MONICA CHIRAMEL: 2010

Dubai is home to 1.422 million people with over 292,000 new residents adding up to its demographics structure in 2006. Out of the total 1.422 million in population, 75.5 per cent are male and 24.5 per cent are female.

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A total of 212,867 vehicles were registered, including 170,951 light vehicles, 5,256 buses, 16,304 light trucks, 8,287 heavy trucks, 312 heavy mechanical vehicles and 3,498 motorcycles, according to statistics released by Dubai Municipality.

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A total of 2,222 buildings were completed at a cost of AED11.16 billion last year as against 2,252 buildings at the cost of AED7.87 billion in 2005.

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As many as 5,640 land deals worth AED65.114 billion were carried out during the year, up from 4,880 land deals worth AED32.62 billion were recorded in 2005.

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The number of mobile phones increased 20.6 per cent. There were more than 2.21 million mobile telephone lines by the end of the year compared to 1.83 million lines in 2005.

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The landlines and fax lines reached 547,375 compared to 520,249 in 2005. The public transport buses in Dubai carried 87.840 million passengers compared to 84.26 million in 2005.

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A record number of 12,385 babies were born in government hospitals, of which 6,292 were males and 6,039 females. Dubai recorded 2,663 marriages in addition to 908 divorces.

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A total of 28.789 million passengers used the Dubai International Airport compared with 24.782 million in 2005. A total of 35,380 vessels called at Dubai ports, an increase of two per cent over the previous year.

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Dubai has 220 schools during the academic year 2006-07. Out of this, 88 are government schools and 132 are in the private sector. During 2006, 11,536 new licenses were issued, including 8,585 were trade licenses, 1,998 were professional licenses, 194 industrial licenses.

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The total number of stocks traded on the Dubai Financial Market in 2006 was 39.644 billion, worth AED347.98 billion compared to 25.54 billion shares worth AED405.16 billion in 2005.

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Dubai imported goods worth AED219.871 billion during 2006, while the export figures stood at AED18.258 billion and the re-export figures were AED78.309 billion. The free zones imported goods worth AED122.763 billion and exported goods worth AED84.323 billion in 2006.

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Dubai hosted as many as 88 exhibitions and conferences attracting a total of 984,638 visitors and delegates. Dubai also hosted 23 conferences which were attended by 52,660 delegates.

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The electricity produced last year rose to 20,314 gigawatt hours and the number of consumer connections reached 339,900. Quantity of water production stands at 68,312 million gallons.

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Al Hakawati Zabeel Park, Dubai

Al Hakawati - The Storyteller Zabeel Park, Dubai

The thyssenkrupp elevator award was a competition which asked architects to develop an iconic tall emblem structure for zaabeel park in dubai. For their proposal visiondivision designed a statue based around al hakawati – a storyteller, whose profession that goes way back in ancient arabic times and still is performed in the arabic world today. the statue will be a home of stories! ; a children’s library in its base and various spaces for performance and reading inside of the statue.

In every part of the park, small speakers will be set up so people can gather around them and listen to the statue when he recites stories; perhaps great legends from one thousand and one night, historical anecdotes from the city itself and future speculations, all this performed with an animated body language.

The statue the walls in the base are stairs on the outside which leads to the platform where the storyteller begins to rise. windows punctuates various stairs for a bright indoor environment without any direct sunlight. the statue also has big rooms inside of it for reading,relaxing and other social activities. each big room has its own theme, be it a gold room, a crystal cavern, a green room or a room full of fish tanks, or the night views of dubai.

Technical aspects:

The statue can move its arms and head; this demands an articulate joint between the elevators and the floors on these critical points. the joints are similar in function to those seen in joint buses, and will guarantee an uninterrupted movement inside of the statue, even if he slightly tilts his head. The arms and head movement is controlled by computers and can mimic a prerecording of an actor for example. the rigid parts of the statue are made out of a steel frame structure with a cover of sheets of steel. the movable parts must be flexible, thus a material like rubber or silicon with a coating that mimic the glossiness of the steel is preferable.

Gold theme room in the eyeball of al hakawati (the storyteller)

Coolest Christmas Festival of China

These impressive ice sculptures are part of a display for the upcoming Harbin

International Ice and Snow Festival.The festival officially begins on January 5,

when 800,000 tourists are expected to visit the freezing city in northern China.

As well as the colourful life-sized ice buildings, which reflect traditional Chinese

architecture, there is also a 160m high Father Christmas sculpture, said by

organisers to be the world's largest.

Harbin, which fringes Siberia, plays host to the festival each year, but organisers have

revealed that the effects of global warming are taking a toll as the snow and ice now

melt more rapidly than in the past.

Unseasonably warm temperatures have made the job especially challenging, said Tang

Guangjun, one of the sculptors.'The weather swings between warm and cold, so it

becomes very wet and slippery on the ice. It is very dangerous for us,' he said.
The display is expected to boost local trade during the economic downturn.

It can stimulate the economy and consumption. When people feel happier, they will

want to spend more, so it will lift the economy of the city and even the country,'

said Li Qingsheng, a tourist from Beijing.Officials in Harbin remained

optimistic about the tourist outlook for the winter.

Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province on the edge of Siberia, is one of China's

coldest places. Winter temperatures can drop to below minus 35 degrees Celsius.

An estimated 800,000 tourists, 90 per cent of them Chinese, were expected to

visit the ice festival,said Jia Yan, director of the local tourism bureau.

The festival traditionally runs from mid-December to early February.

COOL AQUARIUM

Futuristic Movie Theater in China

The AMC Pacific Place Cinema opened on December 9th 2006 in Hong Kong, China. Refurbished by James Law Cybertecture International, Pacific Place Cinema is on the ground floor of the Pacific Place mall in the Queensway district on Hong Kong Island. The space use to be a two auditorium UA Pacific Place Cinema.

The newly designed space houses 6 theaters, featuring a total of 599 seats. Pacific Place is considered “Asia’s most technologically-advanced cinema”, boasting Hong Kong’s best three-way SRD-EX audio system, and incorporating a bunch of never-seen before solutions. For example, the ticketing box office is no longer enclosed in a conventional glass box, but is instead “more akin to modern sculpture or the lobby of a chic boutique hotel, protruding outwards to skilfully incorporate the technology used to issue tickets.” Tickets range from $50HK ($6.42 American) to$75HK ($9.64 American). You can choose your exact seat online when purchasing your ticket.