Word of the Day: Da Ku Char

Here's a picture taken today documenting the status on the construction of the CCTV building.

Now reports say it won't be completely finished by the time the Olympics rolls around, but part of it will be functioning to broadcast the Games.

And although Office for Metropolitan Architecture headed by uber-cool designer Rem Koolhaas describes the CCTV tower as a loop that is three-dimensional, locals have coined a nickname for the building: da(4) ku(4)char(3), meaning big pants or trousers.

But I just looked it up in my handly Oxford Concise English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary and it also means underpants.

So now Beijing has the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube and Big Pants. How sexy.