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Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

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Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#11

Post by nichtich »

Location is the key. The places listed in the article are all "new districts" of growing major cities, so they will be filled as planed. But not all major cities are actually growing, or growing as fast as planners hoped. And no official will admit their city is not growing, so as new districts are being build, some of them are going to be ghost ones.

However, the real ghost cities are mostly not going to be the ones you see in the media, for the reason of not shiny enough. If a project is on the failing trail, both the government and the developer will try to back off, to cut loses. So if you see the buildings are properly finished and streets well maintained, just lacking people, then it means the government and developers have not lost hope, and usually they have some good reasons.

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#13

Post by haosdent »

flyrain wrote: post #5

My hometown is Wujin, Changzhou, the second city this post described. I lived there for almost 20 years. It has never been a ghost city as I known. It is always flourishing. If this place will be called ghost city, I don't know how you describe most United States cities.

Couldn't not agree with more. The report is wrong, the author did't familiar with China at all.

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#14

Post by seanmcdirmid »

sergers wrote: post #7
jpatokal wrote: post #6

Looks like even the most famous "ghost city" of them all, Ordos, isn't pining for the fjords just yet. http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/ordos-a-gho...

2013 article... You fall right into the posts topic. Latest maps show beginnings of a bustling city... Wiki show 2m pop. Chinese really believe in build it.. They will come...... Eventually in hordes.

Here is one from yesterday:

http://gizmodo.com/4-instant-cities-that-are-still-completel...

Quote:

>Today, the real-estate situation in Ordos has turned macabre. Video billboards along the city's major roadways display mug shots of fugitive developers who have skipped town, fleeing their debts. There are rumors about the dynamiting of buildings in Kangbashi: about owners of unoccupied apartment towers who hope to create value through destruction, reselling freshly cleared land to new investors.

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#15

Post by asmala »

sergers wrote: post #7
jpatokal wrote: post #6

Looks like even the most famous "ghost city" of them all, Ordos, isn't pining for the fjords just yet. http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/ordos-a-gho...

2013 article... You fall right into the posts topic. Latest maps show beginnings of a bustling city... Wiki show 2m pop. Chinese really believe in build it.. They will come...... Eventually in hordes.

The Wikipedia census data for Ordos is from 2010, i.e. well before the 2013 article. The ghost city proper is Kangbashi, a new development within Ordos intended to house 300,000 people. In early 2015, the population was estimated at 100,000, admittedly growing but still very much in keeping with the title ghost town.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangbashi_New_Area

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#16

Post by comrade1 »

The current narrative in the u.s. press, including the tech press, is that china is somewhat backward and uncompetitive. Some people even still call them communist. When the reality is quite different, with cutting edge research, products, technology coming out every day.

There are cities in china you've never even heard of that have populations bigger than most major u.s. cities. In something like 50 years the Chinese went from a poor 3rd world country to 1st world, pulling over 500 million people out of poverty and into the middle class.

The u.s. view is stuck in the 1960s-80s view of China. Even the chinese food in the u.s. is old-fashioned and not modern compared to what's in China now.

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#17

Post by simonh »

haosdent wrote: post #13
flyrain wrote: post #5

My hometown is Wujin, Changzhou, the second city this post described. I lived there for almost 20 years. It has never been a ghost city as I known. It is always flourishing. If this place will be called ghost city, I don't know how you describe most United States cities.

Couldn't not agree with more. The report is wrong, the author did't familiar with China at all.

What the report actualy says:

>It’s actually extremely difficult to cross the street in Wujin, which doesn’t bode well for the argument that it’s a ghost town.

Did you read it? The linked article is pointing out that these cities are not ghost towns at all.

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#18

Post by simonh »

comrade1 wrote: post #16

The current narrative in the u.s. press, including the tech press, is that china is somewhat backward and uncompetitive. Some people even still call them communist. When the reality is quite different, with cutting edge research, products, technology coming out every day. There are cities in china you've never even heard of that have populations bigger than most major u.s. cities. In something like 50 years the Chine…

I agree there's a lot of missunderstanding about China in the Western press. To be fair though, the ruling party in China does still call itself Communits, and vigorously advertises itself as such.

Re: Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

#20

Post by lotsofmangos »

“The ghost city of Dantu has been mostly empty for over a decade,” Business Insider reported. “In most neighborhoods of Dantu, there are no cars, no signs of life,” reported the Daily Mail. Both of these claims were made from looking at dated satellite images that showed the new district while it was still a construction site, not from reporters who actually went there.

Business as usual in the world of journalism.

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