World’s largest building has opened in China.
World’s largest building has opened in China.
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My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
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World’s largest building has opened in China.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Interesting photos. My first thoughts are:
1. How much did it cost to build?
2. How much will it cost to maintain?
I’m not that impressed.
If it goes the way of other great Chinese builds recently it will end up half empty and a major disappointment to the visitors.
Could you imagine trying to walk from the hamburger joint on one side to the squid shop all the way on the other side?
Or you work in the huge telecommunications company who rents the top floor on one side and half your employes end up taking two hour lunches down in the fun areas.
Direct build cost is hard to come by, but we can develop an estimate. Using information from this document (http://rlb.com/rlb.com/pdf/research/RLB_China_Report_September_2012.pdf), the cost of associated construction costs (land, infrastructure, direct construction costs, etc.) came to about $3200/m^2 in Shanghai in 2009. Construction started in 2010, and the rate of inflation in China has averaged about 2.6% since 2009, so we can use a figure of merit of $3280/m^2. Multiplying by the buildings area of 1.7 million m^2 gives an estimated cost of around $5.6 billion. This doesn’t seem unreasonable.