(IPS) feature Even in the aftermath of the gruesome terrorist attacks on New York which demolished one of its landmarks - the twin towers of the World Trade Centre - Manhattan's distinctive skyline continues to fascinate Chinese urban developers.

While corporate businesses around the world may be rethinking their preferences for downtown skyscrapers - the towering symbols of economic strength - in favour of low suburban buildings as a result of the Sept 11 attacks, Chinese urban planners believe the trend would not affect their long-term architectural blueprints.

On the contrary, the city's successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games is likely to spur even more high-rise ambitions. Recent media reports here suggest that by the time Beijing greets its guests for the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese capital will have its own twin towers that would rival any proud skyscraper in the world.

Originally planned as a single tower, the 500-metre-tall International Trade Centre in the future Olympic Green Park would be redesigned as twin towers, the Economic Daily reported last week.

"Those towers will win honour for our country and nation,'' the paper quoted Jiang Wei, an official from Beijing Municipal Institute for Architectural Design as saying. "One tower seems a bit lonely but two would look symmetrical and harmonise with the capital's overall architecture."

Queer scheme

Symmetry of architecture is indeed a main feature of China's imperial capital but many disagree that the concept should be applied to Beijing's growing forest of skyscrapers.

"It is a queer scheme," says Professor Peng Peigen from the Architecture Department of Qinghua University. "Having twin towers on the main axis of Beijing's city layout would obstruct the panorama of the Forbidden City which is Beijing's true landmark."

The envisaged twin towers of Beijing International Trade Centre are only one of the many planned high-rises now on architects' planning boards.

Earlier this year, Beijing awarded US developer Johnson Fain Partners the rights to plan an entire new business district, complete with 55 skyscrapers.

By the end of 2001, the sleek structure of the 460-metre-tall Shanghai World Financial Centre would rise in the city's Pudong district, snatching the distinction of being the world's tallest building from the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur.

China has already four of the tallest buildings in the world. The country's tallest building is the 420-metre-high Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, which ranks as the world's third tallest. Its planners once considered adding a pagoda atop the building's roof and earn the title of world's tallest edifice.

Those plans were later abandoned but more high-rises were designed to satiate China's appetite for tall monuments of prosperity. In the eyes of many urban planners here, gleaming skyscrapers embody not only modernisation but also symbolise national pride.

Yet other experts lament China's obsession for skyscrapers, saying it is a faulty display of modern ideas and economic strength.

"If the world's tallest building appears in China, it means our nation lacks an adequate understanding of the trend in architectural development in the 21st century," argues Wang Mingxian, editor of Architect magazine. ''The age of energy-consuming skyscrapers has come to an end."

Skyscraper mania

Before the appearance of Jinmao Tower, Wang fought vigorously against the skyscraper mania but eventually gave up.

"It is of no use," he says. "Skyscraper mania is sweeping cities throughout the country - from Shenzhen where China's first skyscraper appeared, to Shanghai and Beijing. This may come to a halt two decades from now but then it will be too late to solve numerous kinds of problem."

Asked if the toppling of Manhattan's signature twin towers would affect Beijing's own project to construct twin towers, an official from the Municipal Institute for Architectural Design said Beijing International Trade Centre is an unlikely target for terrorist attacks.

"Lack of investment could be a more likely reason if the project gets derailed, an official who identified himself as deputy-director Ye told IPS.

Li Guohong, a planning official with Beijing's Central Business District Office, says rather than scaling down plans, the attacks on New York should make developers think harder how to improve evacuation measures.

"New York's World Trade Centre used to boast that its evacuation time was less than 30 minutes, but if that had been so, there wouldn't have been such high casualties," he said.