1. Built environment
July 30, 2015updated 30 Jul 2021 1:26pm

The site of the world's tallest skyscraper is currently a fish farm

By City Monitor Staff

Remember that skyscraper in Changsha? The one that was going to be the tallest in the world, and only take 90 days to complete? 

The one that, actually, a year after construction started in 2013, was still only a set of foundations, part underwater and home to a melon farm

Well, you’ll be glad to hear that things have moved on since we ran our story on the Sky City skyscraper a year ago. Now, according to the South China Morning Post, the building’s 2.6 hectare foundations are still there, only there’s even more water, and villagers are now using the site to raise fish. 

One villager has invested over £2,000 in his fishing business, and told a local news site:

I raise fish on the construction site. It is not in secret, neither have I ever been stopped.

Yet Broad Group, the firm behind the skyscraper, did manage to complete another skyscraper, Small Sky City, in just under 19 days. Originally, Sky City was to be built in a mere 90 days – which means the construction schedule has overrun by approximately 800 per cent. 

Zhang Yue, president of Broad Group, has insisted that Sky City will go ahead, either in late 2015 or early 2016:

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I have my reputation to think of – we’ll build it.

Fishery or skyscraper? May the best business win 

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