Hangzhou, China to Cut Down High-Rises to Win World Heritage City

by Tina Kells | December 12, 2008 at 12:58 pm

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How do you cut down a high-rise building? Looks as if architechs and builders in the Chinese city of Hangzhou are going to have their hands full figuring it out! Hangzhou city has committed to chopping the top floors off of wto of the city's tallest builings in an effor to win world heritage city status from Unesco.

[q url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7779288.stm"Two exclusive hotels, a TV tower and a number of other buildings around the beautiful West Lake area will all be made shorter, the developer said.

The 40m yuan ($5.8m) project is to help the city become a Unesco World Heritage site, Chinese media reports.

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Hangzhou was the capital of China in the 12th and 13th centuries and is considered to be one of the country's most beautiful cities. Its lakeside temples and historic buildings draw large numbers of tourists each year.

China applied in 1996 for the scenic area around the lake to be listed as a Unesco World Heritage site, a prestigious title aimed at preserving sites of cultural or natural importance.

The Hangzhou government warned in July that all buildings over 24m (79ft) high on the lake's east bank would have to be shortened to clear the skyline, the newspaper reports.