What The Hell Is China Building Here?

Jesus Diaz 17 November, 2012 5:00 AM

Share Discuss Bookmark

Not happy with building mysterious gigantic structures in the desert, the Chinese are now building inter-dimensional portals in the middle of their cities. I mean, come on, what the hell is this 157m high metal structure in the the city of Fushun, in northeast China’s Liaoning province?
It’s made of an astounding 3000 tons of steel and it will glow at night — decorated with 12,000 LED lights. According to Fushun Municipal Government’s officials, this titanic structure does absolutely nothing except serve as an elevated sighting position. They claim it is pretty “landscape architecture” — like the Eiffel Tower. It uses four elevators to take people to the top.
The Chinese media has been harsh about the building after a blogger posted these photos on Sina Weibo, which is the country’s “largest microblog platform”. Not surprising, since this thing costs $US16 million.
According to Fushun’s Urban Construction Bureau, the “Ring of Life” means “a round sky and a path leading to a paradise in heaven.”
I believe it. And so does the internet. Check out the photoshops at the end of this post.

[CRI English and Livedoor (Chinese) via The Atlantic]