The world's largest building has opened for business in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province, China. The New Century Global Center boasts a mammoth 1.7 million sq m (almost 19 million sq ft) of indoor space, which is four fifths the size of Monaco.
Owned by the Exhibition and Travel Group (ETG), the New Century Global Center has exterior dimensions of 500 x 400 x 100 m (1,600 x 1,300 x 300 ft), and took three years to build. The building is linked to nearby Chengdu by 20 bus lines and an on-site metro station.
The New Century Global Center contains a theater and concert hall, each of which has a capacity of 1,000 people. The building features a total of 1,000 deluxe suites, an art gallery measuring some 30,00 sq m (322,000 sq ft), a conference hall, shopping centers, multiple hotels and offices, and a 14-screen IMAX Cineplex. Parts of the exterior facade are styled to resemble a seagull's wings, and there's a strong oceanic theme throughout.
Though located far from the coast, visitors to the building's Paradise Isle Oceanic Park wing of are greeted with the smell of the sea, a fake coastline complete with sand, the largest wave-pool in the world, and a river-rapids ride. There are also water slides, surfing facilities, and what may be the world's largest LED screen, at 150 x 40 m (490 x 130 ft).
As if further illustration of the grandness of this structure was needed, there's an entire fake "Mediterranean village" shopping area installed somewhere under the Center's sizable roof.
The scale of the project is mind-boggling, and if you can stick around past the superlatives in the opening minutes of the video below, there's some additional detail inside.
Sources: ETG, GoChengdoo [1], [2], [3]
