| Im in Kuala Lumpur for three days on business and so time to squeeze in the local landmarks. The first stop on any sightseeing expedition here has to be the dramatic Petronas Twin Towers, one of the most famous skyscrapers in the world and very handily less than a ten minute walk from the guest house where I am staying for a couple of nights. Its acres of steel shine in the daytime sunlight and are floodlit spectacularly at night meaning that you can see the towers from almost anywhere in the city; they are the focal point that the city's hub revolves around. To get to them a map is barely necessary, you just point in their direction and they guide you. When it opened in 1998 the Petronas Twin Towers, with 88 floors, was the tallest building in the world, a few metres higher than the famous Empire State Building. The skyscraper certainly did its job: it put the city on the global map and turned state petroleum company, Petronas, into a household name. Six years later Tapei 101 took over its mantle as it was just over 50 metres higher, and since then the Sears/Willis Tower in Chicago arrived on the skyscraper scene it is almost equally as tall before the 160 floor Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which has just officially opened, shattered the established order with an unmatchable height of 828 metres. However for sheer visual appeal and global recognition, the Petronas Twin Towers, already immortalized in a Hollywood movie, is arguably still the most famous skyscraper in the world ... |
