About half of the Guangzhou Sailors' Hotel was demolished yesterday, with the director of the project calling it the most difficult demolition in China.

"We had to demolish the left part of the hotel, but could not touch the other buildings close to the hotel and the subway line under the basement," Zheng Bingxu, director of the demolition, told China Daily.

The closest building is only 7 metres away from the hotel, and another building close to the hotel, which was damaged when a partial collapse of the hotel occurred on July 21, killing three people, also had to be avoided.

The weight of the demolished hotel is more than 3,000 tons and needed 15 kilograms of explosives to bring it down.

The explosives were detonated at 3 pm yesterday, and the seven-storey building was felled in just two seconds.

The three other buildings surrounding the hotel were not affected, Zheng said. "I just heard a big sound but didn't feel any tremors in the subway station."

The dust caused by the demolition dispersed in a few minutes, and the traffic on the roads near the site resumed five minutes after the demolition. The No 2 Subway Line, which was shut down at 2:30 pm, did not reopen until 5 pm.

An investigation showed the original partial collapse of the hotel was because the foundations had not been properly laid during construction.

(China Daily August 9, 2005)