Impressions from China - Pants on Fire

A friend of a friend took these pictures of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel fire right next to the CCTV building (aka "the giant underpants"). He took them as he was driving past the site.


Unbelievable. Hard to imagine that fireworks caused this.

We drove past the remains of the building today. It was a sad sight, a grey shell, covered with ashen-grey soot. It almost looks like if I touched it with my index finger, the structure will crumble into...well....dust.

There is lots of talk about how it could have been a purposefully set fire for the sake of insurance (read: arson), but it's just talk.

But this being China, who's to say what's true & what's not....