The record for tallest building in Chengdu will jump from around 200 meters to a staggering 468 meters within the next five years, if all goes according to developer Green Land's plans.

In the latest move in developers' ambitions to build Chengdu's tallest building, ground was officially broken last month to lay the foundations for the Greenland Tower, which will stand at a reported 418 meters tall upon its completion in approximately five years.

The Mandarin Hotel announced a few months ago that it would build a Chengdu location of its well-known luxury hotel chain, and that building would stand at 333 meters, taller than any existing buildings in Chengdu. But it seems that claim has already been outdone by Green Land.

The prism-shaped tower will be built in the up-and-coming Chengdu East Village, and the surrounding area is being referred to as a city within a city. It will be the tallest tower in both Chengdu and Sichuan, the fourth tallest in China, and the seventh tallest in the world.

Shanghai-based Green Land has built a number of the world's tallest buildings.

Chengdu's tallest building in 1994 was the Sichuan Zhongyin Mansion at Luomashi, which stood at 160 meters.

In 2009, construction work on the 206-meter-tall Minyoun Tower began. At the time, that was billed as the city's tallest building.

In 2010, the 190-meter-tall Xinian Square opened, followed by the 200.9-meter-tall Huabao Mansion earlier this year. Other notably tall buildings in Chengdu include the Renhengzhidi Square at 180 meters, the Space Science and Technology Building at 176 meters, and the Huisheng Administrating Complex at 170 meters.

Not all developers have height ambitions, though: Some want their buildings to expand outward rather than skyward. One such example is the still-under-construction Century City New Exhibition Center, which is billed as the world's largest standalone complex.

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