China opens world's largest standalone building

China can now boast of having the largest contiguous construction after New Century Globe Centre, an 18-storey, glass-and-steel frame structure, opened above a new subway station in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

It is 100 metres high, 500 meters long and 400 meters wide, with a floor space of 1.7m m2, making it the world's largest standalone building.

Catering to the 14 million populus of Chengdu, one of China's accelerating metropolises, it bests the previous record holder, Dubai's International Airport Terminal 3, by 500,000 square feet.

The mixed-use project hosts all the usual sundries of any sizeable commerical structure: an IMAX theatre, shops, restaurants, offices and hotels, and even an entire Mediterranean village reconstruction.

Its pièce de résistance, however, is a massive artificial beach that offers a sea breeze and sunsets through a huge LED screen on one side of the building.

The structure has been under construction since spring of 2012, which isn't long for a building of its size, and it officially opened on July 1. Next door, a 500,000-square foot arts centre design by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid is also under construction.