It seems the mad rush to build skyscrapers to promote a city's image has become a nationwide phenomenon. But without meticulous planning, local authorities can only build castles in the air, or will end up in "fields of watermelons", says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

In July 2013, a large company announced that it would build an 838-meter-tall skyscraper in Changsha, Hunan province. The building, taller than the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, was supposed to be completed in April this year and ready for occupation in May.

But at the end of June when a reporter visited the place, he found that the site was still a field of watermelons. When enquired, local officials said the project had been approved by the government and its design was being "fine-tuned".

Modern skyscrapers have become a significant part of urban landscape. Building skyscrapers has become an addiction for city authorities, who rarely care whether such buildings are secure or practical. As a result, people have come to see investment in such structures as waste of public money and are losing faith in local officials.

Skyscrapers can be useful only with proper infrastructure such as a foolproof maintenance system and emergency facilities. They also have to be environmentally friendly structures. But since the Changsha authorities couldn't fulfill all these requirements, the site of their ambitious project is still a watermelon field. In this context, the ambition of building "the tallest skyscraper in the world" reeks of market hype.

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(China Daily 07/07/2014 page9)