The speed of construction work in China never ceases to amaze me. 20 story buildings are constructed in just several months, roads can be built almost overnight, and new subway lines are announced every few months. But also demolishing a building goes really fast. Most of the time old buildings are not blown up, but they are ‘de-constucted’ manually.

A nice example happened right outside my office window. The pictures were all taken within 24 hours. In the morning there was still a 6-story apartment building. Then the bulldozers came in and started hacking and pulling the building apart. At night all there was left was just a big pile of stones. And by the end of the next day even these stones were all gone, thanks to big old blue FAW trucks continuously driving on and off with the left-over material. In Holland this process would likely take weeks.

This morning I walked by the site, and construction for a new building has already started. No idea what they will be building there yet, but I will know in a few months when the new structure will be finished.