Skyscrapers, sprawling resorts, malls and residential complexes are mushrooming across the desert sands of Dubai, a Gulf emirate in the throes of an apparently endless construction frenzy.
Much of the effort is positively futuristic in both design and concept, though it is often difficult to imagine the scope of the finished product.
Dubai, which is forging ahead with a multi-billion-dollar tourism drive to meet depleting oil resources, is soon to boast the world's tallest habitable tower, the Burj Dubai, and an underwater hotel. Grandiose projects like the 185 million meters2 "Dubailand" -- seen as the emirate's answer to Disneyland -- the Middle East's largest water park and its first indoor ski resort are all in the making.
Trucks creep along the roads day and night like working ants.
A plethora of cranes, concrete structures and thousands of laborers -- most of them workers from South Asian countries who often live in appalling -- conditions -- dot the landscape, giving rise to what is hoped will be the region's leisure and financial hub.
Crazy' construction
Well over 5,000 buildings were under construction at the beginning of last month, adding thousands of apartments, shops, offices and hotel rooms to the burgeoning real estate market.
"It's obviously crazy. Over the last year or so there are so many projects, it's astonishing," said David Semple, area sales manager for Potain, a French company that manufactures tower cranes.
"They're not small projects," he told AFP. "It's truly exceptional and there's been a surge in our sales this year."
While the company was two years ago selling less than 10 cranes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it is selling 45 this year, the majority for use in Dubai, which in the future could hold almost every conceivable purpose-built city.
The latest such development to be announced is a US$10 billion "Chess City," comprising 32 buildings in the design of a traditional black and white chess board.
It is expected to become the headquarters of the International Chess Association and boast three seven-star hotels.
Map of the world
Two colossal human-made palm tree-shaped islands are rapidly growing off the coast, while a project of 300 islands in the shape of a world map has started to surface in Dubai's waters, adding to its already outrageous landmarks.
And tourists are flocking in. Even as peak summer temperatures hit near 50?C in July and last month, hotels recorded more than 85 percent occupancy.
"We really like it here. It's a bit hot, but very nice, pleasant people," said Daryl, a British tourist.
Instability in the region is "always at the back of my mind ... but if they were going to do something, they would have done it by now," he said, explaining that he chose Dubai for its "beaches, hotels and safety."
Resilient industry
The emirate's tourism industry has weathered the reverberations of last year's US-led war on Gulf neighbor Iraq, the continued unrest there and even the deadly terror attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Hotels generated billions of US dollars in revenues in the first half of this year, throughout which Dubai, part of the seven-member UAE federation, expects to attract more than five million visitors. It expects 15 million by 2010.
The tourism sector's contribution to Dubai's GDP exceeds 17 percent.
The non-oil sector contributes 93 percent of GDP.
Property meanwhile is moving quickly and expatriates are increasingly buying into what they anticipate will be a lucrative investment.
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