The oddity of the empty cities in China has been a story for a few years now but the truth of how they were built is now on display and the lack of standards is indeed shocking.
There is a problem in china with overcrowding that has caused major spikes in real estate prices. The major cities are huge and packed to the brim with people. Every inch is owned and there isn't much that can be done there to alleviate the issue due to many reasons including government regulations and the physical reality that up is the only direction left to go. Unfortunately, taller buildings are more expensive and chasing the sky usually does not help reduce the cost of housing.
That has caused many people to have no hope of ever owning a home and that effects retirement plans and has all sorts of other effects that can be felt across the entire culture. Here is where the government gets involved but their well intentioned central planners may have made things worse.
Instead of letting suburbs grow organically and adjusting their agricultural zones, the Chinese government commissioned massive cities to be built about an hour and half, by highway, away from the major cities with the problem of overcrowding. The problem seems to be that no one wants to move there and I think I understand why.
China has a very long history of relocating people in their society but i want to focus on modern times as it pertains to the issue of ghost cities best. Each time they have forced citizens to move, for their many different public projects and a reputation of making mistakes has developed over the years. Public skepticism is on the rise because of some amazing failures by engineers both in the privet sector and those working for the government.
UPDATE: the original video in this post below is now unavailable so I will add a new to show their construction standards from their own point of view.
I would say that only one or perhaps two of those incidents off that list can be chalked up to bad luck but most can easily be described as bad planning instead. These tragedies are much more visible in the information age and failures can not be hidden as easily, even with there censorship efforts in full effect. After all, how can you hide an incident like half of a sky scraper falling off its foundation into the streets in a city with millions of residents.
One may think that this would encourage people to move out to the newest cities, quite a few investors did think that for sure, but with such a bad track record I don't blame anyone for taking a wait and see approach to relocating on their own.
I think that the Chinese citizens' apprehension was well warranted now that the state of these new cities is on display. The shocking construction standards that were allowed has resulted in buildings that are dangerous to be in and around only a few years after they were finished being built.
Even without regular maintenance this is too much deterioration for only three years. I would never want to live in a huge building made out of the worst materials the modern world has to offer. Imagine living in a high rise that is literally turning into dust around you? Who would walk down the street if there was a constant danger of huge slabs of brick wall can come falling down on them?
If this was going on in a capitalistic society I would be thinking that this must be a massive fraud scheme. It would most likely be a mob like way that a crooked company uses to get their hands on investor's money, just to have their construction company quickly disappear before the buildings fall over. It does happen here in America for sure, the Big Dig project in Boston comes to mind, but over in China things are different.
In the case of these ghost cities I will give the Chinese government the benefit of the doubt, I won't accuse anyone of having anything but the best intentions here. They most likely saw their citizens suffering and did this because they saw it as the fastest, most affordable way to get them the relief they need. Bad judgement is the key here though I would say, it was impressive at first to see these huge metropolises being built so quickly but the fact that they are made in such a rushed and shoddy way takes away anything positive I could say about the effort.
This reminds me of the 1893 World's Fair where the city of Chicago built a small city out of plaster and stucco to host the event knowing it was temporary and could not last long in the elements. The difference is, the people of Chicago had a deadline for their event and it was designed to be up for a couple years and no one would be actually living in their fake city.
The idea that this is not a scam, that this really is the plan of the Chinese government to fix their housing crisis, may be the scariest scenario though. It seems like only a matter of time before they force people to move into these decrepit cities given their history of such actions. When it does happen I expect it to be under the guise of a public works project in an overcrowded city like another park or stadium.
This could lead to a humanitarian crises if they do force their population to relocate to a crumbling city. The conditions in the ghost cities are extremely poor as is but they will only get worse once they're in use. The vibrations of cars and other machinery along with the heating and cooling that will take place will add to the disintegration of these buildings. I can only imagine how many problems will become apparent when the infrastructure gets put to the test as well. Given the fact that they cut so many corners on the things we can see, what is hidden underneath can only be worse in my estimation.
This situation brings up a few questions in my mind. How long will the Chinese let their multi billion dollar investments rot away? What will the world say if things move forward on this path? If people do get hurt by this and the world community doesn't see it as a crime against humanity, will other countries emulate this odd central planning tactic?
There is no doubt an ongoing crises in urban areas across the globe, I believe that building more urban areas, especially shoddy ones, is not the solution. Please let me know what you think.
