1. Canton Tower Guangzhou TV Astronomical & Sightseeing Tower

2. The world's 'highest ferris wheel' is set
to open for business today,
1st September, 2011, on top of a 1,480 ft tower in China –
with passengers riding in see-through pods.
Built on the 450-meter- high Canton Tower, 
known as the Guangzhou TV Tower, 
the amazing wheel consists of 16 pods holding
a total of 96 fearless passengers.
Each capsule is just over three meters wide,
and built using a special macromolecule material
which allows a 360-degree crystal clear view.

6. Canton Tower, formerly Guangzhou TV Astronomical and Sightseeing Tower, is
an observation tower in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou, China.  It became
operational on 29 September 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games.  The tower briefly
held the title of tallest completed tower in the world, replacing the CN Tower,
before being surpassed by the Tokyo Sky Tree in 2011.  It is the tallest structure
in China, the seventh-tallest structure in the world, and the fourth-tallest
freestanding structure in the world.  It is named after "Canton", the traditional
European name of the city.
The idea of the tower's design is simple. The form, volume and structure is
generated by two ellipses, one at foundation level and the other at a horizontal
plane at 450 m.  These two ellipses are rotated relative to another.  The
tightening caused by the rotation between the two ellipses forms a "waist" and a
densification of material half way up the tower.  This means that the lattice
structure, which at the bottom of the tower is porous and spacious, becomes
denser at waist level.  The waist itself becomes tight, like a twisted rope;
transparency is reduced and views to the outside are limited.  Further up the
tower the lattice opens again, accentuated here by the tapering of the structural
column-tubes.

7. Structural engineer Prof. Dr
Structural engineer Prof. Dr. Joop Paul introduced near mass customisation to the
joint design, in combination with parametric design methods, and applied a
simple structural concept of three elements: columns, rings and braces, to this
more complex geometry.  The waist of the tower contains a 180 m open-air
skywalk where visitors can physically climb the tower.  There are outdoor
gardens set within the structure.
The interior of the tower is subdivided into programmatic zones with various
functions.  A deck at the base of the tower hides the tower's functional
workings.  All infrastructural connections -- metro and bus stations -- are
situated underground. This level also includes exhibition spaces, a food court, a
commercial space, a parking area for cars and coaches.  There are two types of
lifts, slow-speed panoramic and high-speed double-decker.
The zone from 80 to 170 m consists of a 4D cinema, a play-hall area, restaurants,
coffee shops and outdoor gardens with teahouses. An open-air staircase, the
Skywalk, starts at the height of 170 metres and spirals almost 200 metres higher,
all the way through the waist. The top zone of the tower begins above the
stairway, housing various technical functions as well as a two-storey rotating
restaurant, a damper and the upper observation levels. 
The rooftop has a outdoor public observatory 488 m above the ground, which
takes the form of a terraced elliptical space, roughly the size of a small city
square.  Opened in December 2011, it is currently the highest and largest outdoor
observation deck in the world.

27. Thank you for watching Edition 2012-03-15 by Herbert K. Lau