The Sky City photos by Station Black
Depicted in these stunning near-aerial photos are the Jin Mao Tower and SWFC in Shanghai. Nothing but the facts, ma’am: Jin Mao Tower is a skyscraper built in 1998 and topping out at 421 meters (1,380 feet) tall with 88 floors.The Shanghai World Financial Center is a 492 m (1,614 ft) high skyscraper with 101 floors and is currently the third tallest building in the world. Don’t look down!
A Road Runs Through It
Luo Baogen and his wife in Wenling, Zhejiang province, refused to move when the government wanted to demolish the neighborhood and build a new highway, claiming the compensation they were offered was not enough for a new place to live. So the government compromised and built the road around them, leaving them as a tiny island with only a view of the sprawling ocean of asphalt surrounding them. Just make sure to look both ways before you leave the house.
(source: Reuters/China Daily / via: The Atlantic)
Steve Maobs by Alex Varanese
Alex’s Steve Jobs/Chairman Mao mashup was intended for a Fortune Magazine cover detailing the impact of Apple products on China’s economy, though it was pulled at the last moment.
The Streetart Footprint Tree by DDB Shanghai
Created for China’s Environmental Protection Foundation to increase awareness of carbon emissions, DDB Shanghai draped a massive 12.6 meter long by 7 meter wide canvass displaying a sprawling bare tree across a busy intersection. A large, environmentally-friendly dyed sponge was placed on each side of the road and when pedestrians walked through it they added green footprints to the tree’s branches, helping it to grow with the power of their toes. Watch it sprout leaves in the video below:
Artists: Website (via: If It’s Hip It’s Here)
The Wizard of Oz in China by Billy Nunez
We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore, as Billy’s illustrations set the classic tale in China as they follow the Great Yellow Brick Wall.
Architecture of Density
Seven million people are sardine-canned into a mere 1,108 square kilometers of Hong Kong, comprised of 6,588 high rise buildings (several hundred more than in New York City). Hong Kong’s metoric development and population explosion produced these head-spinningly claustrophobic living conditions, photographed here by Michael Wolf. In each picture it’s hard to imagine that anything else exists besides these massive walls, it seems as if the architecture itself has somehow overtaken the world it springs from.
Artist: website (via: china smack / kotaku)
The Yellow River by Zhang Kechun
Zhang’s photographic series documents the sometimes surreal scenes along the Yellow River or Huang He, the second longest river in China.
Artist: website (via: whokilledbambi)
History vs. Present Collages by Yang Yongliang
Yang’s series combines traditional chinese painting with the photography of modern day Shanghai into these violently overlapping images. The history of China seems to be at war with the present, as the people of China are at the mercy of time’s self-destructive clash with itself.
(via: thefoxisblack / featureshoot)
Lantern and Ice Festival
The Lantern Festival also known as the Yuanxiao Festival or Shangyuan Festival in China, features many luminous ice sculptures meant to replicate traditional chinese architecture. This festival marks the Lunar New Year in Beijing and I kind of want to be inside some of these.
(via: photoblog.msnbc)
Dig Dug to China by Phil Jones
True story. This is how we discovered it.
Artist: flickr / twitter / website
(via Phil’s tumblr: phildesignart)
Kissing Dino Gate
The area outside the Chinese city of Erlian is known to be a nonstop dinosaur bone party, so the residents decided to festoon the border with a pair of salacious sauropods, not to mention the nearby Dinosaurs Fairland Theme Park which apparently never has any visitors due to the remoteness of the area. That just means you can get all that hot dino action to onesies!
(via: io9)
A worker takes a nap surrounded by ducklings at a duck farm on the outskirts of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China.
Soon…
(photo source: Reuters, via: boingboing)
The Piano House
Located in Huainan City, An Hui Province in China, the Piano House acts as a practice and performing arts center for a nearby college. Man, the colossuses are gonna be pissed when they find out people have been kickin’ it inside their jam-session tools.
(via: letmebeinspired)
Tiger Escape Drill In China
A zoo in Chengdu, in Southwest China’s Sichuan province practices an animal escape drill with a staff member dressed as “Tigger” from Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. “Tigger” hides in bushes before being fake anesthetized and fake taken out on a stretcher. The tears his actual tiger brethren sheds in his capture though are very much real.
Let’s tarantino this story:
(source: chinadaily, via: reddit)
China: Failing With Censorship But Winning The Internets
China has repeatedly prevented Google Maps from providing maps of China because the government would like the right to censor landmarks and locations. So what does China do instead? Have Baidu—the most popular search engine there—provide a 3D pixel art version instead.
Go to map.baidu.com, then learn Chinese and decipher the hidden code to browse extremely detailed pixelized maps of China, which are apparently amazingly accurate down to basketball courts and street addresses.
