Five Children Hospitalized in Kindergarten Poisoning

If you value your life and your health, a Chinese school ain't the place to be these days.

Five children have been moved to hospital after ingesting rat poison in a kindergarten in Cenxi, Guangxi.  One of the children is in a coma after suffering severe poisoning, the other four are reported to be in a stable condition.  Currently there is no word on how the children managed to get access to the poison.

Two pupils died in May this year when a teacher laced yoghurt with tetramine in an attempt to tarnish the reputation of a rival school in in Lianghe village in Pingshan county.  The deaths followed a spate of poisonings, authorities blaming the intense competition between local schools.

In Mao's home city of Changsha, 180 pupils were sickened after eating their lunches, some of them suffering severe vomiting - milk and cookies served to the kids have been sent to labs for analysis.  In another case students in a primary school suffered nosebleeds, fumes produced by nearby factories were blamed.

 

 

 

World's Tallest Building Mired in Red Tape

China's lust for skyscrapers continues unabated, attracting criticism that the skylines of many cities are being determined by the egos of the local officials that run them (or in some cases, the people who refuse to move off proposed building sites.  Increasingly, many of the flagship construction projects led by local governments are grinding to a halt.

As reported earlier, selling off land for developers to build on is a common ploy by cash strapped provinces.  Building the world's biggest, or the world's tallest building on the site is technically a boon for the local officials looking to climb the CCP ladder, and excellent PR for the Party in general.  Nothing says modernization like a whopping great building in the center of town built in record time.

Thing's aren't going so well for Changsha's latest effort though.  Sky city was intended to be not only the world's tallest building, but the world's tallest building built in the fastest time, but Chinese red tape is dogging the project, and it's in real danger of not actually getting off the ground at all.

Proving that if you want something done in China, you need to do it illegally, or work in the gray areas at least, doing everything "above board" has meant that as of July this year, the company responsible for the project had obtained permits to build on a mere 122 acres of land.  Fines for starting construction without the proper permits could be fairly hefty - an estimated $750 million of the total $1.46 billion.

Of course, if the World Skyscraper Index is to be believed, Sky City could be a lynchpin indicator of the economic times to come.

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