Concrete and Steel Tower Falls Over Without Any Warning | Plainly Difficult

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Go to ground.news/plainlydifficult to give it a try. If you sign up through my link you’ll get 40% off the Vantage plan, which is what I use to get unlimited access to all features. I think Ground News is doing important work and I hope you’ll check them out. ►Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! ►My new EP: madebyjohn.bandcamp.com/album/retail-simulator ►Outro Song: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnu5f6eVp9p4gJIsi=KaHhrFbCex3kJBKk ►Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ ►Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult ►Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com ►Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D ►Sources: www.studocu.com/en-us/document/new-jersey-institute-of-technology/ce-fund-of-engineering/hw3-fed101/30387275 www.igs.org.in/storage/proceedings-uploads/TH-13-004-010124044959.pdf www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/22/content_9759407.htm

[@connclark2154]

The Plutonium Finishing Plant had a few notable incidents.The one involving Harold McCluskey would make a good 300th episode.

[@rlkool]

I been using them for news for what seems like years, super dope to find they sponsor one of my favorite channels. Any chance we'll ever get another one of your dark side of science videos? Hands down, one of your best series, you've a rare gift that allows you to effortlessly present very detailed information in a way that would be entertaining to anyone, even someone who just happened to come across your video or someone with no prior interest in the subject. With whatever you present, you really make the stories come alive

[@emilyelizabethbuchanan998]

Have suggested before - not as big a scale, but an interesting story. The Ghent West Virginia Little General Store Propane Explosion in 2007.

[@bsadewitz]

I would like to see a spin-off cartoon featuring the lives of all of the artwork--a world in which anthropomorphized flags live in tenuous harmony beside corporate logos, ruling over teeming masses of faceless people. "Beyond Disaster: The Human Factors of Plainly Difficult" or something. You know, in celebration of this milestone.

[@VladimirLuton]

@@PlainlyDifficult I Fink John is Linda Robson by day

[@davidjb3671]

I'm predicting the 301st episode will be a disaster 😂

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😂😂

[@RobertCraft-re5sf]

Hahhhahahaaaaa

[@LetsTakeWalk]

Maybe it is one about the 300 Spartans and how the battle at Thermopalae was a disaster for the Persians?

[@grandicellichannel]

The disaster will be 1 million subcribers for Plainly Difficult.

[@PatriciaFranz-dp7gk]

😅😂

[@BYAK_BYAK]

"Silt and clay on top of a fine sand" Im not an engineer, but it is a scary combination of words for me.

[@TheWasher18]

Anything "made in china" is a scary combination of words if you're wise.

[@marhawkman303]

Yeah, the description of how they expect the building to not sink into the ground was a bit.... sketchy to me. I get that it does sometimes work.. but.. well.. it's like those cake decorations with spikes on the bottom.

[@nicholasklangos9704]

Exactly, you don’t sink your piles for a building of that size into fine sand especially. It will always cause a disaster!! Engineering 101...

[@mariantreber8055]

Bible warns against building on shifting sand. Heed the warning!

[@marhawkman303]

@@mariantreber8055 You're not wrong! :D

[@martentrudeau6948]

The old English saying; "Haste makes Waste", the old carpender's saying: "Measure twice and Cut once." And Jack Bergman's saying; “There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over.”

[@Snarf_Le_Wombat]

CAR PENDER 😮

[@7thrx]

And if you can embezzle/take bribes off of the construction budget you're a Chinese government official 👍😎

[@XXavierSin-XXs]

​@@Snarf_Le_Wombat No you dingus. It's clearly CARP ENDER. Defeater of carp, ender of the carp line.

[@Rietto]

In China there's a saying 'chabuduo' that translates to 'Eh, close enough'. There's also the Chinese term 'tofu dreg project' for poor building quality standards. Both concepts put together in a building leads to disasterous results.

[@fullnuclearbreakfast]

Or the Canadian equivalent: "measure once, cut twice and the jeezless thing's still too short!"

[@caloyvictor1199]

"Tofu-dreg project" is a phrase used in the Chinese-speaking world to describe a poorly constructed building, sometimes called just "Tofu buildings".

[@ljubomirculibrk4097]

Bulding fell down in one part, not even cracked by lenght. Bad fundation, not a bad bulding construction. Most buildings in west whoud brake to bits by this.

[@CathodeRayKobold]

I don't know if that applies to this building, or that far back. Tofu dregs melt like sandcastles when they collapse; this one fell like a single brick.

[@theglitch99]

Poor foundation is part of the building (most important part) so I would say the building qualifies for poorly built.....

[@stevenwilliams4531]

It's specific to ones where they use poor quality concrete, so you can just pull it away with your hands. It's a thing, not a thing I've seen personally (I'm 9 years into living in Shanghai), but there have been buildings like it built. Just to put it into perspective of how it is a thing but not the norm, in most Chinese cities, you can usually see high rise buildings for as far as the eye stretches - the country literally has millions.

[@WasntYourFaultYouHaveToLetMeGo]

​@@ljubomirculibrk4097Chinese Cope.

[@helenrushful]

I was there when they were building it, it was opposite the apartment I lived in. The foundations were rusty AF before they even started it, the concrete was poured on site by hand, with lots of exposed steel. I actually found a sample and took it back to the uk to use to show students how NOT to make rebar (there was zero vanadium in it, and it was really low quality, contaminated steel. I’m an architect and was involved in a few big projects at the time, I learn that the soil structure of Shanghai is not suitable for a city of its size. It’s sinking. And their draining of the underground water (aquifers) was making things worse. A lot of infrastructure in China has been built using poor quality cement and steel, hence the huge numbers of failed structures.

[@metocvideo]

I saw a video of a Chinese construction worker breaking rebar just by hitting it with another piece of rebar, which also broke. All the rebar delivered for the project was like that, but they used it anyway…

[@cannon1156]

@@metocvideo ,, and they put empty plastic drink bott;es in the slab to avoid using too much concrete

[@bigwebsite727]

Cap

[@TEMPLE7D]

Found a sample? Hmmmmm lol. You’re probably the reason it failed.

[@bigwebsite727]

@@TEMPLE7D he aint find no sample lmao XD

[@reginal.898]

300 episodes of admittedly horrible things that really happened, but told in a way that is at once: accessible, respectful, and, even with the serious subject matter, with the occasional joke and "dodgy" cartoons (which we are all here for!) Here's to the next 300 episodes, and may you crack the million mark soon! You sure earned it! Have a great weekend, my dude!

[@I_am_a_cat_]

He's just reading a script man. You make it sound as if he's doing this amazing, incredible work... when he's just recounting what happened lmao. Its good content but it's not changing anyone's life. It's pretty easy to go on Wikipedia and look up a list of disasters.

[@alaeriia01]

​@@I_am_a_cat_he writes the script and does the dodgy cartoons too.

[@Cajun_Seasoning]

@@I_am_a_cat_ if you knew anything about actually interesting and engaging script writing, the proper hours of fact-checking that goes into well-done research, not to mention the few mistakes that occur during recording that mostly has you starting again after already talking for a long time (which is frustrating and leaves you with a sore throat), and the time and skill it takes to compile and edit the video itself (assuming he doesn't have someone else to do it) - You wouldn't be publicising such an ignorant opinion. Source - my partner does informative research based youtube videos too

[@zeb33369]

Looks like your wish was granted, he's at 1mill now 😊

[@dwj77]

On the back of the building it said, “if you can read this sign I’ve fallen over”

[@RT-qd8yl]

Right next to a sign that says something like "该项目由差不多LTD 完成。"😄

[@bobroberts2371]

Late night USA TV commercial " Help, I've fallen and can't get up " . . . .

[@sarahmacintosh6449]

😂

[@MadScientist267]

Or you're looking at the back of the building 🤦‍♂️ The sign would need to be on the *bottom* of the building for this to be funny.

[@DeathDragon1730]

@@MadScientist267wow, you must be fun at parties.

[@happybluecat7175]

Thank goodness you're here the tower block's fainted!

[@stanislavczebinski994]

Tower block tired - tower block sleeping!!😆

[@archlich4489]

Walk it off, tower block. Walk it off.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

"First we built it, then we dug a hole under it, and somehow it collapsed! We didn't see that coming"

[@Azazel2024]

🤣🤣🤣

[@wildphoenix1984]

I mean wouldn't you if somebody snapped your piles? 😅

[@cynic5581]

I’m impressed the building stayed in tact so well. Generally when you see a building collapse it’s a pile of rubble not just a building sideways. Building looks drunk.

[@TheMissPoovey]

Like maybe they could reorient the doors and still use it, lol😂

[@WhiteWolf-lm7gj]

​@@TheMissPoovey They'll call it a modern art piece or some sort of experimental art and then jack up the rent

[@marhawkman303]

well, the reason for a collapse dictate HOW it collapses... this case was the support pylons failing. So it literally just tipped over. Also.. steel reinforced buildings... can actually sometimes get used after falling.

[@davekearney1944]

It held together amazingly well. They probably could have just stood it up again and re-glazed it.

[@marhawkman303]

@@davekearney1944 rnh... I don't think they have the tools needed to do that though.

[@lucasmetzger1154]

Civil engineer here. The abstract of the ASCE report states “Deep-seated slip failure of the stockpile applied an impact load on the building and immediately produced an unallowable overturning moment around the south building edge; consequently, the building suddenly fell over southward.” When slip failure occurs, the soil has to go somewhere. With a deep slip failure like this, the failing soil would be slipping beneath the neighboring soil, displacing it and causing uplift. This likely created a horizontal AND upward force on the underside of the north side of the building, causing the building to topple to the south. Extra physics fun: In physics and by extension engineering, a “moment” is the rotational effect of a force, acting about an axis. A moment is produced when an axis of rotation exists (a fixed point that would resist a force) and a force is applied but not applied directly to the point where the axis exists. A moment’s value comes from the force multiplied by the perpendicular distance to the axis point, or “lever arm.” In this case, the axis of rotation would be along the ground where the south face of the building is in contact with the ground, spanning the entire width of the south face. This is consistent with ASCE’s analysis. ASCE have the ability to run simulations as well and clearly determined this failure method to either be the most likely, or the only possible scenario.

[@princejesterful]

This is the clearest explination of a “moment” that I have come cross. Thank you!

[@qa1e2r4]

So the pile of land with the help of the water under it pushed the building columns sideways and up the building enough for it to fall in like 5sec? Maybe with enough time that will be the case but then why didn't the building simply slide but rather topple. There must be at least a meter difference between the north/south end for it to just topple. Also every one is talking about pressure on the soil which would make the building unstable but what caused the building to fall? Was it off center, wind gust someone leaned on it?

[@NickatLateNite]

Thanks for a splended scientific explanation... Isn't it sad, that everything discussed & required, can be destroyed by three simple words ... "It's Good Enough".

[@Reason-n-Rhyme]

It seems the north rising flow of soil would be slow, causing a slow tilt, allowing time for corrections the next morning. And the south piles would keep the south side from pressing into the ground and falling; at least not rapidly. A big fuss is made about the leaning tower of Pisa, but I was amazed that many of the building in Venice were leaning in different directions. It sits on mud. In this case the probable deep lateral movement of soil, caused a moment on the piles, snapping them deep underground. Piles are not strong in moment. And the pile’s broken ends would be moved out of alignment so the broken south piles couldn’t support the fall of the south side. The piles would slowly be bent until they snapped with an earthshaking impact, that might have triggered the rapid soil flow on the south side. Soil under the south side could compress and flow rapidly into the “ready-made” garage cavity. The pivot/rotation axis was probably closer to the south wall but not at it. It is always dangerous to dig a hole or pile up soil near a building, unless the building is sitting on bedrock. Wet soil becomes fluid and head/height differences make it flow like water; applying pressure to one side of a building, and flowing out from the another side. The Seattle Millennium tower began to tilt when the city dug out ground. And the attempted repairs required more digging which caused more tilting.

[@ICGedye]

@@qa1e2r4 As far as I can gather, the imbalance was caused by the slip of ground beneath the 10m pile of earth together with the trench dug out on the other side of the building. This built a stress (3000 tonnes) acting in 1 direction more than the other (toward the river). That's your 1 meter difference, in effect. All that was required was the heavy rain to provide the lubrication / loading up of the waste earth and the mass of the building rotated about the piles. The latter are the reason it didnt slide. Its like trying the drag a fork through set honey. If the pile of earth had been 'piled' before hand, perhaps the stress may have been mitigated somewhat. But I might be miles out there!

[@SINAPPS1]

"Un not arrested" going to steal that! Congrats Jon, ive been loving your work for years!

[@coreym162]

I caught that too xDD

[@dnlmachine4287]

Bart: "What happened?" Milhouse: "First it started falling over" Bart: "Yeah?" Milhouse: "Then it fell over"

[@MrWolfTickets]

WACKY SHACK!!!

[@tncorgi92]

I'm reminded of the old Monty Python bit... "It just fell off the wall!" "Of course it did, sir." "No, really, it just... fell off the wall!"

[@nevillehoward8736]

In this case, it may have been a Norwegian Blue tower block.

[@parrotshootist3004]

​@@nevillehoward8736The Claw (ripping yarns) has cursed another to the Norwegian Parrot connection.

[@tncorgi92]

@@nevillehoward8736 it was a skit where a man was in a waiting room and mini disasters start happening around him, not his fault but they don't really believe him, eventually he leaves the building and the skit ends with him walking toward the camera with the building in the background suddenly exploding, he turns and yells "Sorry!" Prime Python.

[@annehaight9963]

"Burned down, fell over, and THEN sank into the swamp".

[@CoopaCoop]

Buildings named Tower 7 always seem to be randomly collapsing

[@Obsidian8R]

I don't think 7 is a lucky number for buildings anymore

[@sara.gem.n.L]

John, your terminology always hits home with me: "Eight of them would be un-not-arrested and charged." Spectacular 🧐👌

[@BenKonosky]

Fatague was definitely an issue, that building was so tired it had to lie down.

[@mreldon3031]

Congratulations! How about a 300th episode dedicated to your love of trains? Geek out for us to geek out with you!

[@rorywithers2720]

999k subscribers!!!! So closeeee!

[@redhotmoon1656]

It's a million now! 🎉

[@marcussinclaire4890]

He made it to one million!!!!!! 😊

[@clanwargods]

He did it!!!

[@Mr.scooter-le8yo]

One million now

[@Spooky_Platypus]

Made it🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@railgap]

For so many of these, I think the old Clarke & Dawe routine, "The Front Fell Off" could be refitted perfectly... "I'm not saying it wasn't safe, but some of them are built so they don't fall over at all."

[@orchidorio]

THHAT is SO funny !!!! I keep laughing !!!

[@atoriusv5070]

2:32 As soon as I saw this, I went "NOPE! That's gonna be BAAAAAD." You HAVE to give buildings solid foundations with something underneath to push against, and clay/soft sand is definitely not solid or secure. It'll sink on one side and then fall over. Especially when you add a giant earthen berm to push on one side of the building's foundations. Then it gets rained on and slides into the bottom of the building due to wet soil having no sheer resistance, pushing even harder and allowing it to tip over because the foundation anchor rods are compromised and cannot give sufficient strength to support the structure.

[@teamidris]

No rebar in the piles. But, flood plane, so basically a concrete block on stilts in custard :o

[@funnycatvideos5490]

exactly

[@carbonwolf3865]

"Concrete block on stilts in custard." Pfffff, brilliant

[@SvendleBerries]

And thats on top of the concrete being made of inferior materials to save money.

[@pegcity4eva]

Probably mud and straw

[@darksu6947]

​@@carbonwolf3865Delicious*

[@mstephenjoy]

It's amazing anyone was held responsible. I don't recall when I have heard of that here in Canada.

[@Frommerman]

China isn't communist, but their legitimacy derives from the claim they are. So when something catastrophic happens and elites are to blame, someone has to actually be held accountable because otherwise the people feel they live in an oligarchy where the rules only apply to the powerless. Which, they largely do. But not entirely, when the fuckup is this visible and catastrophic.

[@andrewbeveridge3006]

Just wait....VENTANA CONSTRUCTION will come up, sooner or later!!

[@alankeith7866]

I can't believe that cost cutting would lead to a disaster... Congratulations on 300!! 1M subscribers is just around the corner!!

[@Dee_Just_Dee]

Chinese construction is - ahem - a gong show. Corporations rush to build apartment/condo towers in record time to attract purchases from CCP investors. Then the buildings sit empty and crumbling for years while the investments grow. Every once in a while they outright fall over, and the Party investors collect from insurance while some low-level engineers get sent to prison or executed, and meanwhile the cycle just continues.

[@NatesRandomVideo]

“It burned down, fell over, and THEN sank into the swamp…” - Monty Python

[@cryotankexpansion]

As a civil engineer, I love your videos on tragedies regarding buildings and structures in general. As also a Brazilian, I definitely suggest a video on the collapse of Palace II building in Rio de Janeiro.

[@Michelle_92]

300 episodes and comming up on 1M. Great job!

[@synccore]

I fell in love with they yearly videos

[@TurnsWrenches]

Solid building work from the ground up though, it held up better than I do when I fall down like that. Happy 300th!! Thank you for the videos every week

[@KhaltoTheCollie]

"Nice views of the city" is debatable tbh

[@jasonscott7077]

Welcome to a chinese city i guess. Also on that same topic i couldnt even see that river until it was pointed out, looked like a dirty road o.0

[@Snarf_Le_Wombat]

"noiceviewofthehellscape"

[@Archangelm127]

#theskydontlie

[@michaelreedx6823]

Well half the units had a great view of the sky.

[@uberlpn]

I agree, nice view of more ugly crap towers that is !!

[@MMSMLUNWINPP]

Idk when it happened but I got on to your channel to check if you hit the big 1 million subscribers yet and.....Congratulations!!!! You absolutely deserve this my friend, great work! You keep filming them, I'll keep watching them 😊

[@PlainlyDifficult]

thank you!!

[@MMSMLUNWINPP]

@PlainlyDifficult You are very welcome! Thank you for all that you do. You may never realize the impact you have, but I assure you it is major. I've had some dark times within the past few years and listening to you channel has helped me and kept me entertained and learning new stuff, even while everything else starts to look like it's own version of a disaster!

[@AlexH-yd4vj]

Construction of the hard rock hotel in New Orleans, lots of mismanagement, whistle blowers ignored, non-payment of workers, and a deadly collapse

[@kurotsuki7427]

I think that tower might be a bit drunk

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

"...And that's why they call it a tipple."

[@bsadewitz]

​@@TheGelasiaBlytheor "getting wrecked"

[@markh.6687]

That tower lacks Party discipline, and should be sent to a re-education camp.

[@t.j.carroll8512]

Are you saying the building was a little tipsy?

[@markh.6687]

@@t.j.carroll8512 I'm saying that building was seriously drunk/potted/sloshed.

[@KarrierBag]

Congratulation on the 300 mark, love your videos, always look forward to them.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@rachellee8533]

A big month for PD! Congrats! I started re-watching all your videos, and you keep me company while i cook, clean, paint, ect. Much love from MN

[@skif32426]

the impressive thing about this is that the building didnt crumble like a lego when it fell

[@Eternal_Fae]

Special Episode Idea: The most strange/bizarre accidents in each continent

[@AcornElectron]

A special episode? Maybe a tour of the sunny/rainy/windy/cold/hot part of London that you inhabit? ❤

[@ni-dirus]

He could humorously describe all the disasters he encounters, the disaster of honking horns during terribly horrific traffic standstills, the disaster of a cracked sidewalk, the disaster of peeling paint from a store sign, etc

[@ni-dirus]

@JimAllen-Persona it would be a funny un glamorous London tour! He could set it up as a tourism video and quickly it details with minor "disasters" like "the buses are always late" and fun facts like "this pub is haunted" and "a medieval politician was beheaded here"

[@alegro4046]

@@ni-dirus medieval? Its a moose slim town no need to go that far back for some acts of barbary.

[@bubbadunnam3944]

I have enjoyed all 300 and if there are ANY nuclear incidents you haven't covered then 301 should definitely be that as that's how you drew a lot of us in to your content. I am proud to say I have been with you since before monetization and I hope you are getting all that sweet sweet add money you deserve. Still my fav KZbinr!!!

[@mbvoelker8448]

Agreed. IIRC, I discovered this channel looking up the Demon Core and was hooked -- going back to watch almost every episode.

[@Ryu-hx5yy]

Congratulations on the 300th video! Also almost to 1Million Subscribers! This month will be awesome

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Can't wait!

[@-desertpackrat]

You picked the best topic to center your channel on, with the laziness and greed of every single professional industry these days, you will never, ever be out of work 😂

[@rachelcarre9468]

KZbin stopped advising me of your releases so i have a few to catch up on. Thanks John.

[@WendyDarling1974]

Three suggestions, all based in Massachusetts: 1) After Bodton’s Hancock Bldg. went up. Its windows started popping off from great heights. (No collapse.) 2) UMass library, 20+ story brick tower, supposedly started to shed bricks and settle once it was filled with books, as weight hadnt been factor in. The walkway around it was subsequently covered. (I attend UMass and this was the lore, I’d love to know the truth.) 3) Recently the MBTA was nearing completion on a new transit extension when it was announced they had built the track with the wrong gauge. Big scandal. (No collapse but trains still not operating I assume.)

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

The story about the UMass library is also told about the University of Toronto Library, with the added detail that it had been designed by the school's engineering students. I'm not sure how much of it is true, as I heard it way back in my undergrad days, from a U of T engineering student no less, but it's a ridiculous building no less, supposedly designed to look like a peacock, but more resembling a deformed turkey if you tilt your head and squint. At least their collection is pretty good!

[@emjayay]

@@thing_under_the_stairs Now with lovely nonmatching glassy addition!

[@finnmcginn9931]

​@@thing_under_the_stairs"Deformed Turkey" is the perfect description for Robarts Library.

[@Timpon_Dorz]

​@@thing_under_the_stairsUMass library is sinking as well. That's why they only have books every other level. Area is fenced off around the library because of the falling bricks.

[@ntsecrets]

What about the molasses spill!!

[@doclewis8927]

EPISODE SUGGESTION: How about telling us what got you interested in doing these types of videos in the first place and if you have any background in engineering or certain maths that make these subjects even more interesting to you? I'm not talking about a "Q & A" but just an answer to "Why this channel, why this/these subjects, and if there's any education in any of the fields that made the idea of it click for you." I've always wanted to know why certain channels, especially disaster channels, get started. I'm not suggesting that you get personal or anything like that...just a general idea in case there are others who'd like to know. Thanks! Or maybe even for you 1 million subs episode (you're getting close). Thanks for all of the hard work.

[@-Katastrophe]

What's sad is that outside of government construction projects (vanity projects, three gorges dam, big pants) the construction quality has gone down since then.

[@jwalster9412]

I saw this one video of somewhere in China where they were literally pulling chunks off of the wall in a brand new apartment block.

[@Toliman.]

@@jwalster9412 Pretty common. The "tofu dreg" problem is one of short-term profit over long-term responsibility. These buildings are designed to fill a contract poorly. They will not be held liable for deaths or accidents, due to the constant bribery to keep operating. The building industry outsources and hires labourers with little to no school or vocational training, 'gangs' / crowds of immigrant workers, i.e. people from neighbouring and distant states/counties who don't pay local taxes or have local housing who work construction and odd jobs, working jobs in roofing, concrete, electrical, tiling, et al. Whatever you need type jobs for the equivalent of 30-50 yuan, $5-$8 a day. BYO safety gear / shoes. It's amazing that they get houses built at all. You get people using filler materials on concrete like styrofoam between steel, which is 'normal' for accurate placement and segment lengths/measures, but they tend to go overboard with the styrofoam to save money on materials, and skip the steel reinforcement or steel ties. Interior walls of roads, buildings often use recycled goods, glass bottles, newspaper, corn husks, etc. Which is considered 'useful' for thermal insulation, but not when it's over 60% to 85% of the concrete filler. This is why it crumbles, you can punch through the walls in some cases. It's common to see river/beach sand being used in concrete, so it starts to break down within days and weeks of being poured due to the salt/granular sediment not being cleaned/filtered. Pours often cut corners or try to get the work done quickly, so they operate during rain, storms, or other events, etc. to save time. Even with government contract buildings, they need to be done to schedule, and that invites opportunity or people sacrificed, sometimes literally to get the job done properly. After all, what's more important. Safety, or making government officials happy. There are inspectors, but they get paid off, or they don't get work. Widely, there's a lot of administrative power in the hands of simple people who are kept out of the loop, intentionally for plausible deniability. There's no place for competence in the Chinese building industry because the legal system is also paid off to protect the reputation of those who are improving the city. i.e. Big End of Town Government contractors have political connections and can have their cases quashed or hidden to prevent delays in the construction of official projects. Even multi-million luxury apartments fall apart. The only way typically to build reliable housing in China is to import builders and materials from overseas. The entire chain from suppliers, materials and workers is unreliable, on a scale from incompetence, fraud, to substitution, including deliberate sabotage. and beyond. Tied to this industry failure, several companies leapfrog from building project to building project, using deposits from one job to work on another job at the same time, the banks encouraging this practise until around 2022 and the "3 red lines" policy came into effect. Which crippled the construction industry's practises where they had 50 to 100 highrise buildings going on at the same time. Evergrande infamously got hit hard by this because of the Lockdowns, and the 3 red lines gutted them commercially. But, it's affected thousands of projects because the banks have trillions in debts that they were making incredible profits from ... until it stopped and now these buildings can't be progressed. Right now in 2023, they have soared past inflation, deflation and are into depression. Foreign companies are withdrawing, and cities are being emptied of people. Maintaining 25% GDP figures has a high overall burn rate on the middle-class economy, as work is slowly becoming scarce. The wheels have come off Real Estate as well.

[@MoonLitChild]

The vanity projects are just as bad. They just have this 'fix as we build' system so they look like they're in better shape.

[@curbmassa]

I once owned a house in Maine that was situated along a river. It was moved onto the property by a team of oxen one winter about 1850 when the river was frozen. It housed workers that operated a brickyard also situated on the property. The bricks were taken down river to rebuild Portsmouth NH, which largely burned to the ground around that time. The soil there was nothing but clay, which, from what I observed, should best be thought of as a liquid when wet. When the road in front of my house was repaved, the guy operating the roller told me there was a wave in the road that would rise up just ahead of the roller. A structural engineer my dad knew told me that when buildings are built on clay, they`re often designed as if they were a boat. I`m guessing that`s a much more expensive way to build than what we see in this video.

[@KateKallistaXx]

It would be cool to see an episode on the pike river mine disaster in New Zealand. I would love to hear your take on it!

[@subnormality5854]

300 episodes, but will tht one guy ever stop standing on the other's foot? The world may never know.

[@chriscavy]

Ideas for special videos: times when a big disaster or accident happened and GOOD construction/design saved the day; a showcasing of poor design from really olden days (from archaeology digs or like a poorly designed old castle or something); maybe some utterly ridiculous designs that somehow got made and didn't turn out too badly. I wish I had specific examples but those are just a few ideas off of the top of my head. Cheers and thanks for all the great videos!

[@chrisburr999]

Ooh! I really like the idea of the oldest ones! The bent pyramid of Sneferu. The fall of the Colossus of Rhodes. Others? Might be a problem with contemporary photos though...

[@LadyLithias]

*SUGGESTION* Have you ever done anything about earthquakes and failures? There was that series of roads that were doubledecker in the San Francisco Bay Area. A civil engineer warned the city that if there was a big earthquake the supports would give, pancaking the top layer on the bottom layer, and if it happened during rush hour, it would be a mass casualty event. Then at 5:04 (aka Rush Hour) pm, this very dude was driving in that very section of freeway/highway and the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit (I think it was October 19, 1989, but it might have been the 18th? 17th?). There were a lot of failures at that time, but the most distinct was the pancaked bit of road.... that sadly took the life of the person who kept speaking about it. If you haven't done that, it might be an interesting one. I believe that the vast majority of casualties (deaths) from that Earthquake were all from that one structural failure. There were thousands injured. (myself included).

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion

[@LadyLithias]

@@PlainlyDifficult I love your work. :) If you want any other dribs and drabs and bits and pieces, I was in college during that earthquake, the epicenter was 13 miles away from my house, and the collapsed road was about 40 miles from my house (the collapse was directly north-north-west, while the epicenter was west south west of our house. My father even got a ONE SECOND clip of the earthquake. He was playing with his brand new toy he got for his birthday, a $1000 Camcorder, and he decided to do a time lapse video of shadows on our back fence. He caught the sound of the ground roaring (crazy noise!), the sound of buildings collapsing (mostly our next-door-neighbor's chimney), glass breaking, people screaming, the fence flapping like a bird's wing, and our cat, sleeping in a sun beam, glaring at the fence for walloping her. Our parrot, in the foreground, fell off his perch, and the video got the sound of him hitting the bottom of his cage and squawking. I should find the VHS tapes and try to get the video digitized. (it was, after all, 1989)

[@brucelytle1144]

I used to go down 17 during the 80's. I would always pray an earthquake wouldn't happen while I was there! I was in Santa Cruz that day. Wll never forget that day!

[@LadyLithias]

@@brucelytle1144 Yeah.... it's a unique day, for sure. I remember calling my sister, who lived in Georgia, so she could tell me what was happening in the Bay Area as we had no power and no way of finding out what was going on. Of course, she's a bit of a drama queen, so her telling us that the entire city of San Fran was on fire, and the Bay Bridge had fallen was a bit of overkill. I was home, taking a nap, when the earthquake hit. The wall of the house smacked me upside the head. I didn't even know I'd been injured until the next day. I went to brush my hair and two things became immediately apparent, it *hurt* to brush my hair, and I had a huge sticky glob of stuff in my hair (dried blood, from a huge gash on my head). I was actually listed as two separate injury-casualties of the earthquake. First the gash to the head, and then a week later, when the Sears where I worked opened up, my first day back, I was on the escalator, one step above a woman holding a baby. An aftershock hit, and a 5 foot by 4 foot framed photograph/art-print on the escalator walls was dislodged. I saw it coming, and instinctively covered the woman behind me, with her child, so the painting bounced off my shoulder (collarbone bruised) and then clattered to the floor. That was, in its way, more traumatic than the original earthquake, probably because I was awake and had to actively put myself in harm's way. It was a crazy crazy event!

[@HE-pu3nt]

Nice to see you get to 1,000,000 subs John.❤️.

[@spacewolfjr]

Video Suggestion 9000... and 12... The Gimli Glider!

[@TheSolidSnakeOil]

Choosing a tofu dreg to do a video on had to be tough. There are just so many to choose from.

[@airplanemaniacgaming7877]

It's like choosing a Warhammer 40k Imperial Guard battle that has a casualty count of over 1 million dead.

[@CantHandleThisCanYa]

@@airplanemaniacgaming7877virginity confirmed

[@jwalster9412]

It's like choosing a game on Roblox that has in-game purchases, scams, money laundering, gambling, etc.

[@beyondEV]

But it also shows two things: 1. The building itself, was constructed properly. so it wasn't actually tofu dreg. (otherwise it would have flattened / shattered on impact.) 2. the CCP habit to ensure it's a least someone of executive power, who gets life in prison does have effect. they don't corner cut in the final product, they only used temporary corner cutting (probably unaware of the liquid faction risk). knowing that those with executive power will be held accountable does have a chilling effect on such practices. Unlike in the US, where they always take a low level scapegoat and you have deficiencies in the maintenance and structure itself, so it then collapses, when in use. Pretty sure in the US, this would have been settled with some money to the family of the victim and no criminal charges. People often forget the sheer volume of construction, so it seems like there is a lot more of corner cutting. but the large number of cases, isn't that high, if you take the number of projects into account.

[@jessnalulila5552]

The 2008 earthquake revealed nation-wide tofu dreg constructions

[@J069FIX]

The special episode could be about an accident that most affected Plainlydifficult's creation or the effects of which were the most impacting for John himself.

[@jiggsborah7041]

I live in a town called Evander in in South Africa. Back around 1986 there was a catastrophic fire underground in the local Gold mine. There were many fatalities. It was called the "Kinross mine disaster". Maybe you could take a look at that one.

[@maryeckel9682]

I've heard about that, awful!

[@bjornhedenstrom]

I remember seeing this on the news when I was on the airport in Shanghai getting ready to fly to Beijing. Thought it was odd at the time. Thanks for giving some more info.

[@nontoxic9960]

2:57 Wait, I've heard this one before!

[@lordofthehats4468]

😭😭😭

[@purplerunner1715]

Congreats on the 300th episode, a lot of work for sure, but also well deserved reward when your soon about to hit the first million subs. I'm happy for you John. Greetings from Denmark.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Transberrylemonaid]

Goodness been here so long, but already 300th video. You have such a high quality to your work and research. I appreciate everything you bring us, as it must be hard work to bring it so regularly. Loving the music as well. You deserve that million! We will continue to share your videos!

[@Mehrunes86]

Congratulations on your 300th episodes. Got two for you, from the DK 1. The Seest firework explosion, 3 november 2004 2. The Great Belt bridge train accident, 2 january 2019.

[@abelinkinxvi1735]

300th episode, 1 MILLION SUBS!!!!! Congrats to all your great work and more to come. Cheers!!!!

[@agustinbalbin1302]

Amazing content, as always! I do have 3 suggestios for you. All of them happened in Argentina and have to do with trains: the Benavídez rail disaster (1970), the Sa Pereira accident (1978) and the Once Tragedy (2012). Hope you find these topics interesting. Have a nice day!

[@paulkornbluh6303]

I was watching! I watched it start to fall over, then it fell over.

[@MrMatteNWk]

Wow. I wonder where all the rats are gonna go?

[@airplanemaniacgaming7877]

@@MrMatteNWk To the next property development company.

[@MrMatteNWk]

@@airplanemaniacgaming7877 So Moe's.

[@personzorz]

I mean it would have been weirder if it started to fall over and then went back up.

[@mwolkove]

If you were doing a sitcom, we'd have a flashback episode coming our way.

[@Michaelfatman-xo7gv]

While trapped in a freezer.

[@Bob-nc5hz]

Hey jon, FWIW the people calling it "xitter" usually mean for it to be interpreted as pinyin, where x is a transliteration for the sound "sh".

[@TheMissPoovey]

Haha I’ve been calling it twix

[@jmm2000]

This type of disaster happened in Malaysia as well. Three apartment blocks were compromised by flooding due to a wall collapsing and one of the apartment blocks fell over and killed over 40 residents. Afterwards, the entire complex were evacuated and abandoned.

[@reachandler3655]

Congratulations on the 300th episode and a million subs! 🎉🥳

[@theemissary1313]

Congratulations on 300 great episodes.

[@greenthing99100]

999k!! so close you can almost use whatever receptor cells are used to detect proximity of an absolutely humongous crowd of people [I'm just a humble plant biologist so don't ask me - I do know how trees would feel about it, but not mammals or other complicated animals]. And 300 episodes... erm, I may have missed a few at the beginning, just the odd hundred or two... Thanks John, I live with a painful motor neuron disease and your videos are part of what keeps life in the tolerable zone.

[@RashaKahn]

I’m sorry but does it seem insane to build an underground garage AFTER you build the building?

[@alim3611]

it's absolutely insane

[@MyGodZach]

​@@alim3611no it's not, it's common to build the main structure then go beneath it and it's called APSUW Engineering and it's been used for the first time in 1875 in Almelo in the Netherlands... Just kidding, all I said was bs...

[@0okamino]

Nice! Thank you for providing 300 interesting videos for us to watch, and from which to learn at least a bit about how not to do things if we wish to avoid a disaster. Well, it fell over, but it didn't burn down or sink into a swamp, so I guess that could count as some degree of success.

[@deserthunter73]

I know another Tower 7 that "just fell down" in 2001. You should do a piece on that. It is, especially for myself and millions of other Americans, Plainly Difficult to understand.

[@cadillacdeville5828]

Plainly Difficult makes my Saturday every weekend ❤.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Tree0902]

999k Subscribers as of watching congrats bud!!!!

[@NinoJoel]

999.000 subs congrats mate

[@crustifix]

please do a video on the Seattle harborview research & training radiation leak in 2019! you always do such a terrific job explaining how bad these situations could be!

[@AnnacolleenEtters]

If you read this, I have a suggestion for you. The Skyline Building collapse in Fairfax County, Virginia, in March 1973. The floors of the 27th floor were poured, before the 24th or 25th was dry. I understand that one missing person was never found.

[@jorgemoro5476]

The sky doesn’t lie. What a dump

[@luke0346]

A fellow SerpentZA, laowhy86, china show, chinafactchasers. Thumbs up to you, may your sky never lie.

[@TheSoonToBePurgedJackMeHoffIV]

​@@luke0346 I love the China Show. I listen to it while I clean up. Great show and great guys

[@RT-qd8yl]

Tofu Dreg strikes again

[@spitfire_2]

“The Sky Don’t Lie” !!! ❤

[@spitfire_2]

@@RT-qd8yl , it makes me irritate . . . 😅

[@henryisnotafraid]

300! I know I've been following for many years but dang that's awesome. I do have a request you may find it completely off the wall or you might be into it I really enjoy the compendiums playing as background music to some kind of a task like if I'm doing spring cleaning in the garage or I'm doing some kind of big project where I'm building something much how some people might put on classical if the mood is right I'll put on a compendium and some of my request would be given your vast musical talent what if you were to rearrange some of those 300 videos into kind of a certain cadence to where one would flow into the other and then almost musical way? it's a crazy idea never mind.

[@lloovvaallee]

This was 15 years ago. The real estate situation in China is very different today.

[@markmuldoon805]

Happy 300. and what a bizarre episode - it was plainly difficult to build it properly.

[@markr.devereux3385]

300 tales of criminal mayhem& environmental damages. Bloody good job guv'nr. Continue to deliver these videos that have me shivering n my boots .

[@UAPandFriends]

$2100 per meter² !!!!!!😮 that is fooking disgusting!

[@davidconner-shover51]

pretty cheap actually, at least by US standards

[@tictacdude3468]

About $195 per sq ft. Not bad for property in a city but still more pricy than many suburban homes in the US.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@davidconner-shover51 Only in Manhattan, and we'll scalp you for lying if you say otherwise

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@tictacdude3468 Adjusted for local purchasing power you need to quadruple the Chinese number. And the average for the US is $150 per square foot, and our construction workers get paid per hour what Chinese workers make in a day

[@tictacdude3468]

@@samsonsoturian6013 Highly agree. It’s also important to note that this development was started in 2004… housing prices in China have FAR outstripped wage gains since then.

[@vedritmathias9193]

I'm surprised that, for a tofu dreg project, that the building didn't reduce entirely to rubble when it fell. Never would have thought it would have kept its shape

[@themelancholyofgay3543]

when the only problem was the soil and foundation

[@themelancholyofgay3543]

that's rare

[@Frommerman]

Because it wasn't tofu-dreg. IIRC that tends to happen in outlying cities rather than Shanghai or Beijing. Easier to get away with when the seat of power is further away.

[@robertkopp873]

I remember another #7 that fell down. Somewhere in the New York area...

[@bowlampar]

Shanghai building contractor misread the Architectual Drawings, they are supposed to be rows of horizontal offices , not high rises build on top of a former landfill site.

[@Toeken42]

Congrats on 300. Have enjoyed all of your content over the last couple years. Thank you for your time, dedication and efforts to bring us the information, we may not otherwise be informed.

[@jorgemoro5476]

As soon as you said China…

[@autobotjazz1972]

Based on the description of the underlying soil strata it seems to me they should not have been allowed to build the towers there as to my mind the site is unsuitable.

[@lookingbehind6335]

Nothing built in China is suitable. Just look at the hundreds of videos.

[@eyerollthereforeiam1709]

I like slight hesitation in his voice when he says "A market of quickly built developments".

[@byteme9718]

All credit to the companies/contractors who attached the external cladding. They should use this for an advertising campaign.

[@aprilkurtz1589]

Congrats on #300! Your impending one millionth, too!!

[@dozaarchives2225]

999k, almost there!!!!!

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

The one time they actually build something with a good quality concrete instead of just sand and plaster, it falls over because they piled too much dirt on wrong spot... Chinese construction industry is a universe of its own

[@Greg-yu4ij]

Yeah not sure why they imprisoned those guys. It was clearly an accident. Not like they make money off of their building dropping

[@emjayay]

No one could have predicted all that rain in Shanghai.....which averages 1,200 millimetres (about 50 inches) of rain a year.

[@Philippadrinkstea]

Congrats John, so stoked for you! 300 episodes and 1M subs!! Well deserved 🎉

[@iricandescence]

Just hit 1 million subs, I saw it happen! :o Congrats mate!! 🎉

[@Capt.Turner]

A tasty tofu, now that is a contradiction in itself. 😂

[@therocinante3443]

6:55 video starts

[@FrankHaney-b9y]

First thing you asked was "How was this possible?!" My brain's first answer was China!

[@Cec9e13]

Tofu dregs for the win... Or rather loss...

[@SpaceBearEngineer]

This reminds me a lot of the horrible earthquake in Turkey. They had a lot of the same kind of "slapped together, get 'em up quick" buildings there that basically just disintegrated at the first shake of seismic activity. When people talk about being able to "solve a housing shortage tomorrow" this is what I always think of. Time is just as much a resource as money and concrete, doing things RIGHT costs TIME. Any problem that requires resources and you think you can "solve tomorrow", is just a problem you're kicking down the road and potentially making much worse.