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Checking out the Solar Hotel
How China’s 'sun king' dreamed of cities built of solar panels.
Could we build cities using solar panels instead of walls? That’s the dream that Huang Ming, a wealthy entrepreneur in China’s Shandong province, has had since the 1980s. He’s become known as the ‘Sun King’ after building a vast solar park, including a showcase hotel, to prove a new kind of solar architecture is possible. So why hasn’t it caught on? We check into a room in the solar hotel and examine the vision and sometimes unfulfilled dreams of solar architecture in China.
Plus, why do bins in Copenhagen have shelves built into them? Clue: it helps the city’s poorest people
(Photo: Huang Ming and his solar hotel)
Last on
Sun 19 Mar 201709:06GMT
BBC World Service East Asia, Europe and the Middle East & South Asia only
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- Sun 19 Mar 201709:06GMTBBC World Service East Asia, Europe and the Middle East & South Asia only

