Something creepy about this, big empty cities/malls:
http://youtu.be/rPILhiTJv7E
The impending Chinese real estate market bubble is gonna hurt when it finally bursts...
crazy with a capital K.
China has a huge, _huge_, gap between the poorest and the richest people, and their middle class is, percentage-wise, a much smaller component of their society than our middle class is in ours. The empty properties they're showing in the video are aimed at that middle class; the rich live in big houses, the poor live in tiny one-room arrangements.
Maybe what they need to do is work on building a larger middle class, probably by adopting some better minimum wage laws and pushing for better working conditions. Lift the poor up and help them at least achieve lower-middle-class income and lifestyles, and you'll see these properties will start getting bought up and used. That, in turn, will fill the streets and the malls.
Here's another report, about a new city built 30kms from an old city, with the government expecting the people to just up and move from the old city to the new city.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h7V3Twb-Qk&NR=1
And of course all the properties have been bought up by speculators who are pushing the prices through the roof. Sounds just like what was happening in 06 and 07 in North America.
Exactly, I think the infrastructure has leapfrogged their society, generally I like planned urban centres but this took it way further than just roughing out areas for growth, which is sad really.
Ugh, I feel bad for the people who will have to live in the shadow (both literally and financially) of these boondoggles for years to come.
Quote from: Thorin on April 28, 2011, 10:23:17 AM
Here's another report, about a new city built 30kms from an old city, with the government expecting the people to just up and move from the old city to the new city.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h7V3Twb-Qk&NR=1
And of course all the properties have been bought up by speculators who are pushing the prices through the roof. Sounds just like what was happening in 06 and 07 in North America.
The parallels are scary and the scale is nightmarish.
Also, I can't help but think of that one Simpson's episode where they moved the town...
The size of city that original report is insane! http://maps.google.com.hk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Zhengzhou+new+district,+Henan,+China&aq=&sll=34.758291,113.636699&sspn=0.026514,0.055661&brcurrent=3,0x0:0x0,0&ie=UTF8&hq=Zhengzhou+new+district,&hnear=Henan,+China&t=h&ll=34.738227,113.68515&spn=0.228525,0.445976&z=12
Quote from: Melbosa on April 28, 2011, 02:46:22 PM
The size of city that original report is insane! http://maps.google.com.hk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Zhengzhou+new+district,+Henan,+China&aq=&sll=34.758291,113.636699&sspn=0.026514,0.055661&brcurrent=3,0x0:0x0,0&ie=UTF8&hq=Zhengzhou+new+district,&hnear=Henan,+China&t=h&ll=34.738227,113.68515&spn=0.228525,0.445976&z=12
!! Holy crap!
grunch:
I've heard that a lot of those developments are literally "investments" for the rich/corps, i.e. nobody is living in them, the owners are holding them until they can sell a big mass chunk of 'em for a profit, everyone's greed is holding back everyone else.
Either that, or they are evacuation cities for some big mega-disaster that of which The West has not informed her citizens.
edit: lol, Thorin kinda touched on that same explanation. mbn to be able to build such vast amounts without requiring actual cash flow soon after dev is complete.