Fangyuan Building 9th Ugliest In the World

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• published: 14 Jan 2012
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Follow us on TWITTER: http://twitter.com/cnforbiddennews Like us on FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/chinaforbiddennews The Fangyuan Building in Shenyang was ranked in the top ten ugliest global buildings, released by CNN Go website. The news drew widespread concerns online. The building's appearance is like an ancient Chinese coin. Online comments say it is unattractive from afar, and depressing from near, glorifying money supremacy. Scholars believe the outcome indicates China's status quo, traditional culture loss, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials' vulgar and weird pursuits. CNN's leisure and travel site, CNN Go, selected the top ten most controversial buildings in the world. North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel, Dubai's Atlantis Hotel and the Fangyuan Building in Shengyang, China, made the list. The Fangyuan Building is located in the Finance and Trade Zone of Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Designed by Taiwan-based C.Y. Lee & Partners, the 24-floor building has its facade built in a shape of ancient Chinese coin. The building's designer endeavored to fuse East and West. Yet, "The circular design looks incongruous while the plate glass windows and concrete base are depressingly run-of-the-mill," CNN Go says. Sun Wenguang, a retired professor at Shandong University, comments on the issue. Over the years, the culture in China has lacked free air. The expression of culture became rather vulgar. Prof. Sun: "This shows that China's officialdom corruption has been manifested in many ways. All the constructions go after large and weird effects, instead of expediency. This building is a coin, round with a central square hole. It implies to turn toward money. The mainland's officialdom is just like this, the pursuit of money is usually their first priority." Prof. Sun said that huge tax revenue has been squandered for showy displays and tall buildings. The wealthy officials get wealthier while the general public gets poorer. Petitioner Zhang Shijun suffered forcible home demolition by Shanghai's CCP authorities. Zhang reflects that the authorities have not given him a penny compensation for the past 11 years. Zhang Shijun: "You have no place to petition. Whenever they hold conference, they'll put you under house arrest. Or you'll be locked into a hotel room, or somewhere like a concentration camp in a suburb." The second online poll for "China's top ten ugliest buildings" was recently released. Shanghai World Expo China Pavilion, Xi'an New Famen Temple and CCTV Tower ranked as the top three. "Huaxi Village" in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province, also made the list, known for plagiarizing a world famous building design. Netizens mocked that the "creative designs" touted and funded by the local authorities are neither fish nor fowl. Prof. Sun: "It prefers to pour money into building show-off projects, yet ignoring the poor residents' needs. This has created a very sharp contrast." World Expo China Pavilion tops the list of China's ugliest buildings. Netizens comment that it is staggered intersections like a pile of wood, with a few sticks standing like a square nest. The second ugliest is Xi'an New Famen Temple, which was accused of lacking Buddhist nature. The third one, Beijing-based CCTV Tower, was satire like two separated legs, that will go well with a toilet underneath. NTD reporters Tang Rui and Wang Mingyu 《神韵》2011世界巡演新亮点 http://www.ShenYunPerformingArts.org/