Inside world’s tallest abandoned skyscraper dubbed ‘The Walking Stick’ ditched in £8bn doomed project
AN AMBITIOUS building that was meant to break major records has now become the world’s tallest “ghost scraper”.
Dubbed “The Walking Stick” because of the structural shape, Goldin Finance 117 would have been the fifth-tallest building in the world, if finished.
But all it could become was a hollow tube of steel and concrete that had been left deserted for years in China.
Eerie pictures now show the tall, abandoned building sitting empty after construction was stopped in 2015.
Goldin Finance 117 was part of an ambitious project worth a whopping £8billion.
Construction began in 2008, when cities across the country were vying for their place on the world stage.
The abandoned tower, sitting idle near China’s Tianjin business district, was topped at the height of 1,957 ft – with a total of 128 floors planned to go for housing, hotels, and commercial space.
It was supposed to be the centrepiece of billionaire Pat Sutong’s “Goldin Metropolitan” scheme – a high-end residential and central business district near downtown Tianjin.
The ambitious skyscraper was aimed at the super-rich – with multiple residential and commercial towers, French and Italian-style manors, a wine museum, extensive gardens, and even a polo club, on offer.
Unlike most other buildings of the same kind, it was designed to be habitable up to its highest point.
The tower would have been second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
Taking things even further, Goldin Finance 117 reportedly had plans to be topped with a three-storey diamond-shaped atrium.
It would have housed the world’s highest observation deck, swimming pool, restaurant and sky bar.
But these were records China never meant to hold, it seems.
The entire skyscraper remains completely uninhabited to this day.
But where did things go wrong?
Firstly, Goldin Group, the developing company of the skyscraper, was a new player in the Chinese real estate industry back in 2008.
The company, along with all its projects, never got the backing of the then-Chinese government – meaning it had to fully finance the development cost of the entire tower.
While the company kickstarted the risky venture, development of the project was first suspended in 2010 due to the fallout of the Great recession.
Eventually, construction resumed again in 2011, having survived some minor hiccups.
However, following the burst of the Chinese stock market bubble, Goldin Group lacked the resources to continue the project any further.
And in 2015, the project was dropped indefinitely – just shortly after a ceremony to celebrate the topping of the skyscraper.
After a series of unfortunate events that led to the failure of what could be China’s mark of pride, it was put up for sale – in hopes of resurrection by other real estate giants.
However, it did not attract much attention and no attempts were made to continue construction.