Apparently China has the same kind of problems as Florida – that lonely sinking feeling when the world opens up and swallows you down. This video was originally posted on youku, shows a sinkhole open abruptly in Zhechen China, devouring a hapless security guard, who also tragically died shortly after, as he was walking in the Futian district yesterday, as reported by Gawker.
There have been nearly 100 sink holes in Beijing last year, which reminds us a bit of Florida: both areas have cities are built over limestone, which tends to dissolve and slowly build holes which open unpredictably, occasionally but rarely swallowing human beings as they do so.
The problem ultimately is not that there are sink holes, but that cities are built over them. Perhaps it is inevitable with urban development that such poor decisions are made, but the living reality of a hole opening in the ground and swallowing up random people changes the psychological interstices of what city life means for such people.
Earlier this month, a man in Florida died when a sink hole opened from under his very bed while he was sleeping. His house had been tested previously for such a possibility and had checked out okay.