Shanghai is starting on its next major skyscraper in the Pudong district dubbed the Shanghai Tower. Set for completion in 2014, it will be obviously larger than the previous two skyscrapers (Jin Mao and Shanghai World Financial Center) that will certainly dominate the Shanghai skyline.

I had thought that all construction was put on hold or stopped after it was found that that area of Pudong was sinking some amount every year (it was a swamp afterall so the ground is not that compact or stable), but it seems that the construction is continuing.

Nonetheless, the fascination with skyscrapers by the Shanghai City government (and myself) is not shared by everyone with the China Daily noting the following issues:

  1. Shanghai is sinking, and a new skyscraper isn’t going to help;
  2. Traffic in Lujiazui is congested enough and a new building is going to make rush hours all the more “nightmarish”;
  3. The “urban heat island effect” is going to make Shanghai feel even more like a sauna in summers;
  4. Skyscrapers are vulnerable to attacks and disasters;
  5. The economic risk of building the Shanghai Tower will be shared by various state-owned enterprises and the money could be “better spent elsewhere”;
  6. Shanghai should instead save its old buildings from demolition;
  7. Shanghai’s public transportation sucks. Why not spend more money there?
  8. It also has the fastest graying population in China and should build more facilities to cater to the elderly.

Still, at least it looks better than the Oriental Pearl Tower?