(A design sketch of the 838-meter-tall building on a wetland in Changsha Photo: thepaper.cn) |
Central China’s Hunan province finally announced a halt on its ambitious plan to build the world’s tallest tower within one part of its rare wetland area.
The Daze Lake wetland is the location where the world’s next tallest tower was originally scheduled to be built. This wetland is now listed as one of the 20 waters to be permanently protected and will follow non-construction zone policies. The news site thepaper.cn reported Wednesday, citing a development blueprint issued on a government website with information related to Hunan’s Xiangjiang New Area.
The blueprint lays out the district’s development from 2016 to 2025, and the no-construction zone will cover a total area of 199.5 square kilometers.
In August 2013, China Grand Enterprises mapped out an 838-meter-tall “sky city” project to be developed on the wetland itself. News of the project stirred up opposition from environmental protectionists who expressed concerns for the potential damage inflicted upon biotic factors.
The world’s tallest building is currently the towering Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which set the record standing at 829.8 meters, while the Kingdom Tower which is being built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will be 1 kilometer tall, marking a new world record.
Daze Lake is located in the north of the provincial capital Changsha. It is a pristine wetland hailed as the last wetland in Changsha where many rare bird species take habitat. Shelter of these birds would be largely disrupted by the building of this tower.
A survey in 2011 numbered the bird species living nearby the wetland at 135, thepaper.cn noted.
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