The New Century Global Center just took the title of world’s largest building by a long shot, and it only took a year to build.

Construction on New Century began in spring of 2012 and it officially opened on July 1. The 18-story, 18.3 million-square-foot structure sits atop a new subway station in Chengdu, a Sichuan city of more than 14 million people.

It’s hard to conceptualize just how massive the structure is, but consider this: there’s enough room inside to fit three Pentagons, or 20 Sydney Opera Houses! It’s nearly 500,000 square feet larger than the next largest building in the world, Dubai’s International Airport Terminal 3.

Once inside, visitors will find a 14-screen IMAX theater, shops, restaurants, offices, hotels, a Mediterranean village reconstruction, and a huge artificial beach complete with sea breezes and realistic sunsets, thanks to a giant LED screen on one side.

169888

185077

185078

185079

185080

185081

185082

185083

185084

185085

185086

185087

Source: gizmodo.com