Chinese Ghost Towns [Archive] - Kung Fu Magazine Forums

GeneChing

01-18-2016, 10:11 AM

This would make a great movie set...

Shanghai's largest vacant building? A shanzhai Pentagon that is even bigger than the real thing (http://shanghaiist.com/2016/01/18/shanghai_pentagon_still_vacant.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/shanghai_pentagon.jpg

In a particularly embarrassing instance of Chinese over-investment, this replica of the Pentagon remains the largest unoccupied building in Shanghai. However, with the opening of Shanghai Disneyland later this year, officials are hoping that a little fairytale magic will finally bring the Pentagonal Mart to life.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/shanghai_pentagon_5.jpg

Located in the southeastern Nanhui district, the Pentagonal Mart spans out a massive 70 acres (compared to a measly 34 acres for the Department of Defense headquarters), most of which has been devoid of life since construction mostly wrapped up in 2009. Apparently its confusing interiors are to blame.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/shanghai_pentagon_4.jpg

"The place was originally targeted at becoming a small-commodities market, but failed to attract retailers," one government official revealed. "Later, the local government tried to set up outlet centers of imported products, but failed to be appealing to customers."

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/shanghai_pentagon_2.jpg

However, hope remains alive in the form of the Shanghai Disney Resort, located just 8km away from the Pentagonal Mart and set to finally open in June. "We hope the opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort this year will help garner some business," said the official.
When you wish upon a star...

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/shanghai_pentagon_3.jpg

Take a drone tour of the copycat Pentagon accompanied by some appropriately epic music below:

By Pinky Latt
[Images via Xinhua // Video via Tencent]
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Shanghaiist in News on Jan 18, 2016 12:00 PM

Jimbo

01-19-2016, 08:15 AM

And yet...

http://ecowatch.com/2014/06/09/china-bulldozes-mountains/

David Jamieson

01-19-2016, 08:53 AM

I have recently heard these cities will be filling in rather quickly as the PRC Government gets it's great urbanization plan rolling. they are essentially going to take the rural folks and stick them into cities. Thereby freeing up the land for resources development etc.

I imagine there will be some resistance, some violence, some arrests etc, but eventually, the government will have it's way by crook or by nook such as is their way.

And before we go off about freedom and such, that doesn't actually exist under the auspices of any government anywhere. Sadly, considering how stupid and violent and thoughtless great portions of humanity are, it's probably a good thing to not allow total and unrestricted freedom. So many people take that as a call to do what you like regardless of who is harmed.

Anyway, I digress...

GeneChing

02-18-2016, 10:38 AM

Slightly OT. I want to see this dragon slide.

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/ixU2p6wKZnSs/v1/640x-1.jpg
ATTENTION SHOPPER. PHOTOGRAPHER: GREG BAKER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

China's Empty Malls Get Weirder (http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-17/china-s-empty-malls-get-weirder)
44 FEB 17, 2016 5:00 PM EST
By Adam Minter

The Printemps department store outlet in Shanghai's Pudong District would seem to have all the amenities necessary to succeed in modern Chinese retail: luxury brands, a venerable 150-year Parisian retailing history and an exclusive location.

Despite these advantages, however, the store's management thought it was still missing something to attract customers. So next week they're unveiling a gigantic, twisting, dragon-shaped slide that shoppers can use to drop from fifth-floor luxury boutiques to first-floor luxury boutiques in death-defying seconds.

Social media users are wondering, half-jokingly, whether the slide will kill anyone. But Printemps has a different concern. Chinese shoppers, once seemingly in endless supply, are no longer turning up at brick-and-mortar outlets. In August, Dalian Wanda, the country's biggest mall developer, announced it was shutting 40 of its 600 malls, sounding an ominous note for a once-buoyant sector.

That's a global trend, of course. But China's urban planners have long made malls central to their designs, both to meet growing demand and to symbolize the aspirations of a rapidly urbanizing middle class. In 2009, planners in Shanghai set aside 70 acres for a $200 million mall modeled after, and slightly bigger than, the Pentagon (it currently stands empty). In 2014, 44 percent of the world's newly completed malls, and nine of the 10 top cities for mall space under construction, were in China, according to real-estate consultancy CBRE. Deloitte still predicts that China will have 10,000 malls by 2025, up from 4,000 today.

China's economic slowdown is destined to pinch that growth. But if the problem was simply tough times, Printemps wouldn't be installing a dragon slide. Far bigger challenges, which should've been evident years ago, are undercutting the long-term case for brick-and-mortar shopping emporiums.

The first is high taxes on imported luxury goods. A 2015 study found that prices on 37 big-ticket items were 40 percent to 68 percent higher in China than in the U.S., France and Germany. Partly as a result, Chinese spent $183 billion abroad in 2015, accounting for an astonishing 46 percent of global luxury sales. Owners of empty malls on the mainland feel the pain.

More consequential is e-commerce. The advent of online shopping has stunted brick-and-mortar retailing around the world. But China offers a unique example, thanks to the pervasive use of social media and the development of apps -- in particular, WeChat -- that seamlessly integrate shopping and messaging. WeChat's 600 million monthly users can easily toggle between a message about a pair of shoes and a mobile store on the same app where those shoes are for sale.

In China, where personal recommendations were crucial to driving commerce even before social media, this kind of retail is transformational. According to a 2015 McKinsey survey, 38 percent of Internet users said they spent more time shopping online after joining a social media service. In Beijing, an extraordinary 82.6 percent of retail sales now occur online, according to the local government. Countrywide, official figures show online sales growing at roughly triple the rate of the in-store variety.

To fix the shopping mall shortfall, China could lower taxes on imported luxury goods. But with so many shoppers going abroad, the impact would likely be limited (there's a cache to buying your Louis Vuitton bag in Paris instead of Shenyang). Even if turning back the tide of e-commerce were possible, it wouldn't be in the interest of rural Chinese consumers, many of whom don't have access to brick-and-mortar retail, or of urbanites who prefer to shop from home rather than fight some of the world's worst traffic and pollution.

Despite its current hardships, the Chinese shopping mall won't ever go away completely. In the country's increasingly cramped cities, malls will still serve as places to eat, be entertained and socialize. But re-purposing these massive spaces for consumers who have other ways to spend their time and money is going to require a lot of creativity.

A five-story dragon slide may not be a bad place to start.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Adam Minter at aminter@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Timothy Lavin at tlavin1@bloomberg.net

GeneChing

02-22-2016, 02:35 PM

In pictures: exploring China’s mysterious “unborn cities” (http://www.thejournal.ie/china-abandoned-cities-2613348-Feb2016/)

These cities have been built as part of the Chinese government’s plan to gradually relocate rural dwellers to urban locations. They are completely devoid of human life – for now.

THROUGHOUT CHINA, THERE are hundreds of cities that have almost everything one needs for a modern, urban lifestyle: high-rise apartment complexes, developed waterfronts, skyscrapers, and even public art. Everything, that is, except one major factor: the people.
These mysterious – and almost completely empty – cities are a part of China’s larger plan to move 250 million citizens currently living in rural areas into urban locations by 2026, and places like the Kangbashi District of Ordos are already prepped and ready to be occupied.
Photographer Kai Caemmerer became fascinated with these urban plans, and in 2015 he traveled to China to explore and document them. His series “Unborn Cities” depicts a completely new type of urban development.
“Unlike in the US, where cities often begin as small developments and grow in accordance to the local industries, these new Chinese cities are built to the point of near completion before introducing people,” he told Business Insider.
Here are 12 eerie images from his series:
When Caemmerer found out about these empty cities, he was immediately fascinated. “As an architectural photographer, I found the notion of a contemporary ghost town to be appealing in a sort of unsettling way,” he said.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613379/original/?width=630&version=2613379
Source: Kai Caemmerer
“These new Chinese cities are built to the point of near completion before introducing people,” Caemmerer said. “Because of this, there is an interim period between the final phases of development and when the areas become noticeably populated, during which many of the buildings stand empty.”

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613380/original/?width=443&version=2613380
Source: Kai Caemmerer
In 2015 Caemmerer photographed the Kangbashi District of Ordos, the Yujiapu Financial District near Tianjin, and the Meixi Lake development near the city of Changsha.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613381/original/?width=630&version=2613381
Source: Kai Caemmerer
“It was the uniform newness of these cities that originally piqued my interest,” Caemmerer said.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613384/original/?width=630&version=2613384
Source: Kai Caemmerer
“Oftentimes these ‘new areas’ are satellite cities located within the proximity of an older, more established city,” he explained.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613385/original/?width=443&version=2613385
Source: Kai Caemmerer
Caemmerer would stay overnight at a neighboring, more populated city.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613388/original/?width=630&version=2613388
Source: Kai Caemmerer
He photographed twice a day — before sunrise, and just after sunset – for 80 straight days.

continued next post

GeneChing

02-22-2016, 02:36 PM

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613391/original/?width=630&version=2613391
Source: Kai Caemmerer
Luckily, Caemmerer didn’t run into legal issues while photographing the cities, and in terms of safety he says that “these areas felt very secure”.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613392/original/?width=444&version=2613392
Source: Kai Caemmerer
Because of the newness of the places, Caemmerer described the cities as “surreal” and “uncanny”.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613394/original/?width=442&version=2613394
Source: Kai Caemmerer
“Oftentimes, when you’re in a city, you can locate yourself within the timeline of that city by identifying different eras of architecture or by interpreting the relative age of the structures and landscape around you. When visiting a city that has been built in just the past five or six years, these indicators of age are not yet visible,” Caemmerer said.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613397/original/?width=630&version=2613397
Source: Kai Caemmerer
When Caemmerer did, on the rare occasion, run into people, they were usually intrigued by his archaic-looking, large format film camera.

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613398/original/?width=444&version=2613398
Source: Kai Caemmerer
These images are documenting a “complex moment in Chinese urbanisation,” Caemmerer said. “Many of these new cities are not expected to be complete or vibrant until 15-25 years after they begin construction. They are built for the distant future, and at present, we can only speculate on what form they will have taken when they reach this point in time.”
http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/2613401/original/?width=441&version=2613401
Source: Kai Caemmerer
- Sarah Jacobs

I suppose these 'unborn cities' are actually the polar opposite of 'ghost towns' but the effect is the same...eerie.

David Jamieson

02-22-2016, 02:54 PM

If nothing else, it's fascinating to see.
They could make a mint as movie sets.

I am Legend: The series. For instance. :D

GeneChing

02-29-2016, 11:18 AM

Slightly OT. I want to see this dragon slide.

Five-storey stainless steel slide installed in struggling Shanghai shopping mall (http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/weird-and-wacky/fivestorey-stainless-steel-slide-installed-in-struggling-shanghai-shopping-mall/news-story/17a558075c21b1ff168e672cb3cf007e)
FEBRUARY 29, 201611:17AM

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/557f19d18a0a5bc81194ff4607d588ac
It’s hoped a giant, winding slide will rescue a deserted shopping mall in Pudong, Shanghai.
Megan Palinnews.com.au

A FIVE-storey stainless steel slide has been installed in the middle of a Shanghai shopping mall so consumers can drop from top floor designer stores to ground floor boutiques at death-defying speeds.
The luxurious Printemps department store outlet in Shanghai’s exclusive Pudong District, east China, boasts state of the art amenities, designer brands and a remarkable 150-year Parisian retailing history. But declining sales have prompted the store’s management to think outside the box in a bid to attract more customers.
The meeting of creative minds has resulted in the unveiling of the mammoth dragon-shaped chute, which will be free of charge and is expected to start operating later this month.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/b7b9bd5659ebed15d46814da280c9fbc
The dragon-shaped chute at Printemps department store is made of stainless steel and will be free of charge.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/d6e00e4e2e1177c70dd19ce5581f08dd
Locals said the slide, which has not been inspected by the health and safety bureau, looked dangerous.

Social media users have expressed concern over the slide’s potential to cause serious injury or even death to those who use it. Pudong New area Market Supervision and Management Bureau said the slide does not require official in*spection and approval because it doesn’t fall into a “special equip*ment” category, the Shanghai Daily reported.
According to the bureau, the store has agreed to have the slide tested to ensure it is safe to use before opening to the public. China is notorious for its lax health and safety rules along with rapid development leading to preventable disastrous accidents.
The trip from top to bottom of the slide reportedly takes just 16 seconds. Those suffering from heart disease or a fear of heights are advised to take the escalators, lifts or stairs instead.
Children need to be over three-foot-tall and at least three years old to use the slide.
Yao Jin, who lives near the mall, told the Shanghai Daily the slide looked “fun” but that she had reservations about it.
“My son was very ex*cited and very interested to have a try, but I still have some concerns about its safety,” Yao Jin said.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/8e706fcbdae0595754e55a5095f4574b
The gimmick has already been attracting the crowds.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/651883ba2c14702efc996cc9fe8b367e
The Printemps department store operator has sent the slide for tests, and is fixing some potential safety hazards.

Another visitor, Jack Shen, said he would not be giving the slide a try. “It is a stunt of the department store, and the slide seems to be very dangerous,” he said. “Some people will probably get stuck in*side it because it looks long and narrow.”
People on China’s popular social media platform Weibo were mostly unimpressed by the pictures released online to promote the upcoming launch of the slide.
Ba dao zong cai rui wrote: “What if there is a loose screw and you fall down? Also the steel will likely be worn out quickly by high heels. I don’t even want to keep thinking.”
Guo pei ming SW chang cheng jiao shou agreed: “I’ll be satisfied if I can put some nails in it.”
Winter kong kong jiang referred to a film that involves death on rides: “As soon as I see it, I think of the movie Final Destination.”

I wish our malls had these.

Jimbo

02-29-2016, 01:15 PM

I don't think I'd actually want to use that slide. Especially in China. I wouldn't trust it not to fall apart or have other serious flaws.

GeneChing

03-02-2016, 10:41 AM

...a haunted house.

This abandoned “Chaonei No.81” house in China is described as “Beijing’s most celebrated haunted building” (https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/03/02/this-abandoned-chaonei-no-81-house-in-china-is-described-as-beijings-most-celebrated-haunted-house/)
Mar 2, 2016

Chaonei No.81, sometimes referred to as Chaonei Church, is a house located in the Chaoyangmen neighborhood of the Dongcheng District in Beijing, China. It is a brick structure in the French Baroque architectural style built in the early 20th century, with a larger outbuilding. The municipality of Beijing has designated it a historic building.

It is best known for the widespread belief that it is haunted, and it has been described as “Beijing’s most celebrated haunted house'”. Stories associated with the house include ghosts, usually of a suicidal woman, and mysterious disappearances.

https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/A-concrete-wall-surrounds-the-property-with-a-gate-of-opaque-metal-doors-allowing-entrance-from-the-street.-700x466.jpg
A concrete wall surrounds the property, with a gate of opaque metal doors allowing entrance from the street. Daniel Case (source)

Due to incomplete historical records, there is disagreement about who built the house and for what purpose. However, it is accepted that contrary to one frequently cited legend, the house was never the property of a Kuomintang officer who left a woman, either his wife or a mistress, behind there when he fled to Taiwan in 1949. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that year, records are more consistent. It was used as offices for various government agencies for most of the PRC’s early years. During the Cultural Revolution, in the late 1960s, it was briefly occupied by the Red Guards. Their hasty departure from the property has been cited as further evidence of the haunting. It is currently owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing, which in the late 1990s raised the possibility that it might one day serve as the Vatican embassy as a reason for not demolishing it.

https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2-10-700x466.jpg
By the end of the Civil War in 1949, this mansion was home to a high-ranking nationalist official. Daniel Case (source)

By the late 1930s it had become the property of a Catholic organization, possibly an American Benedictine group. An Irish-born priest may have attempted to use it in 1937, after which, the diocese claims, it was used by a group of Belgian Augustinian nuns as a clinic during World War II and until at least 1946.

After 1949, ownership and use records are available. The new Communist government took control, and used the buildings intermittently throughout the 1950s and early 1960s to house various government departments and agencies. By the time of the Cultural Revolution it had remained unused for some time, and according to a local resident it was briefly occupied by a group of Red Guards who left because they were frightened. Since then it does not appear to have been used by anyone either as a residence or workplace, and fell into disrepair.

“Even in the 1970s, people thought the house was haunted,” a Beijing resident who grew up behind the mansion at Chaonei No. 81 told the New York Times. “As children, we would play hide-and-seek in the house, but we didn’t dare come in by ourselves. Even the Red Guards who lived in the house during the Cultural Revolution got scared and left.”

https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/3-9-700x466.jpg
Chaonei No. 81 hasn’t been incorporated into demolition or reconstruction plans and is currently in a state of disuse. Daniel Case (source)

There have also been allegations of inexplicable disappearances connected to the house. The first claims that a British priest who had built the property, supposedly to be used as a church, went missing before it was finished. Investigators sent to look for him supposedly discovered instead a secret tunnel in the crypt that led to the Dashanzi neighborhood to the northeast. In the second, three construction workers in the basement of a neighboring building got drunk on the job, and decided to break through the thin wall between where they were and No. 81. After going through it, they have reportedly never been seen again. It is claimed that this incident, rather than the diocese’s interest in the building, is what led the government to cancel its plans to demolish the buildings in the late 1990s.

Other paranormal phenomena have been associated with the house. One claim is that anyone who walks by experiences a feeling of unease or dread while they do so. It is also said that during summers, it is always cooler in the mansion’s doorway than another shaded entryway of a modern house just 20 metres (66 ft) away.

The rumors and legends may have practical effects, making the property impossible to sell.

Talk about your great movie sets, DJ. This one is perfect for a horror flick.

And I feel ya, Jimbo, although I have ridden some thrill rides in PRC and lived to tell the tale. (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=6)

Jimbo

03-02-2016, 03:37 PM

...a haunted house.

In my observation/experience, many of the most truly 'haunted' places do not look like the classic 'haunted house'. Many are boringly ordinary-looking places with no reputation for being haunted. I had some experiences in an apartment building I lived in in Taipei for several years, though only a couple incidences. Also in a dorm room at a ski resort on Hohuanshan (Mt. Hohuan).

I knew several different guys in Taiwan who told me that during their mandatory military service, they had creepy experiences on base.

Back OT:
Since China has so many brand new, empty cities, why do they keep razing mountains to build more cities??

GeneChing

03-08-2016, 12:20 PM

Jimbo, that reminds me of my favorite Wednesday Addams quote 'I'm a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else.'

Here's more on ghost towns in China and what they really mean...

China desperately needs low-income migrant workers to buy homes and save the economy (http://qz.com/631271/china-needs-its-low-income-migrant-workers-to-buy-new-homes-and-save-its-economy/)

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/rtx1njsu-e1457081960829.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600
Your future home awaits. (Reuters/Stringer)

WRITTEN BY Simina Mistreanu
OBSESSION

China's Transition
March 07, 2016
In the past few years, China has relied on its astonishingly high number of rural migrant workers to pour into factories and construction sites and fuel its economy. Now, migrant workers are again seen as a solution for sustaining the country’s economic growth—this time by buying houses in China’s cities.
China has taken a series of measures in recent years to encourage white-collar workers to buy into its housing glut. But now the upper segment of the market is becoming saturated, and the government has no alternative but to turn to its low-income residents if it wants to avoid an economic meltdown.
“You come to a point where you cannot ignore the lower-end demand anymore because there is no demand at the higher end,” Rosealea Yao, a China investment analyst for research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, told Quartz. “That will tank your construction volume. And if your construction volume is falling too fast for too long, your economy is collapsing because one-third of GDP growth is coming from real estate and construction.”
“This is why you see China’s growth is slowing so fast,” she added. “From the government perspective, it’s not just about being nice to the low-income group.”

Out of reach

To entrepreneur Jiang He, a 34-year-old Beijing transplant from the city of Xuzhou in the Jiangsu province, buying a house has always felt out of reach. He first moved to the capital in 2000 to work as a security guard. He then tried his hand at selling international phone cards, but the rise of the Internet killed the business. He went back home to work in construction, but returned to Beijing in 2012 to found an express delivery business on the campus of Beijing International Studies University.

But his rising ambitions and status are no match for Beijing’s housing prices.
“I want to buy a house with three bedrooms because we have two children, but the price is two million yuan (about $300,000),” Jiang told Quartz.

Only 1% of China’s 270 million migrant workers own homes in cities where they work.

Most migrant workers would fall even shorter than Jiang does. Of China’s 270 million migrant workers, only 1% own homes (link in Chinese) in the cities where they work, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). They’re almost exclusively “migrant bosses”—business owners who sometimes buy apartments as investments, a real estate agent in Beijing’s Tongzhou district told Quartz (he didn’t want his name revealed).

Ghost towns

But it’s the smaller cities that have most of the excess housing. Almost 90% of the nation’s unsold houses are located in second- to fourth-tier cities. The most affected are small cities in the industrial northeast and along the coast. Cities like Hefei (in the Anhui province) and Hangzhou (in the Zhejiang province) have veritable “ghost towns” appended to their outskirts, the result of overconfident municipalities that saw that new construction raised their GDP and brought revenue from land sales.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/tianducheng-ghost-town.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1024
The Tianducheng development outside Hangzhou is a virtual ghost town, never mind a touch of Paris.(Reuters/Aly Song)

Estimates on just how much unsold housing inventory China has vary considerably. Yao puts it at three billion square meters, and says it will take about three years to sell the glut. NBS reports a much lower figure (link in Chinese)—686.3 million sq m at the end of October 2015, up 17.8% from the previous year—but its figures are often unreliable. HSBC puts the figure at 1.8 billion sq m. That’s enough to house about 90 million people (more than the population of Germany), says Julia Wang, an HSBC economist focused on Greater China.

HSBC estimates there’s enough empty housing in China for 90 million people.

Whatever the precise amount, it’s largely the result of misplaced optimism—and it now threatens to topple the national economy.
Most of the new-home construction occurred in the years following the global recession, when China invested trillions (paywall) of yuan to build roads, railways, and apartment buildings in an effort to stave off an economic downturn.

A national priority

Now, China’s top officials are not even trying to keep secret the looming risks associated with the housing market. During a cabinet meeting in December, premier Li Keqiang said that destocking the property market is a national priority (paywall). Even president Xi Jinping said, during an economic meeting on Nov. 10, that the government needed to “draw down the housing inventory” and “strive to achieve healthy development of the property industry,” reported the China Daily. (It noted he hadn’t commented specifically on China’s housing market since the fall of 2013.)
At the Central Economic Working Conference in December 2015, an annual meeting where leaders discuss economic policies for the following year, selling urban houses to migrants was listed as one of China’s main economic strategies for 2016, right up there with allowing outdated state companies to go bankrupt and promoting innovation in startups.

continued next post

GeneChing

03-08-2016, 12:21 PM

The housing crisis is already visible in the construction market.

The housing crisis is already visible in the construction market and in macroeconomic numbers: New construction starts were down 15% in 2015, which was the second consecutive year of decline, according to a Gavekal Dragonomics report. Steel production decreased in 2015 for the first time in over two decades, influenced by the weak construction starts. Even though new incentives such as interest-rate cuts and the removal of purchase restrictions brought a 10% boost in property sales by floor area last year, Gavekal analysts predict a 3% decrease for 2016.
The slowdown in housing investment (or construction starts) “shaved 1 percentage point off GDP growth in 2015,” HSBC’s Wang wrote in a report released in February.

https://atlas.qz.com/javascripts/atlas.js

The risk is indeed macroeconomic, said Yao of Gavekal Dragonomics: “If you have recession in the industrial sector, in manufacturing, and too sharp of a decline in GDP growth, there’s a macro risk. You have instability in the bank system because a lot of coal producers or steel producers do not produce any more, so they have no way to pay back the debt.”

Past policy mistakes

China’s official strategy and the homeownership dreams of migrant workers seem to be in line, so why are there not more migrant homeowners?
First, there’s money. Chinese migrant workers made an average 2,864 yuan ($573) per month in 2014, according to the NBS (link in Chinese). That’s at most 70% of the cost per square meter for apartments in small cities (link in Chinese), and only a fraction of the price in Beijing or Shanghai.
China historically has not supported its blue-collar workers to become homeowners. The country privatized its first homes in the late 1990s, as a response to the Asian financial crisis (boosting exports was the other major strategy adopted then). So the government basically allowed some urban residents to buy the homes they were living in at relatively low prices. This was considered an “implicit transfer of wealth” from the government to the households, noted Gavekal in a 2007 report (paywall), estimated at 4.5 trillion yuan, or a third of China’s 2003 GDP.
The buyers were white-collar, urban residents who had access to well-paying jobs and social services. Later on they took out cheap credits to upgrade their houses or buy a second or third property as investment. All the while, rural residents and migrant workers were left behind.
To help them afford new homes, the government will need to come up with new forms of subsidies. It’s done a bit of this already. In February it cut minimum down payments to 20% for first homes—all all-time low—and also reduced transaction taxes.

The government needs to reform the cumbersome system of hukou.

The government also needs to reform the cumbersome system of hukou, or household registration documents, as premier Keqiang noted last December. For decades people in China have been divided into two categories: urban vs. rural hukou holders. The later have received fewer benefits in cities—public schools, health care, social security—even if they lived there for work. They also couldn’t buy property there, assuming they could even afford to in the first place.
In 2014 the government loosened the restrictions a bit, helping migrant workers get hukou in smaller cities—but not in the bigger ones where many of the jobs are. A new regulation effective from Jan. 1 this year requires every city in China to offer a baseline of public services, mainly health care, for migrant workers that have lived in the city for at least six months and have a stable job. But it also allows each city to determine the specific benefits on offer, such as affordable housing policies.
Still, China now plans to register as many as 100 million rural migrants as urbanites by 2020. Last month officials announced that migrant workers will be integrated into larger cities in an orderly way over the next five years.
“It seems wishful thinking, but in reality this is something that’s bound to happen,” Yao said. “Otherwise it’s just too damaging for the economy.”
As for Jiang, he’s doubtful he’ll benefit from any policy changes. Even if he could afford the kind of home he wants in Beijing, he lacks a hukou for the city, without which he cannot buy property in it. And he’s guessing any upcoming policy changes will be more likely to benefit migrant workers employed at state companies, rather than entrepreneurs like himself.
For now, he’s resigned to renting. Not that he’s satisfied. Owning a house in Beijing means that you’ve settled down and have some guarantee, he said.
“If you just rent a house, you don’t feel like you are a Beijinger,” he added. “You feel like you can go away at any time.”
Qu Chaonan contributed reporting.

These would still make great movie sets...while their waiting to be filled, of course. :rolleyes:

Featherstone

03-08-2016, 01:36 PM

They could use them for the Walking Dead, would be perfect sets! Creepy factor is already in place.

GeneChing

03-24-2016, 09:05 AM

This one is really good. ;)

No one wants to shop in China’s giant Pentagon-shaped mall (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/01/25/globalpost-china-giant-pentagon-shaped-mall-shanghai/79308850/)
Jessica Phelan, GlobalPost 3:14 p.m. EST January 25, 2016

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9eb58e98b18330805501ed045db6830fc1a42056/c=230-0-1545-989&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2016/01/25/USATODAY/USATODAY/635893308394379462-XXX-AP-478660440709.jpg
(Photo: Bu bian, Imaginechina via AP)

For the world’s most populous country, China has a lot of places with no people.

Ironically, they tend to be the ones most elaborately designed to draw the crowds. Like, for instance, the $6 million airport on an island opposite North Korea that sees around 10 passengers a day.

Or Shanghai’s very own “Holland Town” and “Thames Town,” two of six surreal recreations of European cities plonked on the edge of the Chinese metropolis. Intended to mop up the overflow from Shanghai proper, today they serve chiefly as a backdrop to couples’ wedding photos.

Taking the title of Shanghai’s biggest single vacant building, however, is a development that takes its cues from the United States. The “Pentagonal Mart” is a vast mall based upon, yup, the five-sided HQ of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Built to coincide with Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo, the mall reportedly cost some $200 million and occupies around 124 acres (compared to the Pentagon’s 148 acres). Most of it has lain virtually empty ever since it was completed in 2009.

Eerie photos show escalators gathering dust and shiny floors untrod by shoppers. A smattering of cars can be seen parked in one of the outer lots, where one of the few stores operating sells foreign foods.

State media puts Pentagonal Mart’s struggles down to “its location and its confusing inner structures.” China’s slowing economic growth could also have something to do with it.

“The place was originally targeted at becoming a small-commodities market, but failed to attract retailers,” the Shanghai Morning Post quotes a government official as saying. “Later, the local government tried to set up outlet centers of imported products, but failed to be appealing to customers.”

The mall lies in Shanghai’s Pudong district, one of several state-sponsored “new areas” on the outskirts of Chinese cities where the government promotes large-scale development — and where white elephants and ghost towns are wont to spring up.

The Pentagonal Mart’s luckless developers hope they might yet see some footfall when Pudong gets its newest addition: mainland China’s first Disneyland. The mall is a mere 5 miles from the site of the future Shanghai Disney, which opens this summer and is expected to attract hordes of visitors.

Something tells us that that U.S. replica will have a little more success.

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost. Its content was created separately to USA TODAY.

bawang

03-24-2016, 09:22 AM

gene you do know that those china bashing news websites are funded by think tanks right

it aint gonna get u traffic bro

and there is a 2 year waiting list for the chinese built angola "ghost town" now lol

Jimbo

03-28-2016, 08:24 AM

Not a "ghost town", but interesting nonetheless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KVsrDHUo-I&sns=em

GeneChing

04-01-2016, 10:27 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmrn2IuSW-Q

it aint gonna get u traffic bro

You, of all our members, are worried about our traffic? :p

GeneChing

08-17-2016, 11:24 AM

The graveyard of luxury homes: Mesmerising photos show hundreds of abandoned villas in £1.2billion ghost city that may never be finished because the developer ran out of cash (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3741456/The-graveyard-luxury-homes-Mesmerising-photos-hundreds-abandoned-villas-1-2billion-ghost-city-never-finished.html?ITO=applenews)

The villas in China were abandoned after the developer ran out of money
These luxurious homes would have sold for as much as £1.47million each
Similar ghost cities with empty homes are not uncommon in the country

By QIN XIE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 08:28 EST, 15 August 2016 | UPDATED: 08:49 EST, 17 August 2016

These mesmerising photographs capture one of China's largest 'ghost cities' where hundreds of villas have been left abandoned.

The properties, which would have become luxurious homes in the city of Zhengzhou, have instead become overgrown with weeds.

They were left partially finished after the developer, who ploughed 12 billion Yuan (£1.2billion) into the project, ran out of money according to People's Daily Online.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/08/15/14/373FB4BB00000578-3741456-image-a-73_1471267111322.jpg
Abandoned: These mesmerising photographs capture one of China's largest 'ghost cities' where hundreds of villas have been left abandoned

Partially finished: The properties, which would have become luxurious (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/08/15/14/373FB1D300000578-3741456-image-a-2_1471267264200.jpg)
Partially finished: The properties, which would have become luxurious homes in the city of Zhengzhou, have instead become overgrown with weeds

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/08/15/14/373FB1C500000578-3741456-image-a-1_1471267264197.jpg
Loss: They were left partially finished after the developer, who ploughed 12 billion Yuan (£1.2billion) into the project, ran out of money

Li Hai Group bought close to 1,000mu (164 acres) of land according to the report.

The original plan was to develop 397 villas, each offering at least 5,500sqft of space, which would sell for as much as 14.7million Yuan (£1.47million).

Eight of these were located by a lake and have been equipped with their own docks according to China Business Journal.

In a country where the majority of people lived in high-rise flats, these homes would be considered particularly luxurious and spacious.

Between July 2013 and April 2014, the company managed to sell more than 200 of these properties to would-be home owners.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/08/15/14/373FB44000000578-3741456-image-a-76_1471267111330.jpg
Luxury: In a country where the majority of people lived in high-rise flats, these homes would be considered particularly luxurious and spacious

But, according to People's Daily, various violations of regulations led to the project being blocked from construction several times by the local government.

Eventually, the developer ran out money and was forced to abort the project in 2015.

With no one to take over the costly project, hundreds of these homes, some close to completion and others still a shell, have been left to nature.

Behind the locked gates, weeds, bushes and even trees have sprung up around the homes.

Ironically, the development is situated in a designated ecological area and the homes were intended to be eco-friendly.

Now it seems, they may never be finished and have become a sort of pollution.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/08/15/14/373FB1BF00000578-3741456-image-a-67_1471267051777.jpg
Forgotten: Behind the locked gates, weeds, bushes and even trees have sprung up around the homes

But ghost cities are not uncommon in China.

In February this year, MailOnline reported how several of these near-empty urban cities have emerged around the country.

They can be found in remote regions like Ordos in Inner Mongolia and also in cosmopolitan cities like Tianjin.

Some have even been furnished with museums and art installations but their population size remain a fraction of what it should be.

According to Chicago-based photographer, Kai Caemmerer, who captured many of these locations in his book 'Unborn Cities,' some of these cities may take between 15 to 25 years from their construction to become 'complete or vibrant'.

Ambition leads to ruin in the PRC.

GeneChing

09-14-2016, 12:35 PM

It's the wild, wild EAST: Beijing's abandoned Western film sets created when Communist Party bosses banned Hollywood cowboy flicks and told Chinese directors to make their own (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3789570/It-s-wild-wild-EAST-Beijing-s-abandoned-Western-film-sets-created-Communist-Party-bosses-banned-Hollywood-cowboy-flicks-told-Chinese-directors-make-own.html)

The 12-acre site was the base for some of China's biggest blockbusters for more than 50 years
Hundreds of props and other paraphernalia remain in the replica frontier town in central Beijing
Authorities have earmarked buildings for demolition but so far they have remained virtually untouched

By EMILY CHAN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 13:05 EST, 14 September 2016 | UPDATED: 13:05 EST, 14 September 2016

When iconic Westerns like The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and High Noon were banned in Communist China, Chinese directors were told to make their own cowboy flicks instead.
Now, fascinating photographs reveal an abandoned Western film set that was built in central Beijing and dubbed the 'Wild East'.
The John Wayne style one-horse frontier town has an oriental twist - saloons with Asian decor, Chinese statues and even Chairman Mao daubed on walls.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/38577AFE00000578-3789570-image-m-88_1473872303287.jpg
Fascinating photographs reveal an abandoned Western film set that was built in central Beijing and dubbed the 'Wild East'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/38577B7E00000578-0-image-a-8_1473869988038.jpg
Props, including Buddhist statues and replica soldiers, can be seen abandoned on the 12-acre site

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857794200000578-0-image-m-58_1473871211289.jpg
The John Wayne style one-horse frontier town has a Chinese twist, with traditional carvings adorning buildings and walkways

The 12-acre site was the base for some of China's biggest blockbusters and state propaganda films for more than 50 years, before bosses at the Beijing Film Academy abandoned it some ten years ago.
Eerie pictures show how crumbling buildings and hundreds of props used in movies like Journey to the West and Jackie Chan flick Kung Fu Kid have been left virtually untouched.
Chinese film posters remain plastered on the walls, stage make-up and mannequins are in the rooms, while scripts and even an actor's ID card litter the ground.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385778D600000578-0-image-a-4_1473869899321.jpg
The site was the base for some of China's biggest blockbusters and state propaganda films for more than 50 years

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857791000000578-0-image-a-24_1473870700354.jpg
Crumbling buildings have been left virtually untouched in the replica town, which was abandoned 10 years ago

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385A438400000578-0-image-m-48_1473870987897.jpg
Hundreds of props used in movies like Journey to the West and Jackie Chan flick Kung Fu Kid remain on the base, including this wooden wagon

University examiner Brendan Connal, 36, captured the images while exploring buildings in the Chinese capital.
Father-of-one Brendan, who is originally from Norwich but now works in China, said: 'Once I got over the wall and safely in the lot, there's the feeling of a one-horse cowboy movie.
'You're always expecting a Chinese John Wayne to stride through the Chinese-style gate and challenge some dupe to a shootout at midday.
'The government made their own versions of the biggest hits from the U.S. as they were pretty strict on western releases. Even now there is a limit to what can be shown.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857788500000578-0-image-m-49_1473871011251.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857788A00000578-0-image-a-50_1473871015869.jpg
Various paraphernalia remains at the film set, including this China Film Group sticker and Beijing Film Studio leaflet

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857789100000578-0-image-a-26_1473870796246.jpg
University examiner Brendan Connal captured the images while exploring buildings in the Chinese capital

'The set is more like the Wild East, a Chinese version of the cowboy films that were proving so popular at the time. Most of the films that came out of here were mixed with propaganda messages.
'What's impressive about this place is that all the props and even the make-up used in so many films has been left untouched for years, whereas most buildings get stripped quickly.'
The sprawling film set is split into two sections - a front end covering an area of six or seven football pitches and a second back slightly smaller. continued next post

GeneChing

09-14-2016, 12:36 PM

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385A42CA00000578-0-image-a-29_1473870840365.jpg
The site includes buildings used for early Chinese propaganda movies including Song of the Red Flag. Pictured is the Chinese word for fortune adorning the wall

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385778DF00000578-0-image-a-60_1473871375350.jpg
An army of soldier statues have been abandoned on the site, with the last film crew leaving in 2008

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385777CF00000578-0-image-m-68_1473871538907.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385777AF00000578-0-image-a-69_1473871550605.jpg
Pictured is a lion ornament adorning a doorway (left); and a prosthetic hand lying abandoned on the ground

The site includes buildings used for early Chinese propaganda movies including Song of the Red Flag, Legend of Old Solders, Wild Boar Forest and Dream of Red Mansions.
It was gradually abandoned with the last crews leaving in 2008.
State authorities have earmarked the buildings for demolition but so far they have remained virtually untouched - with outsiders having to clamber over huge walls to get inside.
Mr Connal said locations like the former Beijing Film Academy could disappear within a few days once the government machine kicks into action.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/38577AAF00000578-0-image-m-62_1473871404215.jpg
Models in traditional costume have been left abandoned in one of the rooms on the film set

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385775A700000578-0-image-a-73_1473871583850.jpg
Masks and prosthetics, as well as stage-make up, can still be seen in another building on site

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/38577B0600000578-0-image-a-9_1473869993987.jpg
State authorities have earmarked the buildings for demolition but so far they have remained virtually untouched
continued next post

GeneChing

09-14-2016, 12:37 PM

He has explored dozens of buildings in the country and now hopes to turn his hobby into a business working with directors to source film sets and give urban exploration tours.
Mr Connal added: 'There are some phenomenal derelict and unfinished buildings in China. Sometimes they'll get pulled down within a few weeks and other times they'll stand empty for years or even decades.
'Chinese investors take bigger risks in construction. That's driven the economy, but the other side of that is that more businesses fail and go bankrupt than they do in the west.
'When they go bankrupt, they leave the buildings half finished or just move out of them all together.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/38577B1E00000578-0-image-a-54_1473871070201.jpg
Mr Connal said locations like the former Beijing Film Academy could disappear within a few days once the government machine kicks into action

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385777D700000578-0-image-a-45_1473870944614.jpg
The sprawling film set is split into two sections - a front end covering an area of six or seven football pitches and a second back end that is slightly smaller

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857754800000578-0-image-m-78_1473871643147.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385A429E00000578-0-image-a-79_1473871647460.jpg
Pictured is a metal staircase (left) in one of the large derelict buildings; and rubble in one of the corridors

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385777D300000578-0-image-a-63_1473871430917.jpg
Many of the buildings on the large site have been stripped down. Early Chinese propaganda movies such as Legend of Old Solders, Wild Boar Forest and Dream of Red Mansions were filmed on the site

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385A3E6300000578-0-image-m-84_1473871695078.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/385A58D200000578-0-image-a-85_1473871699453.jpg
Mr Connal has explored dozens of buildings in the country and now hopes to turn his hobby into a business working with directors to source film sets and give urban exploration tours

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857768900000578-0-image-a-71_1473871557939.jpg
Chinese directors were told to make their own versions of popular Western films that were banned in the country

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/14/17/3857790000000578-0-image-m-59_1473871245704.jpg
Chinese film posters remain plastered on the walls, while scripts and even an actor's ID card was found on site

What a cool creepy location.

GeneChing

04-12-2017, 02:03 PM

12 eerie photos of enormous Chinese cities completely empty of people (http://www.businessinsider.com/these-chinese-cities-are-ghost-towns-2017-4/#when-caemmerer-found-out-about-these-empty-cities-he-was-immediately-fascinated-as-an-architectural-photographer-i-found-the-notion-of-a-contemporary-ghost-town-to-be-appealing-in-a-sort-of-unsettling-way-he-said-1)

Sarah Jacobs
Apr. 8, 2017, 9:00 AM 406,831

http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f36e97c621048b7b4e-1200/10unborncitiesno18.jpg
An empty city in China.Kai Caemmerer

Throughout China, there are hundreds of cities that have almost everything one needs for a modern, urban lifestyle: high-rise apartment complexes, developed waterfronts, skyscrapers, and even public art. Everything, that is, except one major factor: people.

These mysterious — and almost completely empty — cities are a part of China's larger plan to move up to 300 million citizens currently living in rural areas into urban locations. Places like the Kangbashi District of Ordos are already prepped and ready to be occupied.

Photographer Kai Caemmerer became fascinated with these urban plans, and in 2015 he traveled to China to explore and document them. His series, "Unborn Cities," depicts a completely new type of urban development. "Unlike in the US, where cities often begin as small developments and grow in accordance to the local industries, these new Chinese cities are built to the point of near completion before introducing people," he told Business Insider.

When Caemmerer found out about these empty cities, he was immediately fascinated. "As an architectural photographer, I found the notion of a contemporary ghost town to be appealing in a sort of unsettling way," he said.

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f16e97c61d008b7ba3-1200/when-caemmerer-found-out-about-these-empty-cities-he-was-immediately-fascinated-as-an-architectural-photographer-i-found-the-notion-of-a-contemporary-ghost-town-to-be-appealing-in-a-sort-of-unsettling-way-he-said.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.02, 2015," 44 x 55 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

"These new Chinese cities are built to the point of near completion before introducing people," Caemmerer said. "Because of this, there is an interim period between the final phases of development and when the areas become noticeably populated, during which many of the buildings stand empty."
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f16e97c62e008b7bb1-1200/these-new-chinese-cities-are-built-to-the-point-of-near-completion-before-introducing-people-caemmerer-said-because-of-this-there-is-an-interim-period-between-the-final-phases-of-development-and-when-the-areas-become-noticeably-populated-during-which-many-of-the-buildings-stand-empty.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.92, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

In 2015, Caemmerer photographed the Kangbashi District of Ordos, the Yujiapu Financial District near Tianjin, and the Meixi Lake development near the city of Changsha.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f36e97c621048b7b4e-1200/10unborncitiesno18.jpg
"It was the uniform newness of these cities that originally piqued my interest," Caemmerer said.
"Unborn Cities, No.07, 2015," 44 x 55 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

"Oftentimes these 'new areas' are satellite cities located within the proximity of an older, more established city," he explained.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f16e97c622048b7b15-1200/oftentimes-these-new-areas-are-satellite-cities-located-within-the-proximity-of-an-older-more-established-city-he-explained.jpg.
Caemmerer would stay overnight at a neighboring, more populated city.
"Unborn Cities, No.01, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

continued next post

GeneChing

04-12-2017, 02:03 PM

He photographed twice a day — before sunrise and just after sunset — for 80 straight days.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f16e97c61e048b7b0f-1200/he-photographed-twice-a-day--before-sunrise-and-just-after-sunset--for-80-straight-days.jpg
Luckily, Caemmerer didn't run into legal issues while photographing the cities. "These areas felt very secure," he said.
"Unborn Cities, No.89, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

Because of the newness of the places, Caemmerer described the cities as "surreal" and "uncanny."
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f36e97c662008b7b55-1200/because-of-the-newness-of-the-places-caemmerer-described-the-cities-as-surreal-and-uncanny.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.46, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

"Oftentimes, when you're in a city, you can locate yourself within the timeline of that city by identifying different eras of architecture or by interpreting the relative age of the structures and landscape around you. When visiting a city that has been built in just the past five or six years, these indicators of age are not yet visible," Caemmerer said.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f36e97c631008b7b5c-1200/oftentimes-when-youre-in-a-city-you-can-locate-yourself-within-the-timeline-of-that-city-by-identifying-different-eras-of-architecture-or-by-interpreting-the-relative-age-of-the-structures-and-landscape-around-you-when-visiting-a-city-that-has-been-built-in-just-the-past-five-or-six-years-these-indicators-of-age-are-not-yet-visible-caemmerer-said.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.09, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

Luckily, Caemmerer didn't run into legal issues while photographing the cities. "These areas felt very secure," he said.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f26e97c625048b7b13-1200/luckily-caemmerer-didnt-run-into-legal-issues-while-photographing-the-cities-these-areas-felt-very-secure-he-said.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.89, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

When Caemmerer did, on the rare occasion, run into people, they were usually intrigued by his archaic-looking, large-format film camera.
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f36e97c660008b7aed-1200/when-caemmerer-did-on-the-rare-occasion-run-into-people-they-were-usually-intrigued-by-his-archaic-looking-large-format-film-camera.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.33, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

These images are documenting a "complex moment in Chinese urbanization," Caemmerer said. "Many of these new cities are not expected to be complete or vibrant until 15 to 25 years after they begin construction. They are built for the distant future, and at present, we can only speculate on what form they will have taken when they reach this point in time."
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56c4a6f36e97c623048b7b6e-1200/these-images-are-documenting-a-complex-moment-in-chinese-urbanization-caemmerer-said-many-of-these-new-cities-are-not-expected-to-be-complete-or-vibrant-until-15-to-25-years-after-they-begin-construction-they-are-built-for-the-distant-future-and-at-present-we-can-only-speculate-on-what-form-they-will-have-taken-when-they-reach-this-point-in-time.jpg
"Unborn Cities, No.88, 2015," 55 x 70 inches. Pigment print.Kai Caemmerer

These still look like a lot of fun to explore.

GeneChing

09-17-2018, 01:56 PM

Ghost cities are so weird. I wonder how many of these there actually are.

Sep 16, 2018, 07:54pm
China Should Rein In Ghost Cities That Kill The Dreams Of Its Young Citizens (https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/09/16/china-should-rein-in-ghost-cities-that-kill-the-dreams-of-its-young-citizens/#6eeeade6d3ea)
Panos Mourdoukoutas
Contributor

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fdam%2Fimageserve%2F61499845 8%2F960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale
. (Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)

China’s ghost cities make it extremely difficult for young Chinese to buy a home and form a family. And that’s bad news for the future of China, and its financial markets.

China has two types of cities -- conventional cities crowded with apartment buildings occupied by people; and unconventional cities, crowded with buildings with vacant apartments.

That’s why they are called “ghost cities.” They are usually owned by land developers and speculators who count on selling them one day at sky prices.

The trouble is that keeping a large supply of new apartments off the market creates a huge housing shortage. And that pushes the prices for “second-hand” houses ever higher. Shanghai’s Second-Hand House Price Index has soared from under 1000 in 2003 to around 4000 in 2017.

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fpanosmourdoukoutas%2Ffiles%2F2 018%2F09%2Fkoyfin_20180916_083858402-1200x600.jpg
China Newly Built Home Prices KOYFIN

That’s bad news for everyone who is in the market looking for a home to live in, and particularly, for young people who to buy a home and form a family.

“The despair is perhaps particularly acute for the growing legions of young men who can’t find a mate because they can’t afford a house: 70 percent of single Chinese women say that the first thing they look for in a man is the deed to an apartment,” observes Ruchir Sharma in the Breakout Nations. “Meanwhile cash-rich Chinese are buying multiple homes.”

As a result, Chinese people are putting off marriage to a latter age. The average age of first-time marriage in the eastern province was 34.2 years in 2017 - 34.3 years for women and 34.1 for men, according to the latest statistics released by Jiangsu Province's Civil Affairs Bureau. Five years ago, the average age was 29.6 years. And in 2015 it was 32.4.

That could explain why China’s marriage rates have plummeted close to 30% in the last five years.

To be fair, the government has been trying to address the issue by building public housing, but this policy ends up creating more ghost cities. “In response the government is employing land-use laws to force developers to build social housing,” says Sharma. “This leads to a final mismatch. Few young Chinese aspire to live in public tract homes, so some of these developments may become new ghost cities.”

Meanwhile, the big drop in marriage rates is expected to worsen China’s demographic problem. It will lead to lower birth rates, a shrinking labor force and unfavorable “dependency rates” — too few working people will have to support too many retired people.

That’s bad news for the future of the Chinese economy and financial markets.

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Shanghai Composite Index KOYFIN

Perhaps China should learn a lesson or two from Japan -- which has already encountered similar housing and demographic trends -- and gets its housing policy right: by placing young families into homes rather than making speculators rich.

I’m Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at LIU Post in New York. I also teach at Columbia University. I’ve published several articles in professional journals and magazines, including Barron’s, The New York Times, Japan Times, Newsday, Plain Dealer, Edge Singa... MORE
My recent book The Ten Golden Rules Of Leadership is published by AMACOM, and can be found here.

GeneChing

08-03-2023, 09:50 AM

See Inside a Ghost Town of Abandoned Mansions in China
Now, farmers are reportedly putting the land of the deserted development to use
By Katherine McLaughlin
August 1, 2023

The State Guest Mansions were envisioned as the palatial homes for the upper crust of society. Now, their only residents are hurdles of cattle and the occasional adventure explorers meandering like ghosts around the arched verandas and stone façades of hundreds of abandoned villas. Located around the hills of Shenyang (about 400 miles northeast of Beijing), the development was originally planned by Greenland Group, a Shanghai-based real estate developer, and broke ground in 2010. But as AFP reports, within two years the project had come to grinding halt, leaving the half-formed skeletons of imitative royalty in its wake. Today the crumbling estates are still abandoned, left in an eerie series of rows appearing like an architectural cornfield.

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Makeshift pens corral cattle and other farm animals.
Photo: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images

The irony of this formation will only grow more apparent as the seasons begin to turn, as local farmers have begun plowing the land between villas for future crops. Would-be garages of the abandoned mansions are now repurposed as storage for hay bails, and modest two-rail fences corral herds of cows between properties. “These (homes) would have sold for millions—but the rich haven’t even bought one of them,” a farmer named Guo told AFP. The exact reasons for the development’s failure were never made clear, though locals have their theories. Guo said he believed official corruption was to blame and noted that funding for the project was likely cut when the government began cracking down on uncontrolled developments.

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The plowed fields of the development were originally expected to be the verdant gardens of the homeowners.
Photo: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images
The interiors of the abandoned mansions are perhaps even more poignant than the exteriors. A heavy layer of dust and scraps of garbage are the only furnishing in the rooms, a stark contrast to what appears to be marble floors and columns, crystal chandeliers, coffered ceilings, and intricate marquetry. In what would have been the sales center, a model of the completed 260-villa neighborhood still sits.

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A model of the development is seen in the sales center
Photo: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images
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Developers had already made significant progress on the homes when the project was abandoned.
Photo: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images

Ghosts towns are not unusual in China, where an estimated 65 million homes are left empty. For decades, the country’s economy was driven by real estate, so much so that the government often encouraged large-scale developments. But an aging population and affordability concerns, among other factors, resulted in a supply-demand imbalance, at times creating entirely vacant cities. Thames Town, a suburb outside of Shanghai designed to emulate London, is now virtually empty. Kangbashi, or “the empty city,” in Ordos, however, is perhaps the most recognized of this phenomenon.
Wonder why no one bothers to squat in these. I guess the cows are squatting...