by Brianna Crandall — June 15, 2011—A new skyscraper is built every five days in China, and by the year 2016 the country will have 800, which is four times the number in the United States, according to a report just released by the Shanghai-based Skyscrapers Magazine, as reported in China’s Global Times.
Half of the world’s ten tallest buildings are in China, led by Hong Kong with 58, then Shanghai with 51, and Shenzhen with 46, according to the report, which was released after a year-long study of tall buildings in China.
China reportedly started construction on more than 200 skyscrapers this year, the same number of skyscrapers (buildings over 500 ft.) as are in the whole United States. The researchers note that skyscrapers were initially constructed as a way to save land, but some Chinese experts caution that the high costs of building and maintaining them, as well as the environmental problems they cause, should make government authorities think twice before approving new projects.
