Abstract: The Bank of China tower (中銀大廈) has become an iconic skyscraper of Hong Kong since its completion and occupancy in 1990 in Hong Kong Island’s commercial district of Central. You can find it in not only those video games featuring the Victoria Harbor by which it is standing, but also some others which pick just one or two icons to represent Hong Kong. In this article, we first go through its appearance in those video games. Then we look into what make the tower that popular with the game developers and many others.
Since its completion and occupancy in 1990 in Hong Kong Island’s commercial district of Central, the Bank of China tower has become an iconic skyscraper of Hong Kong. As the name suggests, the tower is used by the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited as its headquarters.
The building is popular among the game developers. You can find it in not only games featuring the Victoria Harbor by which it is standing, but also some others which pick just one or two icons to represent Hong Kong.
In fact, the tower is the only Hong Kong landmark chosen to be included in the renowned city-building game SimCity.
Features
To make the tower stand out from others, the number one criterion is definitely height. Having 70 floors and reaching 367.4m, the tower was once the tallest building in Hong Kong and Asia from 1989 to 1992 (as at 2013, it is the 4th). It is also the first building outside US to break the 305m/1000 ft mark.
Another way to make it distinctive is its appearance. The building consists of four varying-height triangular prisms with sloping roof from a pyramid. The prisms are of different heights and resemble growing bamboo shoots and symbolize livelihood and prosperity. The prisms have extensive diagonal frameworks running throughout their surface, transferring the weight of the structure onto the four structure-supporting columns. Internally, such a construct allows less steel to be used use of steel to withstand strong winds and typhoons. Covered with glass curtain walls on all its sides, the tower has its surface reflecting the sun’s rays like a glittering crystal. Internally, this helps more natural light to get into the building especially the sloping roofs at the top.
The design is from the Chinese-American architect Ioeh Ming Pei (貝聿銘), who also designed the glass-and-steel pyramid for the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Pei has won a wide variety of architecture prizes and awards, most notably in 1983 the Pritzker Prize which is sometimes called the Nobel Prize of architecture.
The Tower has won many construction awards locally and globally, such as 2002 “Excellent” Award of Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method, and 1989 Award for Engineering Excellence by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).
Feng Shui
While its distinctive look makes it one significant Hong Kong’s landmarks today, it was criticized by some people for its poor Feng Shui design. Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophy aiming at harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. Failure to following the design guidelines set by Feng Shui is believed to lead to bad luck. Some people think that the tall and thin tower with sharped points looks like a knife or blade, breaking the harmony of the environment and hence bringing bad luck to occupants of buildings nearby.
An alleged victim is the bank HSBC. The bank reported a poor performance shortly after the completion of the Bank of China Tower. Some people thought it was due to the blade of the tower facing the HSBC Headquarters Building nearby. The two fort decoration installed later on was thought to be HSBC’s effort to counteract the effect of the blade.
Another alleged victim is the Government House which host former colonial governors and current head of the city. Having an edge pointing right at the mansion, the tower constructed since 1985 was blamed for leading the death of the governor Sir Edward Youde (尤德) in 1986. Eventually, willow trees featuring curved branches were planted on the direction facing the tower to counter the sharpness of the “blade”. The fish ponds built after Chief Executive Donald Tsang took office was rumored to serve the same purpose.
I have yet found any video game making use of this aspect of the Tower. Maybe it is something that game developers could think about?
References
- http://www.discoverhongkong.com/tc/see-do/culture-heritage/modern-architecture/bank-of-china-tower.jsp
- http://www.bochk.com/en/aboutus/corpprofile/boctower.html
- http://www.jmhdezhdez.com/2013/07/bank-of-china-tower-hong-kong-drawings.html
- https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E9%8A%80%E5%A4%A7%E5%BB%88_%28%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%29
- http://web.archive.org/web/20071124133157/http://www.nytimes.com/specials/hongkong/archive/970127feng-shui.html
- http://www.ettoday.net/news/20120229/28060.htm
- 蘇家興. 《時事玄機》. 萬里機構. p.106–109. 2011.
