Beijing diary : Chessboard
A Chessboard - apparently thats how Beijing has been constructed. Tiananmen and the Mao memorial at the centre, 6 ring roads surrounding it and other structures as fillers.
Its amazing how the municipal authority has created a 'scaled-down' - walk through model of the entire city. Credit to Stu and Jen for having found the ISH on the map.
I was amazed to see even the planning with which the model was created. The central portion of the map - important areas in Beijing were 3D models while the outskirts were 2D - plain pictures. Interestingly, the 3D model continued into the 2D image. Also, the parts of the map are plain tiles - so at any point , if there are to be any changes in the map - all they need to change is the tile-set.
Interesting statistic by the Municipal authority of Beijing - 70% of the water is recycled/purified. For me, this is a whopper of a number. But again, is it coming at a cost? I am yet to check what percentage of this is let out into the drinking water supply but for the one month, I was in Beijing, i was strictly advised not to drink tap water directly. In Singapore, 1% of the recycled water is let into the drinking water supply and there, its quite safe to drink directly from the tap.
I am not shooting a conclusion/question before validating these facts with more auxiliary information. For now, I leave you with the pictures of the Beijing City planning visit.
