China limits construction of “skyscrapers”

China has prevented the country’s smaller cities from building “skyscrapers” as part of a larger attempt to crack down on vanity projects.

Cities with populations of less than three million people will not be able to build skyscrapers taller than 150 meters (492 feet).

Those with a larger population will be limited by buildings taller than 250 meters.

There is already a ban on buildings higher than 500 meters.

China is home to some of the tallest buildings in the world, including the 632m Shanghai Tower and 599.1m Shenzhen Ping An Finance Center.

Local reports say that while skyscrapers may be needed in crowded cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, there is no shortage of land in other cities, adding that those were built primarily for vanity reasons.

Earlier this year, hundreds of people were fleeing when a 350-meter skyscraper, the SEG Plaza in Shenzhen City, began to sway.

China has increasingly cracked down on expensive vanity projects, criticizing local developers’ obsession with building eye-catching buildings.

Earlier this year the country issued a ban on “ugly architecture”.

“We are in a phase where people are too impetuous and anxious to produce something that will truly go down in history,” Zhang Shangwu, deputy director of Tongji University’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning, previously told the South China Morning Post.

“Each building aims to be a landmark, and developers and planners try to achieve this by going to the extreme in novelty and weirdness.”

In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Emergency Management made it clear that special exemptions should be required if a city with an urban population of less than three million wanted to build a larger skyscraper. 150 meters high.

However, under no circumstances would they be able to build a building higher than 250 meters.

Likewise, cities with an urban population of over three million may under certain circumstances ask to build a skyscraper taller than 250 meters, but with a strict ban on buildings above 500 meters.

Those who approve projects that violate these new rules will be held on to “lifelong responsibility,” the statement added.

The announcement was mostly met with approval on China’s social media site Weibo, with many saying the super-tall skyscrapers “weren’t necessary … they’re just deceptive.”