The 100-metre-high New Century Global Centre is a symbol of the spread of China's boom, 500m long and 400m wide, with 1.7 million square metres of floor space, big enough to hold 20 Sydney Opera Houses, according to local authorities. A 100m tall cliff-face of blue mirrored glass, stretching 500m along a triumphal plaza, the New Century Global Centre houses an entire seaside resort, along with a 14-screen Imax cinema, Olympic-sized ice rink, two five-star hotels and its own Mediterranean shopping village – all wrapped with a vast ribbon of offices. With offices that are both "comfortable and pompous", entertainment facilities that offer "the most exquisite and extravagant audiovisual pleasures", 1,000 deluxe hotel suites that all enjoy a sea view, and one of the largest shopping malls in China, citizens of the New Century Global Centre are given no reason to leave. "We have borrowed a Japanese technique," guide Liu Xun told the Sydney Morning Herald. There will be an artificial sun that will shine 24 hours a day and allow for a comfortable temperature," Liu said. In a video developers China Exhibition and Travel Group describe Chengdu as a "world class modern city of idyllic beauty", and say the Global Centre - including restaurants serving "the rarest oceanic fish species" - will bring to mind "the fabulous heavens". It is declared by its creators to be "a landmark which commands the world and is looked upon by the world with respect," a pleasure dome that Kubla Khan could only dream of. China's fourth largest city may be 620 miles from the coast, but that hasn't stopped it having its own seaside – newly opened inside the biggest building in the world.
– China's city of Chengdu has new bragging rights with the newly opened New Century Global Center, billed as the biggest building in the world, reports the Guardian. The entrance is 18 stories high, and the building itself is 1,600 feet long and 1,300 feet wide. But even those dimensions don't seem to capture it. This is closer: Among the office buildings, ice rink, movie theater, miniature village, five-star hotels, and shopping center is a massive artificial beach, complete with sand, water, and the world's biggest LED screen (for sunrises and such). And speaking of the sun: "We have borrowed a Japanese technique," one guide told the Sydney Morning Herald for a story while construction was still underway. "There is an artificial sun that shines 24 hours a day and allows for a comfortable temperature." The Aussie paper adds some context for readers: Twenty Sydney Opera House could fit inside.