US$4.8 billion World's Highest Horizontal Skyscraper at 250 Meters Opens in China

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US$4.8 billion World's Highest Horizontal Skyscraper at 250 Meters Opens in China

US$4.8 billion 'horizontal skyscraper' opens in China
The highly-anticipated building is part of the mega Raffles City Chongqing project.

If you have a fear of heights, this might be a good time to look at away. China's impressive Raffles City Chongqing construction is still ongoing, however, the complex's "horizontal skyscraper", the Crystal, has opened to the public.

The striking sky bridge sits at 250 meters above ground, boasts a park, and an observation deck with a glass bottom.

The Exploration Deck high above ground, Source: CapitaLand

With a limit of 3,000 tickets per day, the attraction sold out quickly during its opening weekend.

The Crystal
The entire Raffles City Chongqing project is designed by Moshe Safdie and consists of eight skyscrapers. In a similar fashion to the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, four of its towers hold up the horizontal skyscraper structure 250 meters above ground (820 ft.), which is called the Crystal.

The Crystal measures 300 meters (984 ft.) and weighs a hefty 12,000 tons — hoisted up with the engineering help of Arup.

The journey to the Exploration Deck on the world's tallest horizontal skyscraper begins at ground level thanks to a National Geographic exhibition detailing the history and development of the city of Chongqing. Then visitors zoom up to the top in just 50 seconds, to then walk through another exciting exhibition, one that depicts what a futuristic life on Mars would look like.

Striking views of Chongqing from high above, Source: CapitaLand

Next up comes a pocket park, where you walk through a luscious green area high above the ground, which ultimately leads to the Exploration Deck itself. Here you stand on a thrilling glass-bottomed floor offering views of the city beneath as well as stunning scenes of the merging of the Yangtze and the Jialing riversnearby.

Raffles City Chongqing, Source: CapitaLand

In the coming months, you can expect to see the opening of a members-only clubhouse in the Crystal, which will include two swimming pools, restaurants, and bars. These are still under construction and will add to the immensity of the new skyscraper structure.

The cost to head up to the Exploration Deck is roughly $25, or RMB 180.

The pocket park in the Crystal, Source: CapitaLand

The quirky optical illusion passage visitors walk through in the Crystal, Source: CapitaLand


https://interestingengineering.com/worlds-highest-horizontal-skyscraper-at-250-meters-opens-in-china

 

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Terrified tourists struggle to walk across China's new vertigo-inducing glass observation deck that sticks out from a 'horizontal skyscraper' 820ft above the ground

• Videos show petrified visitors crawling on glass panes while visiting the see-through deck in Chongqing
• The vertigo-inducing platform is part of an impressive corridor which spans across the top of four towers
• It overlooks the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in mega-city Chongqing and opened to the public late last month
• The corridor is part of a £2.7bn project comprising eight skyscrapers: six at 820ft tall and two at 1,148ft tall

By BILLIE THOMSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:39 BST, 10 June 2020 | UPDATED: 13:14 BST, 10 June 2020

Glass-bottomed platforms have never failed to attract - or frighten - visitors in China since they became a tourist hit a few years ago.

A gravity-defying observation deck in the mega-city of Chongqing is the latest destination for thrill-seekers to get an adrenaline rush.

Suspended at a whopping 250 metres (820 feet) above the ground, the see-through Exploration Deck protrudes from the side of an enclosed sky bridge called 'The Crystal'.

The glass Exploration Deck protrudes from the side of an enclosed sky bridge and is suspended 820 feet above the ground

The vertigo-inducing platform (circled) opened to the public on May 30 in mega Chongqing, which has some 31million people


Video clips show local travel bloggers struggling to walk across the glass panes when they visited the vertigo-inducing viewing gallery.

The platform is part of an impressive corridor which spans across the top of four towers and has been billed as a 'horizontal skyscraper'.

Stretching 984 feet in length, the glass-walled structure is nearly as long as The Shard in London laid on its side.

It protrudes from an enormous enclosed sky bridge that perches on top of four towers hundreds of feet above the ground

The opening is a sign that Chongqing is seeing its life slowly returning to normal after being hit by the coronavirus outbreak

The observation deck, situated on the 47th floor and covering 16,145 square feet, consists of an indoor lounge and an outdoor transparent terrace.

Visitors will be able to enjoy the views of the Yangtze River and Jialing River merging at Chongqing's Chaotianmen area, one of the oldest parts of bustling Chongqing.

The indoor part is themed after Mars, which echos China's ambitious plan to explore the red planet as early as this July.

The entire corridor measures a staggering 107,000 square feet. It will also comprises a restaurant, two swimming pools and bars, which are due to open later this year.

The lofty passageway, 98 feet in width and 74 feet in height, is the crown jewel of an ambitious £2.7billion project that has taken nearly seven years to build and comprises eight skyscrapers: six at 820 feet tall and two at 1,148 feet tall.

Daredevil visitors will be able to walk on glass panes at 820 feet above the ground when they reach the deck on the 47th floor

Tourists can enjoy the views of the Yangtze River and Jialing River merging at the Chaotianmen area of bustling Chongqing

The deck, situated on the 47th floor and covering 16,145 square feet, consists of an indoor lounge and an outdoor terrace

Apart from a super-size shopping centre which opened last September, the complex will also have 1.6million square feet of offices, 1,400 flats, a hotel and a major transport hub comprising ferry, subway and bus stations.

It has been described as 'a vertically-built riverfront urban district' by Lucas Loh, the China President of CapitaLand Group, a Singaporean real estate company that developed the property.

The opening of the glass platform is a sign that Chongqing, which has a huge population of 31million, is seeing its life slowly returning to normal after the coronavirus outbreak.

'The Exploration Deck is the first major attraction to launch in Chongqing since the lifting of the country's nationwide lockdown and the public's enthusiastic response is yet another encouraging sign of recovery in consumer sentiment,' Mr Loh said.

Apart from a super-size shopping centre which opened last September, the complex (seen in a light show last year) will also have 1.6million square feet of offices, 1,400 flats, a hotel and a major transport hub comprising ferry, subway and bus stations

The Crystal corridor comprises 3,200 pieces of glass and 4,800 aluminium panels. It weighs a staggering 12,000 tonnes, the equivalent of 1.5 Eiffel Towers or 20 Airbus 380 planes.

The eight-building complex, the size of 170 football fields, is designed by Canadian-Israeli architect Moshe Safdie, who is also the brain behind Singapore's landmark Marina Bay Sands.

To build such a massive structure on top of multiple skyscrapers is a complicated process.

According to CapitaLand, workers have constructed it in nine parts.

Four of them were built directly on top of the four buildings in the middle.

Three sections used to connect the buildings were constructed on the ground. They were then be hoisted up by hydraulic strand jacks and attached to the side of the towers to form a continuous passageway with four neighbouring parts.

The remaining two segments situated on both ends were built in short sections from the rightmost and leftmost towers. They connect the corridor to the two adjacent buildings via cantilever bridges.

Each of the three between-building sections weighs 1,100 tonnes.

The admission of the observation deck is 162 yuan (£18) for adults and 135 yuan (£15) for children.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...s-observation-deck-horizontal-skyscraper.html

 

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