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This article reports that twenty-five miles northwest of skyscraper-congested downtown, Shanghai's suburban district of Qingpu is like the often-ignored older cousin of the metropolis's more glamorous and wealthier districts. Qingpu is more famous for its natural waterways, which have been used as a mode of transportation for centuries. But city planners and architects are moving beyond developing China's population-heavy metropolises and looking outward as development enters a new phase, driven by the country's economic boom. Qingpu differs from the run-of-the-mill Chinese suburb, which usually consists of shoddy buildings with white-tile exteriors and utilitarian cement homes, thanks to its natural beauty, its proximity to the heart of China's wealthiest city, and its vice district chief, Jiwei Sun. INSET: A CONVERSATION WITH JIWEI SUN.

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 Terminal 3 airport in Beijing, China by the companies Foster and Partners and Arup Associates.

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

This article reports that the Association of Tennis Professionals, tennis's governing body, has announced that the Qi Zhong Stadium, the first phase of a new $200 million tennis facility in Shanghai, will be completed in September 2005. The project is being designed and built by a Chinese team, including the Xian Dai Architectural Design Company, the China Construction Third Bureau, Jiangnan Heavy Industry Co., and the Shanghai Mechanical Construction Company, which is responsible for the roof.

The article reports that in the aftermath of the December 26 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the Sri Lankan government has banned constructing or repairing buildings within 100 meters of the shoreline, sparking complaints from civic organizations and citizens. Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga announced a plan on January 19 to build 15 new townships located several miles away from beaches across the island, though details have not been released. The new policy requires those still residing within 100 meters of the coast to move, and police have been ordered to remove citizens who do not comply.

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.

A novel quarter substrate integrated waveguide resonator (QSIWR) with an etched elliptic defected structure (EDS) to reduce its resonant frequency employs electric coupling in the main path and magnetic coupling in the cross-coupled path to realize a miniature cross-coupled bandpass filter (BPF) with a size reduction greater than 88 percent. The filter possesses a transmission zero (TZ) in the upper stopband, which improves selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of quarter substrate integrated waveguide resonator (QSIWR) and a fractal shaped defected structure (FDS) in designing substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) bandpass filters. It states that QSIWR and FDS are used because of various benefits including simple structure, extra transmission zero and compact size. It further presents various figures explaining the working of QSIWR.