China is making strides toward constructing the world's tallest structure.

Despite the worldwide building community's skepticism, a Chinese company held a ground-breaking ceremony this week to proclaim the start of work on the world's next tallest structure.

China Broad Group, based in Changsha, claims it will complete the 838-meter Sky City tower in nine months utilizing pre-fabrication technology. The structure would be 10 meters taller than the existing world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which took five years and $1.5 billion to construct.in qatar

According to local Chinese media, the project has yet to receive formal government permission, but China Broad looks to be determined to move forward.

According to the firm, Sky City will have offices, housing, shops, schools, a hospital, and a "vertical garden adequate to feed 30,000 residents."

"People don't want to have to take trains or drive to work," Zhang Yue, the Broad Group's chairman, recently stated. "Sky City will remove 2,000 cars from the road simply because most of what inhabitants require can be found exactly where they live."

The $855 million project's groundbreaking event did little to quell concerns, even among Chinese officials.

"How about the wind?" Or what about earthquakes? Or a blaze?" Tsinghua University architecture professor Yin Zhi told the South China Morning Post. He called the concept of erecting an 838-meter prefabricated tower "crazy."

The 202-story structure, according to Broad Group, has been rigorously tested in wind tunnels and can withstand a magnitude-9 earthquake.

Beyond the technical challenges, however, Sky City has aroused social and cultural concerns in Chinese society.

In People's Daily Online, Wang Qi said, "The fixation with being number one is actually a reflection of a lack of confidence." "For example, no matter how strong their economies are, Europe and the United States do not go crazy for 'the tallest skyscraper.'" The reason for this is that they already have the respect and admiration of tiny countries, so they don't need to showcase their strength by 'the tallest building' and 'the greatest project.'"

However, there are many who support the project. Prefab approaches have the potential to make towering buildings more efficient and cost-effective.

"Unlike many of China's other under-construction super-tall skyscrapers, Sky City is a vanity project that, if successful, could transform high-rise construction into a more sustainable enterprise that uses fewer construction materials to achieve super-tall results," Adam Minter wrote for Bloomberg's "World View" blog.

The Broad Group's intentions for the project were first publicized more than a year ago, eliciting snickers from the established tall building sector. When many announced start dates at the end of 2012 went unfulfilled, suspicion grew.

Unconfirmed rumours have surfaced in recent months that Broad Group was pushing forward, but the ground-breaking event was the first concrete evidence that the company was ready to begin building.

The skyscraper is being used as a marketing tool for Broad Group's pre-fabrication technology, which it aims to franchise around the world. Broad Group is well known in China for selling air conditioning equipment. Two years ago, the business become a YouTube hit when it built a 30-story tower in 15 days. More than 5.6 million people have seen the film (see below).

Sky City will not be the world's highest for long if it is built. The construction of Jeddah's Kingdom Tower, which will stand more over a kilometer tall, has begun.