My Life in China -

China is booming economically and wants to show it, mainly cities display wealth and prosperity by building gigantic skyscrapers and futuristic buildings, which is exactly what is happening in Guangzhou. Some days ago, I went into Guangzhou to take a closer look at some of the impressive new buildings popping up in Zhujiang New Town. This area is being built as a "showing off" area for the Asian games in November. The exteriors of the buildings are finished but the interiors are being finalized now, and since the Asian games start off the 12th of November, time is ticking!

The futuristic Opera house with angles that define gravity. Looks like a space ship to me, designed by famous British architect Zaha Hadid. Cost? About 1.6 billion Swedish kronor (120 million USD). More info here

This is the new Guangdong museum, formed like a Chinese treasure box. Designed by Rocco Design Architects Limited. Cost? About 950 million Swedish kronor. Nice news when I arrived was that the entry was free! I will post photos taken inside at a later point.

Well, this was a bridge I crossed, no more, no less. But still a stylish bridge.

This is the Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower, also known as Canton Tower. Designed by Dutch architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit. It is designed with a female form in mind, a supermodel, tall and slender. It reminds me a lot of Turning Torso in Malmö, but it's more than twice the height of Turning Torso with its 610 meters. They are still working on it, but I look forward to be able to go all the way up and get a nice view of the city. It is the world's tallest concrete tower and on third place for tallest structures in the world - all categories. Source.

This is one of the new stadiums being built in preparation for the Asian games. In the background we can see the following building:

This is Guangzhou International Finance Center, also not really finished yet. But it dwarfs every other building in its vicinity with its 440 meters. Its height is also one reason why its hard to get a good photo of it to show it in relation to other buildings. It will receive a "sister" building, named Chow Tai Fook Centre which will be 560 meters!

I was unable to identify this structure but found it interesting.