Shanghai Tower reaches for sky and record

[j20blackdragon]

The Shanghai Tower is the tip of the iceberg.

China's real estate and infrastructure construction boom is jaw-dropping if you get the real facts.

Let's start with residential real estate. Total residential floorspace in China is well over 49 billion m2, the largest in the world. As a comparison, the US only has around 24 billion m2 of total residential floorspace. Every year China adds another 2 billion m2 of brand new residential floorspace, equivalent to the entire housing stock of Spain.

In 2013, China built over 8 kilometers of new skyscrapers. Remember this chart only includes buildings 200 meters or taller.

China has built the world's largest expressway network, surpassing the US Interstate System. At the end of 2013, the total length of China's network was 104,500 kilometres (64,900 mi), of which 8,260 kilometres (5,130 mi) of expressways were built in that year alone. The US Interstate System is 47,714 miles (76,788 km).

Expressways of China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

China has built the world's largest high speed rail network.

List of high-speed rail lines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

China has built the world's longest bridges.

List of longest bridges in the world - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

China has built by far the world's largest electrical grid.

The World Factbook

 

[j20blackdragon]

This chart should give you an idea of how much residential real estate is currently being built in China. China continues to build 2 billion m2 of residential floorspace every year. That's a new Spain being built in China every single year.

 

[mike2000]

@mike2000 Hey mate appreciate your views and totally agree with you regarding our national psyche and future potential but that is a discussion for some other thread i am a skyline fanatic and an infrastructure buff...and if u are any one of those then it is difficult not to admire the Chinese....

I agree with your point here bro. When it comes to Skyscrappers and infrastructure planning/construction, I agree this is one point where they Chinese have excelled in quite well, I have visited several cities in Asia myself, many of them in China, and i can say they have sure build world class cities who put even cities in the west to shame. They also had the advantage of starting late though, so they could plan cities from scratch unlike we in the west who are/were already developed so its difficult to build such cities from scratch.
In fact skycrapper/infrastructure wise, only Japanese cities can compare to the best Chinese cities to be honest. Kudos to the Chinese for this. I always give credit when due.

 

[senheiser]

I don't like this Shanghai Tower, it suspiciously looks like a gaint anacoda.

because you dont have any

I agree with your point here bro. When it comes to Skyscrappers and infrastructure planning/construction, I agree this is one point where they Chinese have excelled in quite well, I have visited several cities in Asia myself, many of them in China, and i can say they have sure build world class cities who put even cities in the west to shame. They also had the advantage of starting late though, so they could plan cities from scratch unlike we in the west who are/were already developed so its difficult to build such cities from scratch.
In fact skycrapper/infrastructure wise, only Japanese cities can compare to the best Chinese cities to be honest. Kudos to the Chinese for this. I always give credit when due.

they cant compare, tokio is big but not a high city, russia has higher skycrapers than Japan

 

[mike2000]

because you dont have any


they cant compare, tokio is big but not a high city, russia has higher skycrapers than Japan

lol i know bro. im not talking just about skyscrappers(which i know no country has/builds more than China), im talking more in terms of infrastructure overall. In this regard i will say only Japanese cities can compare to the best chinese cities i have been to. However, even so, China is just at the beginning of its development/industrialization, so it will be interesting to see how these cities will look like 2 decades from now.Even more futuristic i guess...... Interesting times we are living in.

As for Russia, yes compared to europe, it sure is building/has alot of skyscrappers. But its mainly because we in the west/U.S are not really focused/have as priority building skyscrappers per say. Our priorities are on a more sustainable way of life/building. You should also know as i stated before that the cities in Europe tend to have developed for a longer time a long time ago, using up all the space available with non sky scraper buildings. SEA and most of all China on the other hand, has new cities who've experienced huge population growth in a short period of time, forcing these cities to build sky scrapers. It is not the lack of current space that forces the building of sky scrapers, but the near future lack of space.

Also, many European cities have laws and regulations restricting the size of new buildings in order to preserve historic skylines. This automatically limits the height of new buildings, for example Tour Montparnasse has been often criticised for being out of place in Paris's urban landscape and, as a result, two years after its completion, the construction of skyscrapers in the city centre was banned.

 

[terranMarine]

@mike2000
After checking out Tour Montparnasse, i agree it looks awkward and out of place. Same with the one in PyongYang's tallest skyscraper and the tallest building in London. It ruins the view to be honest not to mention the designs are ugly. But to form a skyline you will have to accept 1 tall building sticking out will ruin the landscape, so you need to build more tall ones in order to create a skyline. Personally i think London is about medieval architecture, having mixed feelings if the City has modern buildings surrounded by the old British architecture style, though i do like some of the modern ones such as the gherkin.

It's definitely an advantage as a late comer for urban planning, the subways in EU are old (especially London, where we have the Queen Victoria age feeling when we are on some of the platforms). Compared to the ones in Beijing/Shanghai/HK. Sheesh, who would dare say these Chinese cities have backward transportation?

Other tier 2,3 cities are also developing so i have high expectations for Mainland within 2-3 decades

 

[beijingwalker]

Also, many European cities have laws and regulations restricting the size of new buildings in order to preserve historic skylines. This automatically limits the height of new buildings, for example Tour Montparnasse has been often criticised for being out of place in Paris's urban landscape and, as a result, two years after its completion, the construction of skyscrapers in the city centre was banned.

That's exactly what happened in Beijing, Beijing has very strict rule on how tall you can put up a building,the inner city,all constructions must be no taller than 9 meters, can not be taller than the Forbidden City. So Beijing's building are often jokingly called "fat short guys".

 

[beijingwalker]

As for the best skyline in the world, there would be no doubt about it ,Hong Kong, no other cities on this planet even come close to Hongkong in this aspect.

 

[terranMarine]

@beijingwalker
When i was at the top, a group of Japanese tourists arrived and the first thing they said was 'WAAAAAAAAAAAH' , totally in awe

 

[cirr]

Beijing：

 

[beijingwalker]

Guangzhou city

Chongqing

Shenzhen

 

[beijingwalker]

Shanghai's skyline is great, but still no match for HongKong, and other Chinese cities are catching up fast.( sadly Beijing is not one of them)

View attachment fb5bfd44b4e9d6afa70fe2ed55ed247e.jpg

 

[mike2000]

That's exactly what happened in Beijing, Beijing has very strict rule on how tall you can put up a building,the inner city,all constructions must be no taller than 9 meters, can not be taller than the Forbidden City. So Beijing's building are often jokingly called "fat short guys".

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ahahahahah, fat short guys, i love that.
Beijing is a nice city though, the only thing i hate about it is that its really pedestrian unfriendly compared to Shanghai which has more stations, interchange underground walkways, signs that facilitate movement, beijing Subway lines are still few are far between, and lines tend to be short forcing long-distance travellers to change rather a lot. More worringly, Beijing's urban metropoly is too car-friendly. The major/big roads limit pedestrian flows far too much, and cut off minor roads too. That means bus routes cannot penetrate hearts of communities, and bus stops difficult to access. Compared to Shanghai, using public transport in Beijing would quite possibly require more changes and a longer and less pleasant walk.

Tokyo by contrast has got its public transport system right in almost all aspect(just like Shanghai),Tokyo has the largest and most efficient urban railway network in the world. It's not only big, but also efficient, but to be honest, maybe it's only me but when I was in Tokyo a few years back I found it rather non-descript and boring. It really lacks exotic/good-old atmosphere most European/American/Chinese and other Asian subways have, plus its doesn't have that super modern look like its asian peers. Even more pertinent to me is the language barrier. Most information on Tokyo's railway (or anything Japanese, for that matter) are naturally in Japanese language, and most people don't get interested in the things written in those undecipherable hieroglyphs.
But hey, the metro is quite cheap and efficient(almost always on time), 60 yen for the lower price, (It is about 1 euro) when i was last there in 2007/8. So cant complain that much to be honest.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

( sadly Beijing is not one of them)

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I'd say, fortunately. Beijing doesn't need skyscrapers to look grand. Beijing is grand because it does not have skyscrapers.

 

[beijingwalker]

ahahahahah, fat short guys, i love that.
Beijing is a nice city though, the only thing i hate about it is that its really pedestrian unfriendly compared to Shanghai which has more stations, interchange underground walkways, signs that facilitate movement, beijing Subway lines are still few are far between, and lines tend to be short forcing long-distance travellers to change rather a lot. More worringly, Beijing's urban metropoly is too car-friendly. The major/big roads limit pedestrian flows far too much, and cut off minor roads too. That means bus routes cannot penetrate hearts of communities, and bus stops difficult to access. Compared to Shanghai, using public transport in Beijing would quite possibly require more changes and a longer and less pleasant walk.

Tokyo by contrast has got its public transport system right in almost all aspect(just like Shanghai),Tokyo has the largest and most efficient urban railway network in the world. It's not only big, but also efficient, but to be honest, maybe it's only me but when I was in Tokyo a few years back I found it rather non-descript and boring. It really lacks exotic/good-old atmosphere most European/American/Chinese and other Asian subways have, plus its doesn't have that super modern look like its asian peers. Even more pertinent to me is the language barrier. Most information on Tokyo's railway (or anything Japanese, for that matter) are naturally in Japanese language, and most people don't get interested in the things written in those undecipherable hieroglyphs.
But hey, the metro is quite cheap and efficient(almost always on time), 60 yen for the lower price, (It is about 1 euro) when i was last there in 2007/8. So cant complain that much to be honest.

Beijing's subway is argubly the longest in the world and also the cheapest, 2 Yuan for unlimited rides.
Beijing subway becomes the world’s largest metro system (China) | Eltis