In 2016, China Built A Massive Telescope

Everything is being built big in China. After an Olympic stadium, commercial malls and massive office buildings, China has put the final piece of what is set to be the world's largest radio telescope in place.

State media reported that a "Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope", or FAST, is the size of 30 football fields. The large structure has been hewn out of a mountain in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

"The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life," Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built the telescope, said last 3 July 2016. A number of trials will follow the hoisting of the final piece.

The US$ 180 M radio telescope would be a global leader for the next one to two decades, Xiaonian was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

The telescope, which took about five years to build, is expected to begin operations in September 2016.

China's space program has been a priority, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.

Beijing's ambitions include putting a man on the Moon by 2036 and building a space station - work on which has already begun.

China insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but the US defense department has highlighted Beijing's increasing space capabilities, saying it is pursuing activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.