Trekkie behind China’s $97 million USS Enterprise building is a KU grad

A screenshot of China's USS Enterprise building as seen on Google Maps.

There is now a massive building in China shaped like the USS Enterprise from “Star Trek.” And it turns out, the Trekkie behind the phenomenon is a Kansas University graduate, The Wall Street Journal recently reported on its China Real Time blog.

Hong-Kong listed Chinese online game developer NetDragon Websoft built the 260-meter long, 100-meter wide, six-floor building/spaceship in the city of Changle in China’s southeast Fujian province, according to the WSJ. With a total investment of 600 million yuan (or $97 million), construction started in October 2010 and finished in May 2014.

The chairman and executive director of NetDragon Websoft Inc. is Liu Dejan, who got his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from KU in 1995, according to his profile on the company’s website. Liu also is director of the Chinese search engine Baidu.

Liu, 43, is a “huge” Star Trek fan, the WSJ reports. And — for other huge fans concerned with specifically which iteration of the ship we’re dealing with here — the WSJ said the building was inspired by the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, which appeared in three “Star Trek” movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Google Maps provides an aerial view of the building, and there’s also this aerial video on YouTube.