The Broken Telegraph

The People’s Republic of China (such an ironic title given their record on human rights) have finished two structures that are claiming a place in the record books- until Dubai reads it as a taunt.

First up is the world’s longest sea bridge, which links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo. The bridge is a total of 22 miles long, and extends across Hangzhou Bay, cutting the distance between the two cities from roughly 250 miles to about 50 miles.  Have another look:

Construction began back in late 2003, and the bridge cost an equivalent of $1.7 billion dollars to complete.

Next up is the Beijing International Airport’s third terminal- which has opened in advance of The Olympics (so that the intrusive surveillance can find the best shadows to hide in).

The massive building has 14 million square feet of floor space (Dr. Scholl’s is projecting *blistering* revenues), and cost $3.8 billion to construct. It measures 1.83 miles from one end to the other, and has 360,000 square meters of GOLD roofing. Gold. The new terminal will see 76 million passengers by the year 2015.

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are considering a sequel to their absolute snore-fest, which will be shot on location at this new wing should the project leave the drawing board. The working title is ‘The Terminal 2: Different Terminal,’ and I personally think it’s got a great ring to it.

Slightly Curious Trivia: The last building to hold the “largest in the world” trophy belonged to the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington.  Or maybe it still does? The Boeing website claims that it is the biggest building in the world- by volume, at 472,000,000 cubic feet. I’ll let them figure it out.