Extreme pleasure is followed by sorrow

Photo: http://www.mandarinoriental.com/beijing/

Photo: Los Angeles Times

9th Feburary 2009 was the fifteenth day of the lunar new year, which is celebrated as Yuánxiāo jié (元宵节). This day is also celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families carry lighted lanterns while they walking on the street. This day marks the end of the Lunar New Year and people used to burn fireworks as celebration.

Fire was believed started by fireworks which destroyed a building designed by Rem Koolhaas in the CCTV complex. This new high-rise Mandarin Oriental Hotel, scheduled to open in 2009, approximately cost 0.64 billion USD, appears to have been destroyed. According to the witnesses, they said the fire started about 8:20 p.m., when there was an explosion as a fireworks display was about to begin from an observation deck near the roof and the flames continued growing down. As the fire grew, fireworks continued to burst from the roof above the blaze. According to Los Angeles Times, "It was as though the building was being bombed," said Aaron DeWoskin, an architect from Chicago who was watching the blaze from across the street. "Essentially, fireworks are controlled munitions. You had a lot of gunpowder up there, and it went off in a chain reaction."