31–40 of 59 posts
As someone else mentioned, the reason they are empty is because they're too expensive to move to and there's zero opportunity there. Many of them are expensive even by US standards for what you get. They are purposely made to be expensive and ghost town like.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, not baiting. Genuine question.
America's ghost towns were once thriving and now are deserted. China's ghost cities are relatively new and have never thrived before; they are just symptoms of a huge real estate bubble. China overbuilds way too much, even in thriving cities like Shanghai and Beijing will you find almost completely deserted shopping malls.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Expensive for farmers who make $2kUSD per annum. Even in the central districts of tier two Chinese cities[1], rent is only $200-300/month for a decent two bedroom. In which case, they ought to just move to a functioning city. My total monthly expenses (rent, food, leisure, taxis, reasonably fast internet) are often [1]ie not Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou
The farmers can't afford it, who can? China also has to reform its hukou system before these cities can really become viable communities; for a foreign kid having fun, whatever, but what if you had a family to worry about...medical care, schooling, and other social welfares become very important.
The parent comment was about creating cheap hacker spaces.
It is really hard to work out the truth of these stories. They always mention these as "Ghost Cities" but the numbers are always mentioned like "This city was meant to house upto a million people"... a million people, is not a city, it's a large suburb. Or a very small city (in China), given they always build with med-high density housing. Could the reporters please do there job and ask the farmers out of earshot of…
In Europe and much of America, any urban area with > 50k is often called a city. Heck, even around 10k could be called a city under certain circumstances. The properties of concern are more like satellite cities. Often in crappy remote locations outside the original city's outer ring road.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
America's ghost towns were once thriving and now are deserted. China's ghost cities are relatively new and have never thrived before; they are just symptoms of a huge real estate bubble. China overbuilds way too much, even in thriving cities like Shanghai and Beijing will you find almost completely deserted shopping malls.
I only observed that America and China both arrived at the same end result independently - ghost cities. I am not saying that they followed the same approaches, or took the same time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The farmers can't afford it, who can? China also has to reform its hukou system before these cities can really become viable communities; for a foreign kid having fun, whatever, but what if you had a family to worry about...medical care, schooling, and other social welfares become very important.
Yes, these issues are major problems for China overall and for the individuals that make up the working poor (Still literally hundreds of millions of people.) The parent comment was about creating cheap hacker spaces.
The casual dismissal of their sincerity is annoying ("don't know if they're telling the truth, or just saying government-friendly things because the governmental people are here right now!"). At least do the due research if such claims are going to be made by trying to get interviews from these folks without governmental people's presence, or just don't doubt their sincerity. But please don't just sprinkle in the the…
To add further, doesn't America have its own share of "ghost cities" that were once booming but are now decrepit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ghost_towns_in_the_Uni... I'd be more interested in why two such different countries as the US and China seem to have independently arrived at the same problem of ghost cities. We know that China's problems arise from a top-down, state-directed model of development un…
FWIW there are ghost towns like the US examples in Spain too - villages of about 50-100 inhabitants that eventually just seem to dry up as populations give up on agriculture/subsistence/mining or whatever and younger generations move to larger cities.
Then there's Valdeluz. Political corruption at its finest, producing a semi-ghost town with less than 2000 people living there. http://desertedplaces.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/the-spanish-gh... - I visited there a couple of summers ago. Nice and peaceful, plenty of playgrounds for the kids to play on, no queues at the supermarket :-)
It is really hard to work out the truth of these stories. They always mention these as "Ghost Cities" but the numbers are always mentioned like "This city was meant to house upto a million people"... a million people, is not a city, it's a large suburb. Or a very small city (in China), given they always build with med-high density housing. Could the reporters please do there job and ask the farmers out of earshot of…
The casual dismissal of their sincerity is annoying ("don't know if they're telling the truth, or just saying government-friendly things because the governmental people are here right now!"). At least do the due research if such claims are going to be made by trying to get interviews from these folks without governmental people's presence, or just don't doubt their sincerity. But please don't just sprinkle in the the…
To add further, doesn't America have its own share of "ghost cities" that were once booming but are now decrepit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ghost_towns_in_the_Uni... I'd be more interested in why two such different countries as the US and China seem to have independently arrived at the same problem of ghost cities. We know that China's problems arise from a top-down, state-directed model of development un…
The situation in China is completely different. Regional governments are naively trying to stimulate their economies with these huge construction projects. So, they're building giant cities without proper planning or consideration for population shifts. These cities have never been occupied and it looks like they never will. Worse, they're being paid for by highly rated bonds issued from the central government. The whole thing looks like a real estate bubble that could tank the Chinese economy.
I just took a train from Shanghai down to 黄山. While I can't confirm there are entirely empty cities (I don't doubt it though), There were massive modern housing complexes... with no one in them. It was so surreal.
I'm in London. There are dozens of massive modern housing complexes... with no one in them. It takes time, and often the builders prefer to sell slowly at high prices rather than drop the prices enough to sell quickly. I'm not saying none of these represents a problem, but it's not a given that large empty developments do. Especially in areas with very rapid growth.