I read an article from a book which was talking about how the British were convinced to use those bamboo for the constructions in HK. :|
When the British occupied HK in the 19th century, they contempt the Chinese use those bamboo for constructions and they thought steel shelving were the best. Most of the westernized buildings at that time used steel shelving for constructions, where the Chinese buildings used bamboo.
In 1920s, the British took some bamboos for testings and they wanted to "prove" bamboo were weak, but the tests from the Oxford University shown bamboo are as strong as steel for constructions and it made the British shocked! :eek2:
Also, there was a competition for constructing two similar height buildings in the early 1950s, one used bamboo and the other one used steel. The building used the bamboo trellised was built faster than the steel one. Then, a typhoon came, the one used steel trellised collapsed but the one used bamboo still holded firm! :runaway: Since then, the British never use steel to build new buildings in HK. :|
