Unfinished skyscraper to be auctioned on Taobao

TAIYUAN -- Following the sale of three Boeing 747 freighters on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce platform, a Chinese court is offering up another unusual item for judicial auction -- this time, a 156-meter-tall skyscraper.

Originally designed to be a hotel, the 39-floor unfinished building, along with the land it sits on, will be publicly auctioned between Jan 2-3, according to the announcement by the Shanxi Provincial Higher People's Court.

Located in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, the unfinished building has a floor space of more than 76,000 square meters. The auction's starting price will be 550 million yuan (around $84 million), it said.

Shanxi Jinhao International Hotel Limited Company invested in and built the hotel, and construction started in 2006. In 2010, major construction work was completed and the hotel was expected to open to the public in 2011.

But due to funding shortfalls on the part of the developer, the project was suspended, the court said.

In order to more effectively and transparently handle assets seized in lawsuits, almost all Chinese courts have registered on Taobao's judicial sales platform since the service was launched in 2012.

Two Boeing 747 freighters were successfully auctioned in November for a total of 320 million yuan, while the third plane sold for 146 million yuan in December.