In what can only be seen as an inauspicious portent for the year to come, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel adjacent to the CCTV Tower in Beijing was gutted by a massive inferno last night just months away from its grand opening. So far a Beijing government spokesperson quoted by Xinhua News Agency is blaming the blaze on “illegal launches of fireworks.” The last day of Lunar New Year celebrations always ends with a chaotic barrage of pyrotechnics around the city. This time, however, the biggest show in town was the burning Mandarin Oriental Hotel backlit by the Year of the Ox’s first full moon.
I have no doubt that heads are going to roll after this fiasco. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel was designed by Rem Koolhaas in conjunction with the even more imposing CCTV Tower. Constructed during the 2008 Summer Olympic development boom, the complex stood for a sleek, modern image of Beijing that the Chinese Communist Party continues to paint for the rest of the world. Now the building will always be remembered for the massive fireball it turned into on Lunar New Years and the resulting charred shell standing in the middle of the Central Business District. In an unlikely turn of events, an old world celebration took down China’s new world order.
For now the Chinese media have been rather tightlipped about the situation. China’s Net Nanny was also on the prowl last night as videos posted to YouTube were temporarily blocked as well as links to articles in foreign media sources. Even local workers setting up food carts for morning commuters at 4AM across the street from the tower had no idea that a fire ravaged the building just hours before. In all, there was a general sense of shock mixed with grim acknowledgment of the highly symbolic nature of the building’s destruction.
Fortunately the Mandarin Oriental Hotel was unoccupied before the blaze, the only reported death being that of a firefighter. For now, the spinners in the Propaganda Bureau are going to have an unenviable task of trying to save as much face as possible both domestically and abroad. This is also a sad moment for me personally, as I remain a huge fan of the CCTV complex design. Now the Mandarin Oriental Hotel will be condemned and suffer the fate of the hutongs and block housing that came before.
