China's Ghost Cities

Ultra

Junior Member
While searching for example of modern chinese houses, I came across these, it just look so surreal and at times, beautiful that I felt compel of sharing:

Ordos - ghost citie

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These apartment buildings looks like it just spring up from the ground like some kind of organic plant!
 
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Ultra

Junior Member
This one really shows the scale of how fast China can build things. If you think China's South Sea Reclamation project is impressive, you should see below.

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They are building a massive city full of apartment and skycrapers all at once!
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Empty Houses:
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vesicles

Colonel
Yeah, most of the photos show unfinished construction sites.

On the other hand, if photos with the same sites were shown with tons of people in them, some might begin to criticize how China has no concern for people's safety, and how China can allow people to walk around these dangerous construction sites...

So no matter what, China cannot win... :(:confused::oops:
 

vesicles

Colonel
I don't deny the existence of ghost cities in China. However, I am not as pessimistic as some about these cities. In most of the major cities in China, huge amount of migrant workers still live in dorms and other places unsuitable for living. As their situation gets improved, such as higher pay, etc (this is happening now), they will have money to buy houses. And these ghost cities will be eventually occupied. As to the condition of these empty houses/apts, I have no clue how the developers maintain them while they stay empty. However, I am almost certain that they have ways to keep these houses well maintained as they have invested huge amount of the money into these and it would make no sense for them to ignore them like that. We will need housing/construction experts to fill us in though...

Another evidence is that housing price in most of the major Chinese cities is skyrocketing, which suggests demand is actually getting higher and higher. I know that people is China have been talking about a cool-down for years. However, the housing price is climbing up almost nonstop. These ghost cities will eventually be able to fullfill some of the demand, as the price of those existing cities become too high for most of the people.
 
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plawolf

Lieutenant General
Those people reporting on Ghost cities either have no idea what they are talking about and/or have ulterior motives in making such a big deal of such sites.

I don't have up to date statistics, but urbanisation in China is currently around 50%.

That's 650 million people, the vast majority of whom moved from the countryside to the cities, without counting migrant workers,

Expansions of exisiting cities could only accommodate so many so fast, in many instances, entire new towns and cities were created where once there was only farmland or wilderness.

This isn't all that unprecedented. Many nations have built their capitals from scratch, most recently Astana in Kazakhstan, with other famous examples include Brazilia in Brazil, Abuja in Nigeria. And these are just famous capitals.

Designing and building a new city from scratch has many distinct advantages compared to urban sprawl.

When a new city has just been built, of course it takes time to populate it. Jumping in and taking a bunch of photographs of newly finished, or area still under construction and marvelling at the lack of residents is so stupid, its akin to standing out in the rain and being surprised one gets wet.

The only appropriate response to such none sense is, "Duh! What did you expect?!"

A newly built city still standing empty 5, 10 years down the line would merit some reporting, but either most reporters lack the patients to wait so long, or far more likely, none of the gleefully named "ghost cities" would still qualify by that measurement, and the reports know that full well. So they rush in, often before construction had even finished, so they can take some pictures of empty buildings and declare another city a "ghost city" to appease their editors and hope to get a raise or promotion.

Western reporting on China is backend driven, where editors in London and Washington decide what they want to report and they take care in only sending the kind of people they know who would only focus on such stories and not 'go native' and, god forbid, file a positive story about China.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Western reporting on China is backend driven, where editors in London and Washington decide what they want to report and they take care in only sending the kind of people they know who would only focus on such stories and not 'go native' and, god forbid, file a positive story about China.
Sorry wolf, although much of what you say has truth in it...this last is simply not so.

I see and read positive stories about China all the time.

I watch on Public TV, National Geographic, the Nature Channel, and numerous other channels, very positive and uplifting stories about China, and guess what? They are produced in the West.

I think sometimes folks get into stereotyping on both sides, and then find what they look for.

But as I have sought out social interest, documentaries, and other programs on China, I have found many very good and uplifting stories about China, her people, the culture, wildlife, geography, etc..
 

kwaigonegin

Colonel
Sorry wolf, although much of what you say has truth in it...this last is simply not so.

I see and read positive stories about China all the time.

I watch on Public TV, National Geographic, the Nature Channel, and numerous other channels, very positive and uplifting stories about China, and guess what? They are produced in the West.

I think sometimes folks get into stereotyping on both sides, and then find what they look for.

But as I have sought out social interest, documentaries, and other programs on China, I have found many very good and uplifting stories about China, her people, the culture, wildlife, geography, etc..

I think wolf was referring more to newsfeed and medie reporting which I admit does have a slight anti china slant to it but when it comes to documentaries etc you're right.. There are many good documentaries and tv shows that highlights the positive aspect of china.

I would actually like to go to mainland china one day and visit. One of the to dos on my bucket list .
 
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