Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures • Hacker News Board

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#161

Post by screye » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:08 PM UTC

yapyap wrote: post #35

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. If we had efficient large-scale construction solved, we could really put a dent in the cost of living crisis, and reverse the overcrowding of the existing urban centers. Because China has their singular government system (one party dictatorship, whatever you want to call it) they can make really qui…

In defense of democracy, this issue was less prevalent until the last 30 years.

You don't need everyone to agree on things in a democracy. The issue is lack of leadership and unclear power hierarchy (who matters- house, senate, president, state, or courts).

Democracies with clarity function well. Switzerland leans into state rights, and each canton operates with little federal overhead. The Indian president and senate are weak. The power of civil litigation is limited. So, if you win the states and the house, then you can get a lot done. The Indian house has a full majority and is in the middle of a building boom. Hell, the US built the entire interstate system in a democracy.

IMO, the US's problem is disproportional optics. On paper, the House> president > Senate> courts. But media attention is towards courts > president > senate > house. Roe v Wade was the biggest story of last year, but on paper, the House could've made a bipartisan decision that completely overrode the courts. People are most interested in Presidential elections, but the president has little power. So you end up in a lame-duck Obamacare-style compromise or a Trump-style tariff tantrum. People democratically voted for the president. But turns out, that's not the person who holds power. The house is supposed to be all powerful, but can't pass a single bill. That's how you get wonky policies smuggled through the only unlock unblockable bill. (Budget)

Democracies like any system can fail. At least with democracies, the bad outcome is that nothing gets done. In authoritarian, you get famine, genocide, or coups.

Hot take, but the US should get rid of the senate and limit the power of civic litigation. House introduces the bill, President signs it. Courts step in if the bill is illegal. No filibuster, promote simple majorities.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#162

Post by graemep » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:24 PM UTC

GoatInGrey wrote: post #116

graemep wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason for high prices is not shortages, its low interest rates.

It's remarkable to see how intuitive supply and demand laws are for many individuals until it comes to one particular market: housing.

Are you being sarcastic? Housing is a good example of how people fail to understand supply and demand. People usually talk as though supply and demand are fixed quantities rather than curves against price.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#163

Post by jimt1234 » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:24 PM UTC

I visited Chongqing when I lived in Shanghai around 2002. People regarded it as an insignificant city back then - everyone was so fixated on Shanghai and Beijing. Anyway, Chongqing was under major construction, as was most of the country. But I remember the locals used to say that when you walked to work in the morning you needed to leave a trail of rice because the city changes so rapidly that you'll never find your way home by the time your shift is done. LOL

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#164

Post by apexalpha » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:32 PM UTC

kubb wrote: post #130

apexalpha wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netherlands grew by 1 million people between 2015 and 2025, roughly 6,5% increase in population. And (almost) everyone has a house. Except we don't build flats and suburban one-house-fits-all massive construction projects. We mostly do smallscale development times a 1000, in stead of one big one. We think it results in better cities. Though, it is true we should build even more.

Apparently you have a housing shortage of 400k homes, rents increase 5% YoY, and residents spend more than 20% of their income on housing. Your cities are great though, I love the Netherlands.

Rent increase is not an indicator of the housing market in our country, like it i s in many others.

The Netherlands is 100% rent-controlled.

The 5% increase is because it's tied to inflation, which makes the last few years an anomaly for rent increases.

But yes we do need to build a lot more. I was just pointing out that saying "the West doesn't build anymore" isn't true, we just can't keep up with massive increases in population due to migration.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#165

Post by apexalpha » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:37 PM UTC

alephnan wrote: post #122

apexalpha wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netherlands grew by 1 million people between 2015 and 2025, roughly 6,5% increase in population. And (almost) everyone has a house. Except we don't build flats and suburban one-house-fits-all massive construction projects. We mostly do smallscale development times a 1000, in stead of one big one. We think it results in better cities. Though, it is true we should build even more.

> And (almost) everyone has a house. How come the Netherlands has the most pronounced housing shortage for university students compared to other countries ? Is it because everyone is AirBnb'ing their first and second homes out to tourists? It's so bad that international students are forced to decline university and graduate school offers. I know because I am in that boat. https://nltimes.nl/2025/04/22/housing-shortag…

Housing in the Netherlands is complex, it's not a free market.

Out of a total of ~8 million homes:

- 4.6 million are owned by the people who live in them.

- 2.3 million are owned by social housing corporations. You have to join a waitlist for these, you can't outbid someone.

And then lastly:

- 1 million houses are "free rentals". But this means they are open to anyone, they are still rent-controlled.

You, together with all other international people, as well as many Dutch people who can't buy and also aren't eligible for social housing are playing musical chairs with only ~13% of the total housing in our country.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#166

Post by sadeshmukh » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:38 PM UTC

angled wrote: post #80

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 protec…

To me, it’s better to compare China with India. Similar populations, yet the effects of different systems of government are extremely obvious.

Because the only difference between them is their government, not history, not internal differences, or anything else?

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#167

Post by stevenwoo » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:43 PM UTC

stevenwoo wrote: post #4

That bookstore is beautiful but how does one access books on that twenty foot tall shelf - it seems a bit impractical for even looking at the spine of a book.

I had to look it up and could not find any English sources for this location but the book store chain is named after Sisyphus (my first thought was the struggle against online retailers) and has multiple stores in Chongqing, this one looks more practical and like a stylish library and store for books: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/08/04/chongqing-zhongshuge-books...

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#168

Post by badc0ffee » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:51 PM UTC

genjo wrote: post #63

moomin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-ga…

I don't understand what this means, or how it fits with the comment it's replying to.

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#169

Post by eynsham » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:51 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #145

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 protec…

> Europe built the completely novel floodgates for Venice That's wild! How do you convince people in Latvia or Norway that they should help pay for infrastructure like that in Italy? If Manhattan wants flood gates, NY will have to build them. At some point, they will probably have to because the cost of insurance will exceed the cost of the bonds needed to build.

The European Investment Bank provided €1.5b of funding.¹ EIB decisions don’t generally attract lots of attention from member states other than those concerned, since it is generally understood that the EIB is funding lots of projects in member states simultaneously. Similarly, the budget of the Commission and similar bodies will generally be set in advance, usually with a formal or informal understanding as to the broad distribution of funds between member states that will follow.

In any case, this project seems to me to be no more extraordinary than the redistributive effects of e.g. Medicaid or Pentagon spending, or the construction of Interstates. The Interstates, in the present US political environment, might indeed seem extraordinary; but the question is then not how one convinces people from state A to spend on state B, but how to convince people to make large long-term investments in the first place.

1: https://web.archive.org/web/20130111042126/http://archiviost...

Re: Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures

#170

Post by yorwba » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 6:58 PM UTC

chipsa wrote: post #113

yorwba wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The strong state capacity collects the resources of large areas and concentrates them into large-scale construction projects in a handful of places. China has a small number of megacities with large, wealthy, modern urban cores and a very large population that lives somewhere else. There are about a hundred cities with more than a million inhabitants but only 47 have urban rail transit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Knowing how China designates cities[0], citation needed on the number of cities. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing > The municipality covers a large geographical area roughly the size of Austria,[14] which includes several disjunct urban areas in addition to Chongqing proper.

On this list of Chinese cities by population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_pop... #100 is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiujiang with a total population of 4.6 million, of which 2.8 million live in urban areas and 1.1 million in the metropolitan area, i.e. the fact that cities often administratively subsume neighboring towns is already taken into account.