Wu Guangqiang

jw368@163.com

IN Chinese culture, the sky, or heaven, is a symbol of supremacy or omnipotence. Ancient emperors claimed to be the Son of Heaven. Chairman Mao’s inspiring verse line is still as appealing as ever: “I’m tempted to vie with the Ruler of Heaven for the height.”

Today, the concept of “racing to the sky” is no longer mere rhetoric; it’s a live scene nationwide — more cities are fanatically racing for the title of the home of the tallest building in the country, or better, of the world. The competition became white-hot when a company in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, declared its plan to erect the world’s tallest building.

The developer of the would-be tallest skyscraper, Changsha-based Broad Group, a non-electric-driven air-conditioning system producer and construction market newcomer, unveiled early last month some details of the mammoth structure. The J220-Sky City will stand 838 meters tall with 220 stories, 10 meters above the current world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai.

What is more eye-popping than the plan itself is the incredible time in which the skyscraper will be completed: five stories a day, the building will be completed in seven months. By comparison, it took Burj Khalifa Tower six years to complete. Well, Broad Group may dispel any skepticism by showing off its past impressive feats. In 2010, it put up a 30-floor hotel in 15 days, which was dubbed “China Speed” by a British newspaper, the Daily Mail.

The J220-Sky City, work on which is still subject to approval from authorities, is said to include every possible advantage — they are energy-efficient, material-efficient, water-economical, and eco-friendly.

When all these green ideas are said to be embodied in high-rise buildings, I take it with a pinch of salt. Common sense tells me that tall buildings need more power to pump water to higher floors and to run equipment such as elevators, hence consuming more electricity. Data show that in one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet (1.58 million square meters) of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120,000 kilowatts — enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day. In addition, mirror-walled skyscrapers not only raise the temperature of the building themselves, but heat up the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings, not to mention other related problems like sewage and waste disposal and traffic congestion.

Given China’s low-level city management, the thought of other hazards sends chills down my spine. On Nov. 15, 2010, a raging blaze engulfed a 28-story teachers’ apartment building in Shanghai, killing 58 and injuring more than 70. What if a big fire strikes a super high-rise? Believe it or not, Shenzhen, home to over 6,300 high-rise buildings, of which 64 are over 100 meters, by 2010, only possessed fire ladders up to 54 meters high, only enough to reach the top of a 20-story building.

It’s all very well for China, a country with limited usable land for urban development, to develop structures of high-density accommodation, whether for office, residential or mixed use. But a prudent approach of trial-and-error will be more workable. The obsession with high-rise buildings, which is still in full swing, is muddle-headed and risky.

China now accounts for 53 percent of the world’s skyscrapers under construction. Shanghai is planning to build the 1,000-plus-meter Bionic Tower, to be completed in 2020 as the tallest building in the world. Chongqing, Nanjing and Wuhan are putting up their own landmarks, 470 meters, 450 meters and 606 meters tall respectively. At least over two dozen buildings over 400 meters tall are under construction across the country and more are being planned. By estimate, there will be over 800 skyscrapers in China in four years.

To me, the prospect displays nothing but vanity. It’s only a continuation of some local officials’ zeal for “image projects,” characterized with grandeur and magnificence. Some less developed cities are also jumping on the bandwagon. Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou Province, plans to build 17 skyscrapers. It’s almost predictable that heavy debts, management costs and high vacancy rates will ruin such impetuous cities.

As Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), an Irish writer and politician, said, “Vanity makes men ridiculous, pride odious and ambition terrible.”

(The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)