Workers finish construction yesterday on the concrete support structure for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo’s China Pavilion.

IMAGE CREDIT & SOURCE: Shanghai Daily

Three months after opening the world’s second-tallest skyscraper, Shanghai is about to start construction of an even taller building – in the face of an economic slowdown and falling property prices.

Construction on the 632-meter Shanghai Tower, expected to cost 14.8 billion yuan (US$2.17 billion), will begin in Pudong’s Lujiazui financial district tomorrow, developers said yesterday.

[SOURCE: Shanghai Daily – Defying the downturn, city builds even higher]

The Standard(HK) reports that “Tenders for the design of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will be invited on Monday, kick-starting the HK$40 billion project to be bankrolled by the three governments and topped up by bank loans.

The project is among the 10 top infrastructure works which Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen wants to activate to create thousands of jobs during the financial crisis.

Hong Kong will pay 50.2 percent of the project, Guangdong 35.1 percent and Macau 14.7 percent.”

[SOURCE: The Standard - Hong Kong's First FREE English Newspaper].

Guardian reports

There are few more forbidding environments than the American jail system. But it appears that urban life in India may be worse. According to the latest Indian government figures, people in its cities have just 5.5 sq m (59 sq ft) per person – the minimum specified for US prisons.

[SOURCE: Guardian – India's urban poor are being squeezed for living space]