China cracks down on skyscraper ‘vanity’ projects in smaller cities
Beijing: China has restricted smaller cities in the country from building “super high-rise buildings”, as part of a larger bid to crackdown on vanity projects, the BBC reported
Cities with populations of less than three million people will be restricted from building skyscrapers taller than 150 metres (492 ft).
Those with populations larger than that will be restricted from buildings taller than 250 metres.
There is already an existing ban on buildings taller than 500 metres.
China is home to some of the world’s highest buildings – including the 632m Shanghai Tower and the 599.1m Ping An Finance Centre in Shenzhen, the BBC report said.
Local reports say that while skyscrapers may be needed in crowded cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, there is no shortage of land in other cities, adding that those had been built mostly for vanity reasons.
China has increasingly been cracking down on costly vanity projects, criticising local developers obsession with constructing eye-catching buildings.
Earlier this year the country issued a ban on “ugly architecture”.
The announcement was mostly met with approval on Chinese social media site Weibo, with many stating that the super-high skyscrapers were “not needed… they’re just gimmicky”, the BBC report added.