A Bureaucrat's Wicked Dream of Greatness

A surprisingly strong reaction the the CCTV tower shot. A number of people criticized it bitterly as a waste of taxpayers' money. Mo was typical:

I wouldn't say this thing is stupid, but I would say it is brainless. Specifically, it doesn't have a smallest of slice of Chineseness or beauty. It's a strange bastard of money and Western worship. It's pure form without substance, meaning or soul. It is the modernism of a bold architect led to a bureaucrat's wicked dream of greatness, with other people's money.

Nicely put. At around $1.3 billion, it does seem pricey but it's not as though the money would have gone directly to starving orphans if they'd put up a glass and steel box for a few hundred million. Probably into the wicked bureaucrat's pocket. Anyway, for those who complained about the quality of my shot (taken I might add with my phone camera), here is another view done a few days earlier by a pro.

China Photos / Getty Images