Chinese provinces fall into line on super tall buildings ban, even when they have no plans to build any

President Xi Jinping recently warned that China’s mega cities ‘can’t expand infinitely’, months after the central government banned mega skyscrapers

The shift in attitudes towards urban development paves the way for a new lifestyle – with strict controls on erecting buildings taller than 250 metres

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Heilongjiang, where the tallest building is 270 metres high, has fallen into line with a central government order not to allow the construction of buildings taller than 500 metres. Photo: Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Published: 5:15am, 25 Dec 2020Updated: 6:41am, 25 Dec 2020

A province in northeast China is the latest to fall into line with a central government directive to curb the country’s craze for super tall buildings.

Heilongjiang, where the tallest building is the 270-metre (886ft) Tower 1 of the R&F Centre in Harbin, has vowed not to allow the construction of buildings taller than 500 metres – not that any were planned in the province.

It also echoed other measures in the central government directive issued in April, saying it would strictly control the construction of buildings taller than 250 metres, “cautiously study” the necessity of building above 100 metres, and strictly regulate public entertainment complexes with a floor area exceeding 30,000 square metres (323,000 sq ft).

The provincial department of housing and rural-urban development’s directive also fell into line with that of the central government by promising tighter scrutiny of projects to avoid copycat architecture.

The Wuhan Greenland Centre, which was to have been more than 600 metres tall, was shortened to 475 metres last year. Photo: AF

Instead of pursuing big scale, imitating foreign architecture and seeking attention through the use of weird design, all cities should make their new buildings “suitable for use, economic, green and artistic”, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development said in its April order.