World's largest building, New Century Global Centre, opens in China

When the sun is beating down so relentlessly on a scorched earth, blasting through what was once our ozone layer, we can rest assured there’s a place to watch the sunset without fears of instantaneous skin cancer: China’s New Century Global Center. Did that come off a tad jaded? Sorry, we digress. The New Century center is probably a very fine place; after all, Chinese authorities say it’s now the world’s largest building, or “standalone structure.” Not the tallest, mind you, simply the man-made structure that occupies the most space. You know, where the trees once stood. Sorry, again! It’s a vast, wavy rectangular box of glass and steel that will house shops, offices and a water park with a huge LED screen for those aforementioned video sunsets. The New Century center officially opened last month in Chengdu, in the southwest province of Sichuan, a city of 14 million people. It has 19 million square feet of floor space, edging out the previous record-holder, the Dubai airport. Here are some other jaw-dropping stats, courtesy the Associated Press, NBC and CNet: - It’s as large as
329 football fields - It’s 1,300 feet wide, 328 feet high - The water park can accommodate 6,000 visitors – at once - The largest video screen is nearly 500 feet wide - It will contain not one, but a pair of 1,000-room, five-star hotels - There’s a 14-screen Imax theatre and skating rink - For your shopping pleasure, you’ll find a replica Mediterranean town - It’s three-times larger than the Pentagon and could hold 20 Sydney Opera Houses inside - It’s roughly the same size as Monaco - It took three years to build Oh, yeah, it has its own (fake) sunlight that also warms you.