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Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

theguardian.com

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Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#61

Post by dinkblam »

mathverse wrote: post #49

I am totally uninterested in China mainly due to them being so hostile to foreigners. Yes cities are impressive, technology and culture as well. But you are not welcome. At all. You are sometimes not even tolerated. And because of that your time in that country will be always limited. If China was to become like BKK or other SEA countries .... That's another story.

> I am totally uninterested in China mainly due to them being so hostile to foreigners

I am totally interested in the USA mainly due to them being so very welcoming to foreigners and migrants

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#62

Post by mminer237 »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #42
kubb wrote: post #15

Chongqing seems incredible on pictures and YouTube videos. No doubt it's a comfortable place to live for many people, and surely it isn't perfect, especially when it comes to things like air pollution. What amazes me is China's capacity to do development on a large scale, something that's completely missing in Europe. If we had efficient large-scale construction solved, we could really put a dent in the cost of livin…

> What amazes me is China's capacity to do development on a large scale, something that's completely missing in Europe. In the US, especially with renewed appetite for "America First" and bringing back good paying jobs for American laborers, there should be a lot more building of infrastructure and housing units around our country... Why can China do this and we can't even when the government has won a mandate from p…

Isn't good-paying domestic labor the main part of the problem? Hiring thousands of manual laborers at $5/hour is a lot more economical than at $15/hour plus $5/hr in benefits. And that applies to the steel workers and lumberjacks and fixture manufacturers who all have to be paid more too via material costs.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#63

Post by genjo »

moomin wrote: post #22
kubb wrote: post #15

Chongqing seems incredible on pictures and YouTube videos. No doubt it's a comfortable place to live for many people, and surely it isn't perfect, especially when it comes to things like air pollution. What amazes me is China's capacity to do development on a large scale, something that's completely missing in Europe. If we had efficient large-scale construction solved, we could really put a dent in the cost of livin…

The thing is, we used to do this. Walk around London or Florence or Rome and you will see era-adjusted sights that are equally impressive. For that matter, go check out Blenheim Palace. It’s a reasonable question to ask: What happened? But the answer is prosaic. These sights all come from times of _incredible_ inequality. Which you don’t see in these pictures but is vastly more relevant to the day to day lives of mos…

it's a social experiment. "if we don't do it top-down, will the educated and driven try to make us do better or do it themselves?". the answer revealed itself when architecture and design remained procedural but failed to emphasize and to build around the goal of social evolution and identity seeking. instead we got Gentrification, efficiency nobody asked for and wealth wasted on uninspired and demotivating pseudo-game theorists.

it's funny how nobody noticed in time that the side effects of these many experiments destroyed more beauty & opportunities, especially in urban convolution and social convection than they have revealed in data about human nature and civilized networks ... "we happened to become a community and build around the growing desires of our children and our own" is something you only hear on garden plots, even though on the country side everywhere, people are now third and fourth generation heirs.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#64

Post by q3k »

kubb wrote: post #60
em-bee wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

vienna is doing it. there is a new neighborhood built from scratch on a green field. literally. a 20 year project for 25.000 residents and 20.000 jobs. just a few decades ago it was all farmland (and an unused airfield). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seestadt_Aspern

I love it, and why doesn't every city do that.

Because of a pervasive meme that only the private sector should be doing this.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#65

Post by refactor_master »

feverzsj wrote: post #27

The city is also famous for its hot and humid climate. Locals have to eat lots of spicy foods to make their life a little bit easier. You won't last more than a week there.

I’ve been there. It’s crazy how the smell of spicy hotpot permeates every street.

And it’s also crazy the spice levels they’re used to. It’s the only place in China I’ve seen 微微辣 (“very very little spicy”). And it was still incredibly spicy!

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#66

Post by zkmon »

kubb wrote: post #15

Chongqing seems incredible on pictures and YouTube videos. No doubt it's a comfortable place to live for many people, and surely it isn't perfect, especially when it comes to things like air pollution. What amazes me is China's capacity to do development on a large scale, something that's completely missing in Europe. If we had efficient large-scale construction solved, we could really put a dent in the cost of livin…

The lack of capacity to build in Europe is due to age-old regulations, bureaucracy and very low risk appetite. All this has affected human competence as well, similar to caged animals losing their abilities.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#67

Post by mc32 »

chollida1 wrote: post #54
lormayna wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Show me a place that looks like that where no-one goes hungry, has to worry about medical bills and doesn’t live in fear of the rich and powerful and then I’ll be impressed. You are just describing every western European country.

I mean, my family and i just spent 5 weeks over Christmas in Rome, Paris and London. I live in Toronto where we have our share of homelessness and those 3 cities put Toronto to shame with the amount of poverty and homelessness we saw. Europe is beautiful and does many things better than North America and Asia but hunger and poverty are area's where its just as bad if not worse.

That’s something that’s developed over the last couple decades. Europe didn’t have vast amounts of homelessness and poverty. My guess is Schengen plus lax immigration policies. That is compare requirements for entering the UAE vs Europe. Europe is less selective.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#68

Post by hshdhdhj4444 »

kubb wrote: post #15

Chongqing seems incredible on pictures and YouTube videos. No doubt it's a comfortable place to live for many people, and surely it isn't perfect, especially when it comes to things like air pollution. What amazes me is China's capacity to do development on a large scale, something that's completely missing in Europe. If we had efficient large-scale construction solved, we could really put a dent in the cost of livin…

It’s missing in most European places because there’s little need for it.

When there is a need, Europe does pretty well. At least relative to the U.S.

For example, Europe built the completely novel floodgates for Venice. It’s been very successful as far as I’m aware when it was heavily doubted before and throughout its development.

On the other hand, the U.S. won’t even contemplate building something similar to protect NYC, despite the fact that Europe has already done it and proven the concept, and that the region this would protect is orders of magnitude more economically valuable than Venice.

Similarly consider high speed rail. Italy completely revolutionized domestic travel by setting up excellent high speed rail over a few years. They did it not by government fiat but intelligent regulations paired with privatization and market rules.

While it’s not China scale, it’s more than sufficient for Italy’s scale.

At the same time the U.S. is completely incapable of creating high speed rail and to the extent it has its done so by redefining it down.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#69

Post by skippyboxedhero »

10u152 wrote: post #38
oceanhaiyang wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Show me a place that looks like that where no-one goes hungry, has to worry about medical bills and doesn’t live in fear of the rich and powerful and then I’ll be impressed. I think you’re still speaking about Chongqing. China builds these and closes the wage gap.

Oh come on. Lower socio economic Chinese definitely still fear the rich and worry about being homeless and not getting medical treatment.

It is an insight into human irrationality to see a country where hundreds of millions have been lifted out of crushing absolute poverty, that has built one of the world's best infrastructure from nothing...in the 70s, China was poorer than every country in Africa bar one.

...the problem is that some people are concerned only with how things are done, this is feudal government, this is pre-industrial economic growth, who does things, how they do it, make sure nothing new is every tried because that is dangerous and might lead to the elite losing control. China (and much of East Asia) succeeded because they are concerned only with outcomes, and this is all that people care about anyway. Unfortunately, the West is now controlled by people who see change as dangerous, and nothing is more dangerous than a country leapfrogging them in development because it proves that their leadership is bankrupt and incompetent.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#70

Post by sampullman »

feverzsj wrote: post #27

The city is also famous for its hot and humid climate. Locals have to eat lots of spicy foods to make their life a little bit easier. You won't last more than a week there.

It gets hot and there's a couple days each year it's probably best to stay inside, but it's really not that bad. I'd take Chongqing over Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, personally (in terms of weather).
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