China Rescuing Ancient Leaning Tower

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 18, 2003

China Rescuing Ancient Leaning Tower

An 800-year-old tower in the Dinglin Temple of Nanjing city, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, is facing a problem similar to that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

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An 800-year-old tower in the Dinglin Temple of Nanjing city, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, is facing a problem similar to that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

Due to a 10-day heavy rainfall from March 24 to April 3, the top of the tower moved four centimeters northward, bringing the tower's inclination to 7.45 degrees, a much sharper tilt than the 5.30 degrees of the Pisa tower.

Architects are doing all they can to keep the tower from an impending collapse.

Several steel cables have been used to pull the 100-ton tower southward. And twenty caves with depths ranging from seven to 20 meters have been dug. Construction workers are now filling the caves with reinforced concrete to solidify the tower base.

As the tower is built on the demarcation line of the soil, withrocks in the north and sands in the south, year after year of water erosion and surface subsidence have undermined the stabilityof the tower base and caused the tower to lean.

First built in 1173 AD during the Southern Song Dynasty 91127-1279), the seven-story tower is now 12 meters tall.

The work of maintenance would possibly be completed by the end of September, architects noted, and the total expenditure for the renewal may top one million yuan (about 120,482 US dollars).

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