I thought readers of my China blog would not only be interested in plastics in China, but also China as a country, a culture, a business battlefield and a phenomenon. Therefore, from time to time, I'm going to share bits and pieces of news and facts that may help you understand the ever-changing China better. And sometimes, the news and facts out of China can be odd, like this one below.

Oriental Today reported a striking proposal by a real estate giant in Beijing, who suggested demolishing the Forbidden City, the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming and Qing Dynasties located right in the middle of Beijing.

"Instead of spending billions [of yuan] every year on renovating and maintaining the palace, why don't we blow it flat and build real estate? It will significantly help skyrocketing housing prices in Beijing caused by lack of land," the unnamed businessman said.

What's more, the statement was backed up by an industry group official. Hu Yunjing, president of Beijing Real Estate Business Association, explained that, if the land the Forbidden City sits on now can be used for residential construction, it will provide 24 million square meters of housing for at least 1.2 million residents. "That will bring down the housing prices," he claimed.

I was speechless. Do they really believe it's a smart idea? By their logic, New York City should convert the Central Park to high-rises and Paris should transform Musee(sorry, the blog editing tool doesn't support accented letters) du Louvre to hot-selling condos.

And the truth is, Beijing's housing prices, some parts of which are catching up with Manhattan, won't come down no matter what. People from all over the country continue to flood in. And the real estate people know this the best. Their goal certainly is to make more money (as if they haven't made enough by doubling and tripling prices in the past few years), not to reduce or stabilize prices.

It's chilling to see how some Chinese people and businesses are becoming more relentlessly capitalistic than barons in the Enclosure Movement in Europe.

They seem to see nothing more important or meaningful in this world than money. If that's the case, it's no wonder that toxic products continue to be manufactured, substandard buildings continue to be constructed, workers continue to lose their health in poorly regulated factories, and the air, waters and land continue to be polluted.