The tallest building in Beijing grows to nearly 500m high

Despite the rate of economic growth has slowed down significantly, China is still consistently constructing a large amount of skyscrapers every year to provide sufficient office spaces, and also to demonstrate the prestige.

The capital city Beijing is no exception, like other cities in China the city is also witnessing a construction boom. Although from an overall perspective this city has not been a city of tall buildings, this can be seen clearly that the average height of buildings in Beijing is obviously shorter than that of other Chinese cities, most residential buildings in Beijing are only up to 20 stories while in other Chinese cities the residential buildings beyond 30 stories are in the majority.

Nonetheless, the Central Business District (CBD) of the city is undergoing expansion and the planned Central Business District Core Area is currently under construction in full swing, after the completion the whole district will become an unprecedented huge CBD that can hardly be found in other Chinese cities, there will be more than 5 supertall towers standing in the area, and surrounded by more towers that range between 200m to 300m.

The centerpiece of this Central Business District is a 528m tall supertall building, named China Zun Tower.

A render of China Zun Tower, showing what it will look like after completion.

The tower is currently under construction and about to be topped out within two months.

As of April 11,2017, the height of core tube of China Zun Tower has surpassed 490 meters, closing to reach the 500-meter mark, there's only about 30 meters left to top out at the final height of 528 meters.

The developer had said the tower will be topped out in July 2017, but judged by its current height the date of topping out will possibly be bring forward to as soon as in May.

I passed by the site on April 11 and took some pictures. Take a look below to see how it looks.

China Zun Tower, picture taken on April 11.

While the core tube has yet to reach 500m mark, the crane cabs have already surpassed that and currently hovering at 520 meters from the ground.

It can be clearly seen that China Zun is already much taller than the China World Trade Center Tower, which was the tallest building in Beijing, in the following picture China Zun Tower is in a much longer distance but the roof of the tower still reaches the same horizon line with China World Trade Center Tower.

China World Trade Center Tower and China Zun Tower, picture taken on April 11.

Below is how it looks in the distance. We know that if you stand too close to a building, even it has only a few stories you still need to look up too see it. Hence the disparity between the tall tower and shorter buildings can only be seen from a distance. In the picture below the buildings which situated close to it are all over 200 meters high, but look so small in comparison with it.

China Zun Tower in the distance, picture taken on April 11.

Although the core tube of the tower is close to top out, there are still lots of works left, such as constructing the structures enclosing the core tube at the upper portion and the installation for cladding. The shape of the tower was inspired from the Zun, a sort of ancient vessel that used in some religious rites, looking like slim waist, the upper portion and the bottom portion are wider than the middle, the floor plates are much larger on the upper floors, hence it will cost a considerable time to complete. China Zun is expected to be completed in mid 2018.

The tallest building in Beijing grows to nearly 500m high

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