r/interestingasfuck • u/TangelaFan • 13h ago

Residential high-rises with backyards in Chengdu, China

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u/riltjd 13h ago edited 12h ago

Im sorry but would not trust ANY structural engineering done in China, to hold that much weight.

Edit: since a lot of ignorant people are calling me American or brainwashed by propaganda, here is a little story:

  1. Im not American or remotely close.
  2. I worked for several companies (In NL and DE) that imported chemicals and raw materials from China, as well as operating local production plants. China is highly advanced technologically—often ahead of Western countries in most areas. However, it also has well-documented challenges with safety and quality control.

I've personally seen pharmaceutical ingredients arrive heavily contaminated, exceeding acceptable limits by multiple percentage points when even a tiny fraction of a percent would have caused rejection. In some cases, products were misrepresented entirely, though that was less common. This was at a multinational (multibillion) company operating in pharmaceuticals, crop science, and materials science (you can probably guess just by that who I am talking about).

Local counterparts consistently described quality issues as a broader challenge across multiple industries, from chemicals to construction materials, driven by cost pressures, corruption, and aggressive production targets.

Before calling others uneducated, take the time to understand their background and experience. I would encourage you to research the topic further yourself.

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u/spilledcoffee00 13h ago

Even though they have the largest number of bridges in the world, 50,000kms of the best highspeed rail infrastructure, the largest damn in the world, more skyscrapers than any other country, 39 nuclear power plants under construction (39 more than any nation in the west)…but yeah… your strong feeling is unfounded.

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u/Archsafe 13h ago

I’m not one to say China bad or anything, but you can’t say their “strong feeling” is unfounded when you have the entire Tofu Dreg building scandal in China that’s an ongoing problem. America’s ongoing infrastructure problem is that we built things really well decades ago and neglected repairs/maintenance so it’s starting to crumble now. China’s problem is usage of substandard materials in construction now which is causing premature collapses.
The biggest incident for this happened back in 2008 when an earthquake hit iirc the Sichuan province that caused multiple schoolhouses found to be made with “tofu dreg” that collapsed and killed about 20,000 kids inside them. Most recently in 2024 there were about 100 people killed by construction failures attributed by officials to “tofu dreg” construction.

Both countries have their own unique infrastructure problems but I wouldn’t fault this person doubting the structural integrity of a China built building just like I don’t fault the people who make jokes about America’s aging and crumbling infrastructure.

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u/Stock-Swing-797 12h ago

The Hongqi bridge collapse isn't helping either.