Massive Fire Blazes Through Beijing

Fireworks and celebration are customary on the last day of the Chinese New Year's festivities, but this year, the pyrotechnics were a bit more than organizers had anticipated.  Part of the CCTV complex that housed the soon-to-be-open Mandarin Oriental and a Chinese cultural center caught on fire, with blazes reported from the ground to top floor.

Since the hotel hasn't yet been open, it didn't house any visitors, so there have been no reports of injuries.  The CCTV building itself is also unharmed, though the Mandarin Oriental is expected to be completely destroyed.

While it's fortunate that nobody was in the hotel at the time, for the architects and executives who have been working on the Mandarin for about six or seven years, this is quite a devastating loss.  The hotel housed a few select guests during the Olympics, but it wasn't expected to open officially for a few more months.

It's still too early to know what will come of this devastation, but as you can see from the video, this was one spectacular fire.