China usurps US as king of the skyscraper

THE 121-storey Shanghai Tower is more than China’s next record-setting building: It is an economic lifeline for the elite club of skyscraper builders.

Financial gloom has derailed plans for new towers in Chicago, Moscow, Dubai and other cities.

But in China, work on the 632-metre 2,074-foot Shanghai Tower, due to be completed in 2014, and dozens of other tall buildings, is rushing ahead, powered by a buoyant economy and providing a steady stream of work to architects and engineers.