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A glass Christmas tree, in the central atrium of Life Hub, is an eco-friendly creation made from recycled glass.

A touch of glass in the Life Hub: Perhaps the city's only glass Christmas tree is set in the central square of Life Hub, an open-space shopping area with abundant boutiques and restaurants.

The 6.5-meter-tall glass tree is made of more than 100 pieces of handmade triangle glass, boasting creativity in design and a spectacular visual effect, according to its creator, Shelly Xue, a renowned Chinese artist in glass design.

"Glass as a material features the characteristics of transparency, which means it works with the light and produces different shades of colors when the light varies," Xue says.

"There are various designs on Christmas trees, and many of them shine at night, but not that brightly in the daytime. By choosing glass as the material, we hope the tree also shines during the day."

The glass Christmas tree presents a green between emerald and olive, a color that Xue finally chose after testing a dozen shades of green, in order to make the tree compatible with the surroundings. LED lights were installed behind the glass.

Inside the triangles are numerous tiny glass beads, which were recycled from wasted glass, such as broken beer bottles, making the whole project an eco-design, she says.

Glass is seldom used in outdoor decorations, considering its fragility and safety risks. To avoid the shortcomings, Xue used tough glass, which is not easy to shatter, and the edge of the glass was polished to be sleek.

Xue got a doctoral degree in glass art in the United Kingdom and set up a glass studio at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art at Fudan University in 2007.

She and other artists teach glass art classes every weekend in December in the Life Hub. Children can learn how to make a Christmas gift with colorful glass beads.