Acting like a careless, arrogant, paunchy government official with jet-black hair and a terrible taste in navy and grey clothes, the Guangdong Electric company has recently been called out for its ostentatious display of wealth — not by a expensive watch, but instead by an expensive tower that costs 2.1 billion yuan and touted to house state-of-the-art exercise rooms.

Christened the “Manufacturing Dispatch Center”, the building offers a total of 160,000 square meters and boasts fitness rooms, entertainment centers, large halls, and fancy dining establishments, Sohu reports.

The controversy surrounding the building comes from the order given six months ago by the central government to forbid the construction of luxurious buildings for Chinese ministries and state industries. The building erected by the Guangdong Electric Company, on the other hand, had just opened in February, and was built recently and quickly.

But a justification may be raised that just as a wrist can’t tell the time without a watch, neither can a successful state industry conduct business without a housing its employees to productively sell its store of electricity. But seeing how the internet is strangely absent of pictures of this building to allow readers to judge for themselves, here are the top voted commentators on Sohu to provide their thoughts for us:

宁静n致远:
Let the people in that tower pay for it out of their own wallet! See who will be willing to raise such a building after that!

哈哈大笑过客:
Which province’s electric company building isn’t luxurious, or grand, or extravagant!!!
feixing920:
Not strange at all. In 2000, my electric bill cost me 300 yuan out of my wages. Now, it is 6000 yuan.
绝对大傻子:
This is the right that a monopoly has.
我是清风在搜狐:
After rates for electricity are raised, an office building can be raised as well.

It seems like when the Guangdong Electric company were warned to “Watch  themselves,”  they took it to mean as an synonym for luxury goods and not as a verb.

Photo: nipic