China's Ghost Cities

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Jason
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China's Ghost Cities

Post by Jason » Wed May 15, 2013 7:36 am

CHINA is building new cities at an estimated rate of up to 12 to 24 a year - but while they are full of brand new homes and facilities, nobody wants to live there.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/china-b ... z2TLPIywpF
I just watched the VICE report on this and it's surreal. Entire cities made up of brand new buildings, completed infrastructure, and they look great. Premade cities designed for populations of 1,000,000+ with less than 30,000 people living in them. It's like a window into the world after some super virus wiped out 99.7% of the population.

What the hell are they thinking?

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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by Rum » Wed May 15, 2013 7:38 am

Not thinking - profiteering I suspect. It happened on a smaller scale all over Europe during the boom years before they all went tits up.

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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by rainbow » Wed May 15, 2013 7:44 am

Spain has a Ghost Airport.
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by JacksSmirkingRevenge » Wed May 15, 2013 8:39 am

Surreal.
10's of millions of people displaced and paddy fields built over for cities that nobody can afford to live in.
You'd think they would have learned a lesson from our recent big mistake, but apparently they haven't.
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by JimC » Wed May 15, 2013 8:47 am

If you build it, they will cum...
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by pErvinalia » Wed May 15, 2013 9:14 am

I'm pretty sure there was a thread about this already. Or perhaps it was over at ratskep with one of my socks. But there was a doco on it here (BBC one, I think). Surreal. I'll look for it.
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by pErvinalia » Wed May 15, 2013 9:17 am

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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by JimC » Wed May 15, 2013 9:22 am

Semi-seriously, that's what a planned economy leads to.

It may work well in the long run, or it may not...
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by PsychoSerenity » Wed May 15, 2013 9:41 am

JimC wrote:Semi-seriously, that's what a planned economy leads to.

It may work well in the long run, or it may not...
I have no idea if it's intentional, but they may have been rather crafty about this. Get wealthy investors to fund the excessive building of modern cities in a short space of time with the promise of profit. Then eventually the housing market must crash down to prices that the majority can afford, yet the huge amount of infrastructure has already been built, so there's quality and cheep housing for the majority at the expense of the wealthy. And all without having to tax anyone to do it. :smoke:
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]

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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by klr » Wed May 15, 2013 10:07 am

Rum wrote:Not thinking - profiteering I suspect. It happened on a smaller scale all over Europe during the boom years before they all went tits up.
Yup. Ireland still has plenty of ghost estates. As usual, the Chinese are doing things on a much bigger scale. I've seen a few BBC documentaries in the past couple of years about the breakneck speed of urbanisation there.
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Wed May 15, 2013 10:19 am

klr wrote:
Rum wrote:Not thinking - profiteering I suspect. It happened on a smaller scale all over Europe during the boom years before they all went tits up.
Yup. Ireland still has plenty of ghost estates. As usual, the Chinese are doing things on a much bigger scale. I've seen a few BBC documentaries in the past couple of years about the breakneck speed of urbanisation there.
They're making all the mistakes the West did, only sooner. And faster. The fall will come quicker. The Somalia will be the new superpower on Earth.
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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by Rum » Wed May 15, 2013 11:02 am

Gawdzilla Sama wrote:
klr wrote:
Rum wrote:Not thinking - profiteering I suspect. It happened on a smaller scale all over Europe during the boom years before they all went tits up.
Yup. Ireland still has plenty of ghost estates. As usual, the Chinese are doing things on a much bigger scale. I've seen a few BBC documentaries in the past couple of years about the breakneck speed of urbanisation there.
They're making all the mistakes the West did, only sooner. And faster. The fall will come quicker. The Somalia will be the new superpower on Earth.
Despite sounding more like Crumple than Zilla, I suspect you are right. The difference between what they are doing in China and what happened in the West was we used credit to build and when the credit was called in..well you know the story.

China has a low credit economy I read. Many Chinese use existing capital for such projects, so the bubble bursting (which I am sure it will) won't crate the sort of bang it did in Merica and Europe.

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Re: China's Ghost Cities

Post by JimC » Wed May 15, 2013 9:34 pm

Gawdzilla Sama wrote:
klr wrote:
Rum wrote:Not thinking - profiteering I suspect. It happened on a smaller scale all over Europe during the boom years before they all went tits up.
Yup. Ireland still has plenty of ghost estates. As usual, the Chinese are doing things on a much bigger scale. I've seen a few BBC documentaries in the past couple of years about the breakneck speed of urbanisation there.
They're making all the mistakes the West did, only sooner. And faster. The fall will come quicker. The Somalia will be the new superpower on Earth.
'Zilla is channeling Scrumple! :shock:
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