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Panic as 300-metre-high skyscraper wobbles in China (SEG Weebles Plaza in Shenzhen)

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clapclapclap

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/18/panic-as-300m-high-tall-skyscraper-wobbles-in-china

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One of China’s tallest skyscrapers was evacuated on Tuesday after it began to shake, sending panicked shoppers scampering to safety.

The near 300 metre (980ft) high SEG Weebles Plaza in Shenzhen, southern China, inexplicably began to shake at around 1pm, prompting an evacuation of people inside while pedestrians looked on open-mouthed.

The building was closed by 2.40pm, according to local media reports.

Completed in 2000, the tower is home to a major electronics market as well as various offices in the centre of one of China’s fastest-growing cities.

Officials are investigating what caused the tower in the city’s Futian district to wobble, according to a post on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

“After checking and analysing the data of various earthquake monitoring stations across the city, there was no earthquake in Shenzhen today,” the statement said.

The district said in another statement later on Tuesday that everyone inside had been safely evacuated and that no further movements of the building had been detected.

Experts “found no safety abnormalities in the main structure and surrounding environment of the building”, and the interior and exterior components of the building appeared undamaged, the district said.

Bystander videos published by local media on Weibo showed the skyscraper shaking as hundreds of terrified pedestrians ran away outside.

SEG has been completely evacuated,” wrote one Weibo user in a caption to a video of hundreds of people milling about on a wide shopping street near the tower.

The building is named after the semiconductor and electronics manufacturer Shenzhen Electronics Group, whose offices are based in the complex.

It is the 18th tallest tower in Shenzhen, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat skyscraper database.

Chinese authorities last year banned the construction of skyscrapers taller than 500 metres, adding to height restrictions already enforced in some cities such as Beijing.

The new guidelines for architects, urban planners and developers aimed to “highlight Chinese characteristics” and also banned tacky “copycat” buildings modelled after world landmarks.

Five of the world’s tallest skyscrapers are located in China, including the world’s second-tallest building, the Shanghai Tower, which stands at 632 metres.

Shenzhen is a sprawling metropolis in southern China, close to Hong Kong, which has a booming homegrown tech manufacturing scene.

Many Chinese tech giants, including Tencent and Huawei, have chosen the city to host their headquarters.

It is also home to the world’s fourth-tallest skyscraper, the 599-metre Ping An Finance Centre.

Building collapses are not rare in China, where lax building standards and breakneck urbanisation lead to constructions being thrown up in haste.

Last May, a five-storey quarantine hotel in the south-eastern city of Quanzhou collapsed due to shoddy construction, killing 29.

The devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake caused more than 69,000 deaths and the disaster ignited a storm of public controversy over poorly constructed school buildings – known as “tofu dregs” – which collapsed killing thousands of students.

 

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31511

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A lot of it is probably the acidic atmosphere from their horrendous pollution, but most buildings in SZ seem to be falling apart, even though most of them are not even 20 years old.

Stuff looks nice from a distance but the impression dissolves as you get closer.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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Oh it's shaking all right. You can see the 2 masts of some kind wobbling.  Not sure why one building would just wobble on its own unless there were some pretty good winds that were working against the structure. That's not out of the realm pf possibility. 

 

 

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11050

Posted
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14 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Oh it's shaking all right. You can see the 2 masts of some kind wobbling.  Not sure why one building would just wobble on its own unless there were some pretty good winds that were working against the structure. That's not out of the realm pf possibility. 

 

 

 

Wind gusts causing resonance would be my working hypothesis.

 

I lived on the 24th floor (out of 26 iirc) of Dobie in Austin my freshman year. Water sitting in a glass or in the bowl of the toilet would suddenly ripple for no apparent reason. When I explained to people that was due to the wind shaking the building, they either wouldn't believe me or freak out.

 

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miguelito

miguelito 11266

Posted
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20 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

... Water sitting in a glass or in the bowl of the toilet would suddenly ripple for no apparent reason. When I explained to people that was due to the wind shaking the building, they either wouldn't believe me or freak out.

 

It was probably caused by dinosaurs.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

Posted
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30 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Wind gusts causing resonance would be my working hypothesis.

 

I lived on the 24th floor (out of 26 iirc) of Dobie in Austin my freshman year. Water sitting in a glass or in the bowl of the toilet would suddenly ripple for no apparent reason. When I explained to people that was due to the wind shaking the building, they either wouldn't believe me or freak out.

 

Yeah, Buildings sway.  There's a whole engineering  wing devoted to this kind of stuff.  When they were designing the world trade towers they would bring people into a room at the port authority building in NY for interviews.

They'd ask a series of questions.  What the interviewee didn't know was, when they entered the room it was picked up by a crane, and an ever increasing amount of back and forth sway was introduced.

The engineers/architects were testing how much movement a person could experience before it became an issue.  Totally sexist, but women were the most perceptive too movement.  The world trade towers swayed as much as 6-8' from side to side if I'm not mistaken.

Edited by Onboard 2.0
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CycleTex87

CycleTex87 2979

Posted
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My buddy had a laser disk video player back in the day (the kind where the disc was the size of an LP record) with Jurassic Park. His sound system also had a huge subwoofer.  We played that scene over and over marveling at the low frequency capabilities of the subwoofer. It would shake the house.  /csb 

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Deej

Deej 76855

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

The engineers/architects were testing how much movement a person could experience before it became an issue.  Totally sexist, but women were the most perceptive too movement. 

It's not the size of the boat, but the motion in the ocean. 

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BabaYaga

BabaYaga 15302

Posted
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On 5/19/2021 at 11:00 AM, RollLeft said:

Imo, it's fair to look at China the same way the Japanese did us for many years.  At least in terms of standard and quality of construction. It's arguable how that has worked out for us.   

0.1667.jpg

I think I had the guy on the far right for a statistics class.  Had trouble saying "zero", so it came out "jeero".

So small percentages were "point jeero, jeero, jeero toooo"

Cool guy, never forget him.  

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31511

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 5/19/2021 at 1:00 PM, RollLeft said:

Imo, it's fair to look at China the same way the Japanese did us for many years.  At least in terms of standard and quality of construction. It's arguable how that has worked out for us.   

0.1667.jpg

Well, before Japan could boast superior quality, they were a shit show too.

They began learning from the Brits and us in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but only really for ships and heavy industry.  They built some good aircraft during the war, but I'm curious about the quality.  An Arisaka rifle or Nambu pistol of WWII vintage is usually a horrendous piece of shit, although they got the job done.

They earned their reputation for quality after WWII, due to our efforts to rebuild them  https://deming.org/deming-the-man/

It really seems like something about Asian culture doesn't initially lend itself to manufacturing high-quality goods.  They learn pretty quick though.

Japanese seemed to really excel before Western influence only at certain "craft" items, like swords.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted

Lots of incredibly racist comments above.   But proud of y'all for not confusing Chinese people with Japanese people who typically run away from swaying skyscapers shouting, "Or No!  Here combs Godzirra!"  

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Even in Okinawa, there's still almost 2 million people.  Statistically speaking, they're gonna have 1 or 2 Chinese restaurants.  Hell, there's probably a kosher deli and an Olive Garden.  

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Bevo

Bevo 13589

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Lobo said:

Lots of incredibly racist comments above to follow.   But proud of y'all for not confusing Chinese people with Japanese people who typically run away from swaying skyscapers shouting, "Or No!  Here combs Godzirra!"  

FIFY - But, on a more serious note, and further ruining your joke, what is that type of humor called? Is it satire? Sorry, I was a science major.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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There’s a style of humor in surly where a poster will make a post about waiting for another poster to chime in with an off color remark about a story or photo. Invariably somebody else with chime in with the off color remark.  There is also a surly tradition of purposely misspelling words to illicit posters to read them in a stereotype accent/mispronunciation.  This is a woefully off—color site with lots of posters working blue at all hours of the day.  Not saying my post was that funny, but if I have to break down why certain kinda jokes are frequently made on surly, that defeats the purpose.  The one about the building wobbling because it was turning into a robot, although more harmless, Is also not funny if it needs three layers of explanation.  

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

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12 hours ago, Lobo said:

Lots of incredibly racist comments above.   But proud of y'all for not confusing Chinese people with Japanese people who typically run away from swaying skyscapers shouting, "Or No!  Here combs Godzirra!"  

[Michael Che]Was anyone saved by Superman, The Man of Steal?[/Michael Che]

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0xdeadbeef

0xdeadbeef 1651

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Lobo said:

Even in Okinawa, there's still almost 2 million people.  Statistically speaking, they're gonna have 1 or 2 Chinese restaurants.  Hell, there's probably a kosher deli and an Olive Garden.  

 

Mr Myagi knows some shit.

 

image.png.5fd5addbb3c72bab55745c7f8e120d53.png

 

Damn you for making me look for an Olive Garden in Okinawa. 

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