Central Plaza

Central Plaza is a 78-storey skyscraper at 18 Harbour Road in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island. It is 374 metres tall and was completed in August 1992. Today it is the third tallest tower in Hong Kong.

From 1992 to 1996 it was the tallest building in all of Asia, until Shun Hing Square in nearby Shenzhen was built. It was also the world's tallest reinforced-concrete building until 1996. The tower has a triangular floor plan with cut corners, and its walls are gold and silver reflective glass. On the roof, a 102-metre mast rises above a glass pyramid, and a four-bar neon clock on top shows the time in colours.

How does the clock work?

At the top of the tower there is a clock made of four neon bars. It tells the time by changing colour for each 15-minute period, and it blinks when the quarter hour changes. The mast above it holds an anemometer, an instrument that measures wind speed, about 378 metres above sea level. It is one of the few skyscrapers that tells the time with colour instead of numbers.

What is inside?

Offices fill the floors from the first up to the 75th, and the 76th to 78th floors are a public viewing area. Central Plaza is also home to the Sky City Church, the world's highest church inside a skyscraper. The land was reclaimed from Victoria Harbour in the 1970s, and was sold at auction in 1989 for a record HK$3.35 billion.

On the globe

The model shows a triangular gold-and-silver glass tower with a glass pyramid and a tall mast. Look for the neon bars at the top.