This billboard for Taiyue Heights asks the question: ‘What is a metropolis?’ The answer seems to be:
Embassy area, Sanlitun, Bar Street, Hennessy, neon lights, Workers Stadium, traffic jams, CAPPUCCINO, PRADA, Water Cube, foreign companies, the Pink Loft, foreigners, cars with black number plates…
The copy makes a little more sense if you live in Beijing. If you don’t live in the capital of the Workers’ Paradise you need to know that:
The apartments are near Sanlitun, which is in one of the city’s embassy areas and also home to to its first and most popular bar street;
Workers Stadium is just down the road;
The Water Cube is the as yet unconstructed swimming pool stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games;
The Pink Loft is a bar and Thai restaurant where the waiters wear very camp pink uniforms;
Cars owned by embassies, foreigners and foreign companies are supposed to have black registration plates.
Other copy on the billboard reads: “Taiyue Heights completes the dialogue with international metropolitan lifestyle”.
This is a rendering of part of the Water Cube, designed by the Australian firm PTW.
