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Take a drone tour of company's USS Enterprise-like headquarters

A Chinese gaming company's headquarters were made to look like a Federation starship from "Star Trek," as this drone footage shows.

Michael Franco
Freelancer Michael Franco writes about the serious and silly sides of science and technology for CNET and other pixel and paper pubs. He's kept his fingers on the keyboard while owning a B&B in Amish country, managing an eco-resort in the Caribbean, sweating in Singapore, and rehydrating (with beer, of course) in Prague. E-mail Michael.
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Michael Franco
2 min read

enterprise-map.jpg
This Google Maps image shows the Enterprise-like building in China. Google Maps

There are many ways Trekkies express their love for all things "Star Trek." They build replicas of Captain Kirk's chair. They tell you how to make pretty impressive Spock ears at home. They even design entire apartments to look like the inside of a Starfleet ship.

But when you're a Trekkie and the CEO of a multimillion dollar software company, you can take things to the next level. According to Mashable, that's exactly what Liu Dejian did by designing the headquarters of the company he runs -- NetDragon Websoft -- to look just like the USS Enterprise.

Not only did Liu model the building after the Enterprise, but according to Mashable he also got licensing rights to do so from CBS, the network that owns the rights to "Star Trek." (Disclosure: CBS is CNET's parent company.)

The building cost $160 million total (about £102 million, AU$203 million) and was completed in 2014. Drone footage from December shows the building from the air (embedded below) and is currently making the rounds. The video was posted by a YouTube user who goes by "hacktron," and has no other videos or information under the account.

Mashable also reports that the building contains other cool touches, like a " replica display of a T. rex dinosaur named Stan discovered in South Dakota in 1987, 30-foot metal slides that provide instant access to the ground floor from the third floor and automatic sliding gates between each working area." The source cited is "a tipster." NetDragon talks about the popularity of a slide in its Changle Plant here.

So if you've ever wanted to get a gig on a Federation starship, I suggest you get your resume over to NetDragon right away. But be prepared to move to Fuzhou, China, because that's where this bad boy is located.