SHANGHAI has one. So do Harbin, Changsha and Nanchang. Soon, Bejing, Tianjin, Nanjing - you name it - will enter the fray.
One by one, Chinese cities are erecting ferris wheels, the 19th-century invention that not too long ago was thought to be passe.
Eight have been built or are under construction since China's first ferris wheel opened in Shanghai in 2002, inspired by the success of the London Eye. At least three others are being planned. All would surely inject tourism adrenalin into local economies, Chinese officials and investors say.
Critics beg to differ, what with the novelty value of the wheels fast diminishing as their number rises.
'Everyone is doing it, but where are we going to get so many tourists to sustain all of them?' asked Mr Shu Shengxiang, a columnist with Xiao Xiang Morning Post, a Hunan-based paper.
Mr Shu would not have said this six years ago, when the Shanghai Big Spin was unveiled amid much fanfare.
Standing at 108m, the Big Spin enjoys a distinction as grandiose as its name: It is China's very first ferris wheel, defined internationally as observation wheels at least 100m high.
The Big Spin, which can take 720 people, was built in Shanghai's Jinjiang amusement park at a cost of 24 million yuan (S$4.9 million). It has enjoyed modest success, with visitors standing in queues of about 20m long on public holidays to catch a ride.
Still, it is nothing compared to the London Eye. The 135m-high wheel attracted some eight million visitors in just two years after opening in 2000.
Several Chinese cities, hungry for the same tourist volume, lost no time in creating clones of the London Eye.
Harbin, famous for its ice sculptures, and Zhengzhou, a dusty industrial city in central China, opened their own ferris wheels in 2003, followed by one in the erstwhile communist base of Changsha a year later.
In 2006, Nanchang, a prosperous city on China's east coast, announced that it had built the world's highest ferris wheel - the 160m Star of Nanchang. This year, three more will go up in Tianjin, Wuxi and Nanjing.
Beijing, however, is set to wrest the top honour for itself.
Workers and cranes have been at work day and night since last November to put together a 208m behemoth in the city centre. When it opens next year, the Beijing Great Wheel will be able to carry 1,920 passengers at a go, giving them - barring pollution - a paronamic view of the Chinese capital.
But the critics are not impressed. The surest way to mass oblivion is mass production, they say.
'What impact can these ferris wheels have when there are so many of them?' said a commentary by China Review News.
The ferris wheel glut is not confined to China. Japan has at least six, Germany and Dubai are building their own, although the Singapore Flyer is currently sitting pretty at 165m.
But it is in China that the building frenzy is most fierce. Just this week, a Chinese think-tank proposed that the southern island province of Hainan build a ferris wheel to claim the No. 1 spot from Singapore.
In a telling sign of ferris wheel fatigue in China, criticisms came fast and furious as soon as the idea was publicised.
Mr Zheng Gang, a top adviser to the government of Haikou, Hainan's capital city, pointed to poor business for the Changsha ferris wheel as a lesson for Hainan.
'World No.1? How long can that last?' Mr Zheng told China News Service (CNS).
Mr Dai Guofu, chairman of Hainan's Nanwan Monkey Islet management committee, told CNS that rather than pursuing generic, run-of-the-mill frills, Hainan should exploit its natural edge as an idyllic tropical island, such as by developing eco-tourism.
'Understanding what tourists want is more important than giving them what we think they want,' he said.
seokhwai@sph.com.sg
The Beijing Great Wheel that will seat in Chaoyang Park upon completion
This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 9, 2008.
