Burj Dubai opens on Jan 4, 2010

Burj Dubai 03, originally uploaded by niman_lakra.

Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower; Burj in Arabic means tower), built by the company Emaar, will be inaugurated on January 4, 2010 by the UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, according to reports. Burj Dubai is now the world's tallest building. The Burj Dubai, intending to host the world's highest nightclub, is near the world's tallest fountain, called the Dubai Fountain.

Incidentally, January 4, 2010 marks the fourth anniversary of the accession day of Sheikh Mohammed as the Ruler of Dubai.

Though Dubai was through a financial crisis, it is all set to offer an entirely new experience of spending the rest of your days thousands of feet up in the air, as Burj Dubai is not only the world's tallest building but the world's tallest building by some 1,000 feet. At 2,683 feet (818 meters) height, it has the combined height of the current highest skyscraper Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the Eiffel Tower.

8 million cubic feet of concrete, 31,000 tons of steel, 167,000 square feet of stainless steel cladding, and 1.1 million square feet of double glazing have been mixed together to create a spire visible from 60 miles away across the desert or the sea. It is taller than the new 1,776 feet 1 World Trade Center or the "Freedom Tower", being built on Ground Zero in New York. Emaar's rival in Dubai, Nakheel, a subsidiary of Dubai World and the builder of the Palm Islands, proposed a one-kilometer tall tower in 2008 but it seems it is an abandoned idea for now while Dubai is grappling with its multi-billion dollar debts. As the global debt-fuelled property boom came to an end, Dubai's vision has turned to nightmare and with Dubai's fall from grace after admitting a multi-billion-dollar hole in its finances, the Burj took on a deeper symbolism.

On November 26, 2009, the government owned company Dubai World proposed to delay repayment of its debt, which is the largest government default since the Argentine debt restructuring in 2001. Then Dubai World wanted to delay for six months payment on US$26 billion of debt. The extent of the debt rattled many markets from Tokyo to New York causing many indices to drop including oil prices.

Dubai World had debts of US$59 billion, about 75 per cent of the emirate's US$80 billion debt. On November 28 Abu Dhabi, one of the emirates and the capital of the United Arab Emirates, announced that it would "pick and choose" how to assist Dubai World. But Dubai World said it was seeking to renegotiate only the US$26 billion in obligations held by the troubled real estate developer subsidiary, Nakheel. On December 14, 2009 the Dubai government received US$10 billion in aid from Abu Dhabi for assisting Dubai World.