‘World’s largest building’ opens in China

It can house 20 Sydney Opera Houses and is almost three times the size  of the Pentagon in Wshington, D.C. That is the “largest freestanding  building in the world”.

The New Century Global Center, which opened in June 28, is home to  business offices, hotels, movie tehaters, shopping malls, a faux  Mediterranean Village and family-themed attractions such as a water  park called Paradise Island.

Unlike the usually imagery in the mind which is a towering skyscraper  for “the largest building”, the Global Center stands at 500 meters  long, 400 meters wide and 100 meters high. It has a total of 1.7  million square meters land occupancy.

The mega structure is located in an entirely new planned area of  Chengdu called Tainfu New District. Chengdu, with a population of 14  million, is the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China.

Chengdu is also currently expanding its subway line and plans to  construct a new airport by 2020, further suggesting official ambitions  to make the city an economic and cultural capital of western China.

From June 6-8, Chengdu hosted this year’s Fortune Global Forum, an  annual invite-only event featuring chairs, presidents, and CEOs of the  world’s largest companies.

According to Xinhua, China’s official state media, by the end of 2012  Chengdu’s GDP had hit 800 billion RMB (US$130.48 billion).

Source:  edition.cnn.com