People now have more money to spend, and some of them go to the new Shangri-La-run hotel at the top of the China World Tower, Beijing's tallest building.

BBC: China to address economic imbalance

Hopping out of the taxi at the Starbucks there after an amazingly quicker ride than normal in the still relatively empty streets, I took up elevator up Tower A to go see Feng Deng, who heads NLVC.

FORBES: Hanging out with VCs at Tsinghua

Coit Tower is a beloved part of the San Francisco skyline, and is not free to go up.

BBC: Twenty-five free attractions in San Francisco

"Of course, if it does go ahead it will mean that the next time a monarch reaches their 60th anniversary we'll have to build another tower -- but I don't suppose we'll have to worry about that for a while, " he joked.

CNN: May 4, 2012 -- Updated 1058 GMT (1858 HKT)

That left Tower with the have-it-all-in-stock business model, the go-to source for hard-nosed music enthusiasts.

FORBES: The Tower That Fell