Century-old buildings in Shanghai, temporarily relocated in-whole to accommodate underground construction, have been laid back on their original site in an impressive feat of engineering involving over 400 carrying robots stepping in sync.
The buildings, weighing 7,500 tonnes and covering an area of 4,030 square meters, were originally built in the 1920s and 1930s in the Shikumen architectual style -- a distinctive fusion of Western elements with those of traditional Jiangnan-style residences from the southern region of the Yangtze River Delta.
For decades, they have stood in the city's Zhangyuan cultural and historical block as the best preserved and most diverse Shikumen building complex in Shanghai.
Efforts to move the building complex back into place began on May 19, with a total of 432 small crawler-type transporting robots moving the complex as a whole at an average speed of 10 meters per day.
To accommodate the construction of a ground-level roof for a 53,000-square-meter underground complex, the buildings at Zhangyuan had originally been moved away in whole due to their large number and density, which left no space for renovation and repairs.
Robots move historic Shikumen buildings back to original site in Shanghai
Any attempt to falsify the World War II history and to glorify Nazi and collaborators must be resolutely stopped, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed at a reception marking the Victory Day on Saturday.
According to a transcript posted on the website of the Kremlin, Putin underscored the decisive contribution made by the people of the Soviet Union to the "defeat of Nazism" in his speech addressing the reception.
"We have never divided this great victory into 'ours' and 'theirs.' That is why we honor the contribution of all soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, members of the resistance, partisans and underground fighters," said Putin, adding that "we will always preserve the memory of our wartime alliance, of our brotherhood in arms."
"It is important to firmly counter attempts to falsify the events of the Second World War and to glorify Nazis and collaborators. They bear responsibility for the unbearable suffering and deaths of millions of civilians," Putin said.
He stressed that "it is our duty to prevent" any effort to justify the genocide of Soviet citizens and other atrocities committed by Nazi criminals. "These crimes were unequivocally condemned by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal and have no statute of limitations," he said. On November 20, 1945, the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France established an international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Bavaria in southern Germany, to reckon with the heinous crimes committed by Nazi Germany against humanity.
Putin vows to firmly counter attempts to falsify WWII history
