Wednesday, 25 June 2008

China's tallest building... is a dragon?



Link


CHINA'S tallest building, to be built in Shanghai, will look like a coiled dragon, according to its designer.

The US firm Gensler and the Shanghai-based Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tongji University will soon deliver more details about the skyscraper, whose construction is planned to start this year, the Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday.

A dozen overseas and domestic firms offered designs for the building from April 2005 but Gensler's "Dragon" finally defeated the "Bamboo Shoot" from Britain's Foster & Partners.

The top of the new skyscraper will look either like a turned up dragon tail or an inverted Olympic torch, according to the report.

The 580-meter-high Shanghai Center will top the city's skyline and form an impressive triangle with the 420-meter-high Jin Mao Tower and the 492-meter-high Shanghai World Financial Center in Lujiazui finance and trade zone in Pudong New Area.

A project company with 5.4 billion yuan (US$786 million) in capital has been registered in the city. The Shanghai Chengtou Co, the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone Development Co and the Shanghai Construction Group are the shareholders.

Once it is completed, the super highrise will have 118 stories and exceed Taiwan's 501-meter Taipei 101 to become the country's tallest building.

It will also be taller than the 555-meter-high Burj Dubai, which is still under construction.

Live in Shanghai


I just found this site which looks pretty interesting and helpful for newcomers!

Friday, 20 June 2008

Something that's been bugging me

I've only noticed this recently.. actually no, I've always known it but it's only started to bug me recently. Why do most people think that their country is the BEST country in the world and can do no wrong and every other country is crap? And if you dare say anything bad about their country (or city) they get very very defensive. I guess there's nothing wrong with being proud of where you live or grew up but still... I just don't understand..

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Mercer HR survey 2008 - Quality of living cities



Considering my other post is the most popular on this blog I thought I'd post this up too.

Full article here

Top 10 cities (rest can be found on the site)



























































































Rank 2008

Rank 2007


City


Country


Index 2008


Index 2007


1



1


Zurich


Switzerland


108


108.1


2


3


Vienna


Austria


107.9



107.7


2


2



Geneva


Switzerland


107.9


108.0


4


3


Vancouver


Canada


107.6


107.7


5


5


Auckland



New Zealand


107.3


107.3



6


5


Dusseldorf


Germany


107.2


107.3


7


8


Munich


Germany



107


106.9


7



7


Frankfurt


Germany


107


107.1


9


9


Bern


Switzerland


106.5



106.5


10


9



Sydney


Australia


106.3


106.5





Apple stores

An Apple store will open in my hometown of Sydney in just 2 days and Apple plans to increase their presence in China by building their first store there (in Beijing, not Shanghai) though).