The Vanke Center, a 458.2-meter-tall skyscraper which is also the tallest building under construction in South China’s Chongqing Municipality, had its roof sealed on Saturday, marking it one of the world’s top 20 ultrahigh buildings.

The total length of the building’s butt welds is over 30,000 meters, which is higher than three Mount Qomolangmas, also known as Mount Everest.  Line nine of the Chongqing subway will run through the Vanke Center, which will become the second line to go through a building after the popular Liziba station, Chinanews.com reported on Saturday.

The building located in Yuzhong district, the signature building of the Chongqing International Business District. The height of Vanke Center will exceed internationally renowned supertall buildings such as Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, Chinanews.com reported on Saturday. 

The total floor area of Vanke Center exceeds 500,000 square meters, including 230,000 square meters of offices, 100,000 square meters of themed shopping centers and city skyline hotels. The themed shopping center will open for business on December 29, 2022, with many brands such as Galeries Lafayette to open their first stores in Chongqing, Huang Maojun, a local official said. 

Yuzhong district, as the city’s financial and business center, has signed a number of major investment projects for the Chongqing International Business District on Saturday amid the successful capping of the Vanke Center, aiming to continuously improve the local business environment and attract more foreign investors, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“The number of foreign-invested market entities in the district now accounts for one-sixth of the city’s entire foreign investors,” a local official told Xinhua. 

Chongqing has become an indispensable channel for connecting the economic and trade of western China with the world especially after the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). 

The metropolis has been further contributing to the construction of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) following the launch the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese region and Singapore, and the successful operation of the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway. 

Vanke has signed multiple cooperation agreements with responsible authorities in Chongqing to build the logistics headquarter base for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. The Vanke Center has also been classified as one of the key BRI projects in Chongqing in January 2021. 

A new China-Myanmar railway route from Chongqing to Mandalay started operation in May, which will save 20 days of delivery time and strengthen Chongqing’s connectivity with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and RCEP members amid China and ASEAN members are bolstering logistics connectivity after the launch of China-Laos railway. 

Global Times