War on Skyscrapers

After the declining American's ruling the top of the (concrete) world, here comes the Chinese, but they will soon be seriously challenged by the Middle Eastern.

For several decades, United States have championed in its number of skyscrapers, which are located mostly in New York and Chicago. But recent years have seen more and more skyscrapers rising in Taiwan and China, particularly Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The collapse of the World Trade Center in New York have crossed one US building out of the world tallest building list, for it should have been the sixth by now. Moreover, the US economic downturn adds insult to injury, confirming that the US golden era of the building construction is coming to a slowdown and the number of highrises in New York and Chicago would soon be beaten by that in Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

In fact, half of the world's top 10 tallest buildings are now in China. But could China hold its first place in the list as the owner of most skyscrapers for long? Maybe, but it will have to compete against Middle East countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), particularly the capital of UAE ‘Dubai’, the city of the richie rich! The whole city of Dubai itself is now under construction. Dubai and Shanghai will soon be good rivals in their war on skyscrapers. For one sure thing, the title of the world tallest building is now reserved by UAE for ‘Burj Dubai’, whose construction will be completed in 2009. By then, it will be 302 metres taller than Taipei 101!

1. Burj Dubai Dubai, UAE 810m.
2. Taipei 101 Taipei, Taiwan 508m.
3. Shanghai World Financial Center Shanghai, China 492m.
4. Petronas Tower Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 542m.
5. Sears Tower Chicago, USA 442m.
6. Jin Mao Shanghai, China 421m.
7. Two International Finance Center Hong Kong, China 412m.
8. Citic Plaza Guangzhou, China 391m.
9. Shun Hing Square Shenzhen, China 384m.
10. Empire States Building New York, USA 381m.