Dubai

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KCLover
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Dubai

Post by KCLover »

Dubai in 1990 prior to the craziness

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The same street in 2003

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Last year

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Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.

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TheDubaiWaterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world.

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All of this was built in the last 5 years, including that island that looks like a palm tree.

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The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands.  They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space.  Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all.

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Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people.  It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

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The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world.  Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

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The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

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Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built inGermanyand then assembled inDubai, it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.

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The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Yaipei 101.

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This is what downtownDubaiwill look like around 2008-2009. More than 140 stories of the Burj Dubai have already been completed. It is already the worlds tallest m an made structure and it is still not scheduled to be completed for at least another year.

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The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of theDubaiWaterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the worldfrom the Burj Dubai.

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Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building. This is a city on crack.

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The Burj al Alam, or TheWorldTower. Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel. It is expected to be finished by 2009. At 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than theTaipei 101.

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The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will be the centerpiece of one of the palm islands, The Palm Jumeirah.

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Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in theUnited stateswith 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

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Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects.

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DubaiSportsCity. A huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

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Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 to urist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

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TheDubaiMarinais an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world. The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010. The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores. It will be completed in 2008.

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SkiDubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

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More facts:

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower, which will be the largest residential building in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the Dubai Marina.

The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way.

The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world.

The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume.

There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.
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Re: Dubai

Post by Tosspot »

I hope it works out for them. Let me know as soon as they're as cool as Hong Kong.  :)
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until further notice i will routinely point out spelling errors committed by any here whom i frequently do battle wit
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Re: Dubai

Post by alpha_glamourina »

:shock:  You're right.  This is a city on crack. 

I've seen a lot of these structures before (in pics), but never all at once until now.  Seeing it this way drives home the point of how impressive this city really is, so yes, thanks for the stunning mini-tour of Dubai.  Wow.
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Re: Dubai

Post by kcmetro »

It's funny you posted this. I was just looking at the Burj Dubai website for updated pics, and then came over here and found this thread.

Dubai is certainly insane. I'd like to see this place in 20 years.

Here's a good video describing The World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eUcRjo9 ... re=related
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Re: Dubai

Post by eliphar17 »

That article was posted already in Outside KC: http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php?topic=13987.0
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Re: Dubai

Post by KCMax »

Man, I wish I had a lot of oil.
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Re: Dubai

Post by FangKC »

I wonder, if under the doom and gloom worst case scenario, if the man-made islands will disappear under water if global warming raises sea levels.
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Re: Dubai

Post by kclofter »

Proof that light rail will bring economic stimulus.  :lol:
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Re: Dubai

Post by Chazarelli »

I planned on posting some pictures and communicating a short update each week for those of you in Kansas City who are interested in Dubai can come and read.  It is an amzaing place, I have loved every minute of my time here.
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Re: Dubai

Post by kcmetro »

Chazarelli wrote: I planned on posting some pictures and communicating a short update each week for those of you in Kansas City who are interested in Dubai can come and read.  It is an amzaing place, I have loved every minute of my time here.
Is it as uptight as they say? I've heard people get thrown in jail for practically anything. If that's the case, I'm not sure I want to step foot in that country.
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Re: Dubai

Post by Chazarelli »

lol, you will hear a lot of off the wall, bogus things about Dubai, most of them have little, or no truth.  Obivously there are different laws here, but you do not get thrown in jail in the same sense as you do in the states.  For most offenses (other than minor traffic violations), you are taken to the police station, and that is where the situation is resolved, instead of on the street with the officer.  Other than being an inconvience (sp), it is a very efficent way to do things in my opinion, and seems to work very well.
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Re: Dubai

Post by im2kull »

I forgot about all those projects going on, its crazy.
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Re: Dubai

Post by FangKC »

I wonder how long it will be before Dubai turns into another Beirut?
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Re: Dubai

Post by Highlander »

FangKC wrote: I wonder how long it will be before Dubai turns into another Beirut?
Why would it?  Beirut has a mixture of religions and ethnicities that are endemic to the area; Christian Arabs, Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, Druze and some Syrians not to mention the different Christian sects.  These are all segregated into small communities and each is vying for power.  All of this is played out with a belligerent neighbor (Syria) and a quasi-war between the Shiites and Israelis that further destabilizes the country.   

Dubai has a small and homogeneous population that, although outnumbered by the guest population, can simply ask the "guests" to leave at any point they want.  I see very few similarities with Beirut other than the fact that it is a generally Arabic population.     
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Re: Dubai

Post by FangKC »

I was referring more about the similarities of Beirut and Dubai being big modern Arab cities that attract a lot of western tourists as part of their economies, and thus become cosmopolitan cities.

While Dubai may be more homogenous--and peaceful now, it sits in the epicenter of the Middle East. The fast growth, wealth, appearance of capitalism, and mixing of cultures makes it a target for terrorism. It will probably eventually catch the attention of Al-Qaida as a place to act upon their Islamo-fascist plots against Western sympathizers.  Dubai is marketing real estate to rich westerners and celebrities, whom if they choose to spend time there, might become targets for kidnapping, terrorism, and murder.

All of those big towers are sitting ducks in a region full of hostilities, ill-will, and unpredictable players.  Dubai is the perfect place for terrorists to re-enact flying planes into large buildings.  The surrounding lands are controlled by Arab nations with plenty of sympathetic followers of Osama bin Laden and various other angry factions of Islam. It would be easy to fly a plane leaving from any number of surrounding cities (Damascus, Riyadh, Amman, Cairo, Karachi, Tehran, or Beirut) or countries (Yemen, Oman, Sudan) into Dubai long before anyone would have a chance to react.

Dubai is a target because of what it represents--an Arab city appearing to be Western.
Last edited by FangKC on Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dubai

Post by beautyfromashes »

Dubai just reminds me of Michael Jackson at the Neverland Ranch.  It's ferris wheels and Bobo the monkey habitats for the oil-flush rich.
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Re: Dubai

Post by phxcat »

Suicide terrorism actually has much more to do with nationalism than religion, and the biggest factor is a sense of foreign occupation, rather than westernization.  Of course, Al Qaida could decide to make an attack to make a statement, but the likelyhood is much less than it would seem.
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Re: Dubai

Post by FangKC »

All those tall buildings are just too attractive for terrorists to ignore. Especially if one of them is occupied by a Western conglomerate.
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Re: Dubai

Post by Chazarelli »

You bring up very good points, and it is not hard to know where the westerners are, they are actually the ones occupying almost all of the tall buildings...only 20% of the population are native to the UAE as of last year.  I feel much safer here than anywhere I have ever been, whether that is from terrorists or any other crime (there is virtually zero here).

I will try to post some pictures this weekend of the marina and other areas.
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Re: Dubai

Post by beautyfromashes »

Chazarelli wrote: only 20% of the population are native to the UAE as of last year.
That's going to be there problem.  There is no historical tie for the population.  Once the fad has worn out the westerners will move on to the next 'it' place.  Take yourself, for example.  If there was no construction based job there you would likely not be there, right?  Raise a family in UAE?  It's not sustainable.
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