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In a city that has looked to the West for architectural inspiration during the past decade, not to mention during its colonial heyday, architect Benjamin Wood, did something that many people thought was impossible, he sold the idea of Shanghai back to its own residents. Wood has transformed two city blocks of forlorn residential buildings from the 1920s and '30s into a lively entertainment and retail quarter with chic fusion restaurants and some of China's favorite American brands, such as Hä agen-Dazs and Starbucks. By day, professionals lunch and make deals at tables lining walkways, while at night they chug pints of lager and tap their feet to sounds of live music.

Chinese architect Chen Zhuyun had once claimed he wasn't sad at all, despite knowing that his neighborhood, the old town square, and some of his favorite trees had been destroyed to make way for the Three Gorges dam project. Chen shrugged, apparently unmoved by changes brought about by the largest dam project in the world. In Wushan, located along the banks of the Yangtze River, 400 miles from Beijing, with a population of 580,000, many resettled residents like Chen aren't looking back. Officials optimistically project that once the dam project is completed, an annual 20 million tourists will flock to the largest man-made lake in the world.

The article reviews the design of the building called Digital Beijing in Beijing, China designed by the architects Zhu Pei and Wu Tong.

Chinese developer Beijing North Star has awarded Great Britain-based RMJM, the commission to design the Beijing Olympic Green Convention Center, one of the 2008 Olympic Games' key venues. RMJM beat out competitors that included OMA, Philip Cox Architects, and KMD with a design that straddles several different sites of the games and includes elevated piazzas and pedestrian bridges. The biggest challenge of the project, says Gordon Affleck, an associate director for RMJM based in Hong Kong, China, is that the convention center is supposed to include historic themes from the Qin Dynasty because it sits midway on the games' main boulevard. The convention center, just under 3 million square feet, will be located near many other key sites, including the main sports stadium, the swimming complex, and the Olympic Park.

A setback for advocates of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, in China, occurred on March 9 when a Hong Kong court ruled that the region's government can proceed on a landfill project that will reduce the size of the harbor to ease traffic congestion. The Hong Kong skyline is known for its picturesque harbor, a natural symbol of the city's beauty, and in stark contrast to its crowded urban grid of skyscrapers and elevated roadways. In recent years, harbor protectionists and city planners have had an acrimonious relationship. The harbor has slowly been reduced to about half of its original size as the government continues to fill in the waterway for public works and lucrative developments, claims the Society for the Protection of the Harbour, a nonprofit organization, which was the plaintiff in the lawsuit.