The great wheel of China

Nov 19th 2008
From The World in 2009 print edition
By Nicola Bartlett

Mine’s bigger than yours

Originally designed to last for a year, the London Eye, like that other “temporary” attraction, the Eiffel Tower, is not going anywhere. Instead, with over 3.5m visitors a year London’s Ferris wheel has paved the way for other cities hoping to cash in on the effect. In 2009 Chicago, the original home of the Ferris, will upgrade its Navy Pier wheel to double its original size, to over 91 metres (300ft), and Berlin’s wheel, around 50 metres higher than its 135-metre London rival, will be the tallest in Europe at almost 185 metres.

But China will set the world record with its 208-metre Beijing wheel. It will take over from Singapore’s 165-metre wheel. Beijing’s Great Observation Wheel, as it is formally known, is a government-sponsored project set in Chaoyang park. With 48 air-conditioned capsules, each weighing 18 tonnes and containing 40 people, its maximum capacity of 1,920 people per rotation will dwarf the London Eye’s 800.

Dubai, if its spending spree lasts, launches its 185-metre wheel as part of the Dubailand theme park. But things won’t stop there. World Tourist Attractions, the company behind wheels in York, Manchester and Brisbane, will open its first Indian wheel in the southern city of Bangalore in April, and in 2010 the Great Wheel Corporation (responsible for the ones in Singapore, Berlin and Beijing) plans to open the Orlando wheel in Florida, standing at 122 metres and with panoramic views stretching 25 miles (40km).

With violence seemingly on the wane, Baghdad’s authorities are beginning the tough sell of tourism in the Iraqi capital, having recently launched a design competition for a Baghdad wheel. Although details of the wheel, even its location, are sketchy, a municipal spokesman has confirmed that it will reach 198 metres into the sky and carry some 30 capsules. It may be just over a century since G.W. Ferris designed his attraction, but it seems no modern city skyline can be complete without a wheel—and the bigger the better.

Economist