Still shooting from the top of my apartment complex, I switched to the D300/300 mm for this panorama, which mostly features buildings from the Central Business District (CBD).

Again, click-on the above image to see a larger version on flicker.

Now, a close-up of the tallest building in the scene:

This is Tower III of the China World Trade Center. Construction on it was started in 2005, and the building was completed in 2010. Or, in other terms, started one year prior to start of construction on the new One World Trade Center tower in NYC, and finished at least three years before. Incidentally, it was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the same firm behind One World Trade Center, the Burj Khalifa,Willis Tower, and other mega structures.

Oh, look, the Burj Khalfa, the tallest building in the world, was constructed in six years (2004-2010) for less than half the price of OWTC (1.5 Billion versus 3.8 Billion USD).

If you’ve not been able to gather already, I have just a wee bit of animosity about how the reconstruction of the WTC was handled.

I’ve come close to crying a couple of times seeing Tower III, how beautiful it is, and thinking of the ineptitude of those involved in the project back in the States.  Although I don’t agree with Trump on much, I think we should’ve put up two of these — at exactly same height of the originals — and been done with it.