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Last month, a 77-year-old woman by the name of Zhuang Jinghui stripped off all her clothes and went kneeling on the steps of the district courthouse, kowtowing to the powers that be to investigate her case. more ›

On August 18, Zhuang Jinghui, a 77-year-old woman went naked on her knees in order to call Shanghai’s justice system to account for their ineptitude. She wore nothing but a sign in black and white that says, “I want my case to be investigated. Champion the laws. Return the right to sue to me.” Despite repeated clamors for justice from her and her fellow petitioners standing outside the courthouse, no one stood out to answer her needs on the court’s behalf.

Last Saturday, the local government in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, demolished the city's Yichun Bridge which has been in service for close to forty years. The government plans to build in its place a brand new two-layer bridge that it says will more adequately meet the requirements of the city's booming traffic. more ›

Chongqing has torn down a massive fortress-like gate that was built by a company at a cost of over a million RMB. The structure was 22m high, 12m wide, and 6m thick, and was originally built by a Chongqing foodstuffs company, Huashengyuan . more ›

Local authorities in Chaohu, Anhui assured nearby residents that the planned demolition of a gate near their homes and businesses would be a professional and measured process. Villagers living as close as 20 meters from the gate worried aloud that their windows would be damaged, but were assured the process would be safe, and that they could in fact watch it from their homes! When the time came and the charges exploded, not only did they fail to knock down the gate, they blew out all the neighboring windows and destroyed the furniture inside. What did the official have to say? "Well, the demolition was mostly successful. Only a few defects." They eventually pulled the gate down with a truck. more ›

In order to make way for metro line expansion, two high-rise building were demolished in downtown Ningbo on Wednesday. An 11-story financial center and 21-story riverfront high-rise were reduced to rubble in the largest ever demolition undertaken in the city. After a complex network of explosives were placed, it took a total of exactly 7 second for these two buildings to be carefully and simultaneously blasted to smithereens. more ›

Evan Osnos of the New Yorker revisits the process by which Ai Weiwei was approached by the government to build the studio in 2008, given resources and encouragement to complete it by last year, then told in July that it would be demolished. "We get this paper and it says that the studio has to be destroyed. I thought it was some kind of mistake... There was never any paper to explain what had changed but several people who work with him told me that it was because of my political involvement.” Osnos concludes, "Knocking down the studio of China’s most uncooperative public intellectual is the kind of spectacularly counterproductive public-relations move that makes one wonder how China’s economy is run so professionally when other parts of the state are not." Ai Weiwei managed to reach the studio Wednesday afternoon in time to catch the last few stages of demolition. We posted some pics as they were being uploaded from the scene, you can see all of them here and here. more ›

The authorities have finally made good on their decision to demolish Ai Weiwei's studio in Shanghai's northern district of Jiading. Supporters on scene have been uploading a real-time photostream of the sad operation happening today. more ›

Here's another case to go up on the Bloody Map. A 49-year-old man here in Shanghai has died under somewhat mysterious circumstances while trying to protect his house from demolition. Update: Xinhua has apparently confirmed it was a heart attack. more ›

As far as demolition, construction, and restoration projects go, China tends to top the list for sad and wasteful. Adam Minter over at Shanghai Scrap has been chronicling yet another victim in Shanghai's ever continuing demolition of its history. This time it's a 135-year-old Carmelite Convent in Xujiahui. But the bizarre twist here is that instead of high rises or shopping complexes, they've instead replaced the convent with... the convent, only one fifth smaller. more ›

Ai Weiwei has announced in a post on Twitter (see his English feed here) that he will be holding a 'River Crab Fest' on November 7 in ironic celebration of the planned demolition of his studio in Shanghai. Which made us ask: what studio in Shanghai?? more ›

Last week, our neighboring Zhejiang Province shut down two 125MW generating coal-firing power plant units which had been in operation for 18 years. According to Huaneng Changxing Power Plant, the units did not comply with energy efficiency requirements. Replacing them will be two more efficient (if still, unfortunately, coal-fired) 600MW units. more ›

We've all heard of the endless amounts of nailhouse disputes in China, but very few of us will actually get the chance to experience the fight against developers... except for in video game form! Meet the hot new flashgame tearing up China's interwebs: Nail Household v. Demolition Team. more ›

With the Expo in 33 days and counting, the pace of demolition, renovation, and renewal in this city has only continued its forward sprint. While cleaning up for the Expo has been the primary motivation behind the large-scale demolition of old buildings and neighborhoods during the past few years, many have simply fallen victim to Shanghai’s rapid pace of urbanization. Those of us who live here are pretty immune by now to the daily sounds of construction and the sight of historical structures and traditional longtangs being torn down to make way for gleaming new residential or commercial buildings... but it still hurts to see it happen so wantonly. more ›

• China will prosecute 23 people for the CCTV tower that was set aflame last Chinese New Year... someday. Apparently no trial or hearing date has been set yet. [AFP]
• While much of the press about the Winter Olympics has been about Zhou Yang winning China's third gold, 2nd gold winner Wang Meng's disqualification is barely being whispered. [China Sports Today]
• Oxfam is now being blacklisted in China by the Education Ministry for allegedly having a "hidden political agenda." [Washington Post]

While they've got one up on Shanghai for at least meaning to fell their tower, this demolition fail in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province is still pretty insane. The planned explosion was supposed to reduce the tower into a contained heap of rubble. Instead, it split the whole thing in half, causing one side to fall over and the other side to lean like it was in Pisa. Liuzhou residents didn't seem alarmed. more ›

Han Han, our favorite novelist cum race-car driver, posted to his blog yesterday about an incident over the weekend in Minhang involving a woman throwing molotov cocktails at a demolition crew. It was one of the many instances where an individual violently protests against the forced destruction of their home by corrupt government officials (molotov cocktails aren't nearly as intense as setting yourself on fire, though). As much outrage as we could express over forcing people to their personal and physical limits to have themselves heard, we always know that Han Han can do it better. more ›