This is not like working on other buildings. They say 'I love this job.' " The site tour takes us more than two hours, as Zhu points out endless design details and more ideas, lots of ideas. "At the office, we call him dianzi dawang, (idea king)," says his assistant Lin Manxing. China Millennium Monument, between the Military Museum and Central Television Complex, Fuxing Lu. |
Cover Story
