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Watch: One Of China's Tallest Skyscrapers Wobbles And Shakes
Emergency management officials are investigating what caused the near 300-metre high SEG Plaza in Shenzhen's Futian district to wobble, according to a post on the Twitter-like Weibo.
A Glass Bridge. Gale-Force Winds. A Moment of Terror High in the Air.
Gusts blew out parts of a glass bridge’s flooring in northeast China, trapping a man and raising questions about the safety of similar hair-raising tourist attractions in the country.
Watch: One Of China's Tallest Skyscrapers Wobbles And Shakes
One of China's tallest skyscrapers was evacuated Tuesday after it began to shake, sending panicked shoppers scampering to safety in the southern city of Shenzhen.
www.ndtv.com
Emergency management officials are investigating what caused the near 300-metre high SEG Plaza in Shenzhen's Futian district to wobble, according to a post on the Twitter-like Weibo.
One of China's tallest skyscrapers was evacuated Tuesday after it began to shake, sending panicked shoppers scampering to safety in the southern city of Shenzhen.
The near 300-metre (980 ft) high SEG Plaza inexplicably began to shake at around 1pm, prompting an evacuation of people inside while pedestrians looked on open-mouthed from the streets outside.
The building was sealed shut as of 2:40 pm, according to local media reports.
Completed in 2000, the tower is home to a major electronics market as well as various offices in the downtown of one of China's fastest-growing cities.
Emergency management officials are investigating what caused the tower in Shenzhen's Futian district to wobble, according to a post on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
"After checking and analysing the data of various earthquake monitoring stations across the city, there was no earthquake in Shenzhen today," the statement said.
"The cause of the shaking is being verified by various departments."
It was not immediately clear how authorities will handle a dangerous building of its scale in the heart of a city of over 12 million people.
Bystander videos published by local media on Weibo showed the skyscraper shaking on its foundations as hundreds of terrified pedestrians ran away outside.
"SEG has been completely evacuated," wrote one Weibo user in a caption to a video of hundreds of people milling about on a wide shopping street near the tower.
The tower is named after the semiconductor and electronics manufacturer Shenzhen Electronics Group, whose offices are based in the building.
It is the 18th tallest tower in Shenzhen, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat skyscraper database.
Chinese authorities last year banned the construction of skyscrapers taller than 500 metres, adding to height restrictions already enforced in some cities such as Beijing.
The new guidelines for architects, urban planners and developers aimed to "highlight Chinese characteristics" and also banned tacky "copycat" buildings modelled after world landmarks.
Five of the world's tallest skyscrapers are located in China, including the world's second-tallest building, the Shanghai Tower, which stands at 632 metres.
Shenzhen is a sprawling metropolis in southern China, close to Hong Kong, which has a booming homegrown tech manufacturing scene.
Many Chinese tech giants, including Tencent and Huawei, have chosen the city to host their headquarters. It is home to the world's fourth-tallest skyscraper, the 599-metre Ping An Finance Centre.
Building collapses are not rare in China, where lax building standards and breakneck urbanisation lead to constructions being thrown up in haste.
Last May, a five-storey quarantine hotel in the south-eastern city of Quanzhou collapsed due to shoddy construction, killing 29.
The devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake caused over 69,000 deaths. The disaster ignited a storm of public controversy over poorly constructed school buildings -- dubbed 'tofu dregs' -- which collapsed and killed thousands of students.
A Glass Bridge. Gale-Force Winds. A Moment of Terror High in the Air. (Published 2021)
Gusts blew out parts of a glass bridge’s flooring in northeast China, trapping a man and raising questions about the safety of similar hair-raising tourist attractions in the country.
www.nytimes.com
Gusts blew out parts of a glass bridge’s flooring in northeast China, trapping a man and raising questions about the safety of similar hair-raising tourist attractions in the country.
A man who ventured out on a glass-bottom bridge in China’s northeast was left clinging to the side for dear life after gale-force winds blew away some floor panels, leaving gaping holes in the structure hundreds of feet above the ground, local officials said.
The episode occurred on Saturday at Piyan Mountain in Longjing, China, state media said, citing the city government. It spurred a frantic attempt to rescue the man, whom the authorities did not identify. He inched his way to safety, helped or coaxed — news accounts varied — by a rescue crew. A photo of what state media said was the moment of terror went viral.
The harrowing episode left many people in China deeply rattled, spurring discussions about what could have been a nightmarish ending and raising questions about the safety of many of the country’s glass bridges, walkways and viewing decks.
“This is exactly why I dare not step on a bridge like that,” one tourist identified as Wadetian wrote on Weibo, the Chinese social media site. “I broke out in a cold sweat just looking at it,” another user said.
The construction of glass-bottomed bridges has boomed in China in recent years, as part of a rush for hair-raising attractions that capitalize on the notion of construction that blends almost invisibly into the natural environment. The attractions have been swarmed in recent weeks by visitors as coronavirus fears have eased.
By some estimates, there are about 2,300 such bridges across the country. The longest, completed last year, stretches more than 1,700 feet across a gorge and rises over 650 feet in the air. One has a built-in swaying effect intended to take away the breaths of those who dare traverse it. Another is designed so that it seems and sounds as if it is cracking.
The Piyan Mountain bridge overlooks a bend in the Hailan River. Up to 1,500 people have crossed at a time, and the bridge is advertised as offering an experience akin to “hanging above a bottomless chasm.”
According to state media reports, around 12:45 p.m. Saturday, winds of up to 90 miles per hour tore through the picturesque tourist site, blowing out parts of the glass deck and trapping the man, described as a tourist.
Rescue workers were called to the scene. But after about 35 minutes, the reports said, he crawled to safety and was transferred to hospital for a psychiatric assessment.
The man was later released after his emotional and physical health “stabilized,” The Jilin Daily, the official provincial newspaper, reported, adding that the site of the accident had since been closed while inspectors checked for hazards.
In 2019, one person died and six others were injured after they flew off a glass slide in Guangxi in China’s south, leading the Chinese province of Hebei to close all 32 of its glass attractions. Another person died in a similar accident in 2017.
The previous year, a glass bridge in Zhangjiajie, at that time the world’s longest, was shuttered because of overcrowding after it had been open for less than two weeks. The Piyan mountain bridge was also closed after inspectors found cracks on a glass plate in 2018.
In recent years, the government has attempted to control the rush of glass bridge construction and strengthen safety inspections, and new standards for building the attractions started this month.World's highest glass bridge in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, closes temporarily from Fri. due to visitor numbers. pic.twitter.com/0ojziKQXNC
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) September 3, 2016