Plans by Shanghai to construct the world's highest Ferris wheel,
standing at 200 meters, have been shelved, government officials
said Thursday.
Shanghai officials and experts cancelled the plan after
discussions and decided to build a 100-meter tall skyscraper on the
land earmarked for the Ferris wheel, officials said.
The Ferris project envisaged a wheel with a diameter of 170
meters, supported by two 200-meter-long pylons, with a commercial
plaza at its base. The wheel would have had 36 cabins capable of
accommodating 1,100 people at a time.
The cost of the project was estimated at between 600 million
yuan (US$77million) and 800 million yuan (US$103 million).
Currently the world's highest Ferris wheel is the London Eye in
Britain. It was completed in 1999 and is 135 meters tall.?
However, the record is being challenged by a 160-meter-tall
Ferris wheel in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province,
which started to receive visitors last May. The developer has said
application procedures for an entry in the Guiness Book of Records
as the world's tallest wheel are underway.
The wheel is 25 meters higher than the London Eye on the south
bank of the River Thames and it's also 25 meters bigger in diameter
than its British counterpart.
With a total investment of 57 million yuan (US$7.1 million) the
wheel, named the Star of Nanchang, is decorated with
6,500-meter-long lights that produce a magnificent sight at
night.
(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2007)