Tiny building walking? It’s actually real in China

A building in Shanghai appears to be walking. To go back to the 60’s and 70’s, it was called the Touch City. This structure, originally on an island the size of a football field, was built to house downtown’s power players, and is surrounded by skyscrapers and other skyscrapers like so many an ocean. It might look like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s real.

And yes, this building is actually in China and operated by an arm of China’s largest property developer, Sunac China Holdings. If you are wondering how they pull it off, the company has built an incredibly complicated system for controlling the movement of the building’s steel beams and concrete and adjusting where they land. Here’s a video that should demonstrate the point.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Tom Schneider

Earlier: China’s ‘super skyscraper’ in Shanghai sparks global uproar

Previously on Xconomy:

View from above: Building displace tenants at old Pacific Bell site in San Francisco

10 ghostly ghost towns that could fit nicely in the Bay Area

An old school on a hilltop in San Jose

A mix of high-rises and one-room cabins in San Francisco

— Reported by Sarah Knapton, Joanna Lin, Heather Long, Lane Connolly, Ryan Parker, Soyoung Kim, Brooke Facer, Theo Anderton, Jessica Vascellaro, and Carlos Frenk

Follow @srothclarkson

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