{"id":33402,"date":"2019-02-27T08:22:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T08:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33402"},"modified":"2019-02-27T08:22:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T08:22:31","slug":"chinas-horizontal-skyscraper-nearly-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33402","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s &#8216;horizontal skyscraper&#8217; nearly done"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"106.908786299\">\n<p><cite class=\"Paragraph__cite\">(CNN) \u2014 <\/cite><span>Dubbed an engineering marvel, China&#8217;s highly anticipated Raffles City Chongqing project is nearly complete. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Devised by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, it measures a staggering 1.12-million-square-meters and consists of a collection of eight towers and a gigantic connecting skybridge &#8212; which is being called a &#8220;horizontal skyscraper.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 250-meter-long skybridge, named Crystal, is said to be one of the world&#8217;s highest. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When open, it will have a viewing gallery, sky gardens, an infinity pool and various restaurants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If that wasn&#8217;t enough, the skybridge also transforms into a giant light beam at night time, illuminating the sky with a rousing light show. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Raffles City Chongqing complex will also include a 230,000-square-meter shopping mall, 1,400 residential apartments, a luxury hotel and 160,000 square meters of lavish office space.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<h3>A futuristic nod to Chongqing&#8217;s past<\/h3>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The eighth and final skyscraper of the $3.8 billion megastructure was recently topped out, meaning Raffles City Chongqing is on course to open this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The design was inspired by traditional Chinese sailing vessels, a nod to Chongqing&#8217;s past as a trading center.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"CaptionedImage__component\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"Image__component CaptionedImage__image Image__hasAspectRatio\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image__image\" src=\"https:\/\/dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com\/cnn\/e_blur:500,q_auto:low,w_50,c_fill,g_auto,h_28,ar_16:9\/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F190226161513-raffles-city-chongqing---image2.jpg\" alt=\"Raffles City Chongqing - exterior\"><\/div>\n<p>Raffles City Chongqing was designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie.<\/p>\n<p>CapitaLand Group<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>The ambitious development is located in the center of the southwestern Chinese city, facing the intersection of the Yangtze River and Jialing River.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Developer CapitaLand, one of Asia&#8217;s largest real estate companies, has announced it&#8217;s now focusing on the structure&#8217;s elaborate interior, with completion intended for the second quarter of 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<h3>Must-visit destination<\/h3>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"CaptionedImage__component\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"Image__component CaptionedImage__image Image__hasAspectRatio\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image__image\" src=\"https:\/\/dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com\/cnn\/e_blur:500,q_auto:low,w_50,c_fill,g_auto,h_28,ar_16:9\/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F190226161539-raffles-city-chongqing---image3.jpg\" alt=\"Raffles City Chongqing - exterior\"><\/div>\n<p>Work on the $3.8 billion megastructure began six years ago.<\/p>\n<p>CapitaLand Group<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>According to Lucas Loh, deputy CEO and CIO of CapitaLand China, trees are currently being transported over to &#8220;enliven the skybridge,&#8221; which will apparently feature the tallest observation deck in western China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;After six years of construction using state of the art engineering technologies, we are proud to present in Raffles City Chongqing an iconic architectural form resembling a powerful sail surging forward on the historic Chaotianmen site,&#8221; Loh said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;Positioned as a must-visit destination for local residents as well as domestic and overseas travelers, Raffles City Chongqing has been garnering strong response from our customers.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Occupying 9.2 hectares of site area, Raffles City Chongqing is CapitaLand&#8217;s eighth Raffles City development in China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The others are in Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shenzhen and Shanghai, which has two. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(CNN) \u2014 Dubbed an engineering marvel, China&#8217;s highly anticipated Raffles City Chongqing project is nearly complete. Devised by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, it measures a staggering 1.12-million-square-meters and consists of a collection of eight towers and a gigantic connecting skybridge &#8212; which is being called a &#8220;horizontal skyscraper.&#8221; The 250-meter-long skybridge, named Crystal, is said&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}