GLASS SWORD OF DAMOCLE
By YUAN YUAN
【期刊名称】北京周报（英文版） 【年(卷),期】2011(054)047 【总页数】2
A string of accidents draws attention to the safety of the gleaming glass-walled skyscrapers, now common in China’s major cities
On July 8, as 19-year-old Zhu Yiyi was walking past a 23-story building in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, shards of glass falling from a shattered window on the 21st foor of the building hit her left leg. The glass severed the arteries in her left thigh and left a 20-cm laceration on the left lower limb. The injuries left Zhu with no choice but to have her leg amputated at the knee.
Zhu’s is not the only accident caused by glass curtain walls in recent months. In May, 50 vehicles were damaged by broken glass falling from the 46th floor of a skyscraper in Lujiazui Financial District in Shanghai. Also in Shanghai, on August 9, 30 panes of glass rained down upon a residential area in the city’s central business district, injuring a passer-by.
On August 20, in another city of Zhejiang Province, Yiwu, the 20-meter-high glass ceiling of a garment market came crashing down, injuring several children.
Glass Sword of Damocles
