Ever seen a building ‘walk’? Shanghai residents were in for a treat. Watch

Authorities used a unique technology to transport a 3,800-tonne building in Shanghai in one piece. The technology is dubbed the ‘walking machine’.

Residents of China's financial capital, Shanghai, were in for an unusual experience recently. People passing through the streets of the financial hub in eastern part of the country witnessed a century-old building ‘walking’, albeit not literally.

Building in Shanghai being moved using a ‘walking machine’. (Twitter via CGTN)

The 3,800-tonne building was lifted off the ground in its entirety and relocated with the help of a technology, dubbed the ‘walking machine’. The building was moved back to its original position on July 8, as part of a renovation project.

It has been one of the largest and heaviest structures transported in the city, that too, in one piece. “3,800-ton century-old building slowly "walking" in Shanghai,” tweeted Zhang Meifan, the Consul General of China in Belfast.

However, this is not the first time Shanghai has witnessed this sort of magic.

In 2020, Shanghai had moved another building using the same ‘walking' technology when an 85-year-old five-storey primary school building in the city's eastern Huangpu district was shifted.

The supports act like robotic legs. They're split into two groups which alternately rise up and down, imitating the human stride. Attached sensors help control how the building moves forward, Lan Wuji, chief technical supervisor of the project had told CNN.

"It's like giving the building crutches so it can stand up and then walk," he had said.

The move is part of Shanghai's efforts to preserve historical structures. China's rapid modernization with gleaming skyscrapers, especially in cities like Shanghai, has caused huge disappearance of old architectural structures.