China building "ghost cities"

[Rochard]

I think this is typical of the communist system. They build things even if it's not needed. I remember in Russia in the 1990s there was an article about how a glass plant was told to build "X" amount of windows that year, but most of them weren't needed or used, and instead were stored at the factory.

I tried to look this up at snopes.com and found nothing.

 

[DVJ38]

China's weird.. I wonder what the real reasoning for this is though.

 

[Blkss13]

Why would it be for aftermath of war? What's to say those "cities" don't get blown the F up too?

Doesn't make any sense at all. There's no way that's what they are for.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[thomas91169]

Watching the work the chinese do in the construction field in Socal, it scares me to think of how many corners were cut to build all those city's. Around here the chinese are taking the jobs even from the mexicans. The average bid from chinese shops is around 35% lower than mine. Past clients call me and tell me to match their price, because they've liked our work but don't want to pay our bid price. I encourage them to take the lower chinese bid and to call me when they need things fixed. Quite a few have done it and all but one has called me in to do repairs. On one occasion we had to demo the whole job and start over. They cut corners, ruin material and don't take time to align things properly. You get what you payed for.

Yup ill agree with this.

"Why is your bid higher?"
"Because you wont have to do it twice vs the other guy"

 

[JasonSnake]

Yup ill agree with this.

"Why is your bid higher?"
"Because you wont have to do it twice vs the other guy"

Actually, as low as their bid is, they could do it 3 times and still have room left to fix more.

 

[harry gilbert]

China's weird.. I wonder what the real reasoning for this is though.

Chairman's relatives own building company; party officials get kickbacks. Same as our current system.

 

[pwrshft99]

I remember a show on Discovery, Life after People. One of the things that suprised me was how fast buildings erode when not been maintained or used. Some of these cities seem to be 5+ years old already.

Maybe aliens are comming? :shrug:

 

[harry gilbert]

Life After People scenes must be filmed in Detroit.

 

[cjuni]

Revisiting China’s ‘Empty City’ of Ordos - China Real Time Report - WSJ

 

[CobraRed01]

Build infrastructure now while they are rolling in cash and costs are low? Give the People a government subsidized taste of the good life to raise consumer demand for local products to sustain a massive economy? Use a promise to reward those who work hardest (and cheapest) with subsidized housing??? All I got.

Oh yeah...how about pork-barrel, "road to nowhere" projects for the wealthy Chinese businessmen friends of the "powers that be" there. Bet that's it. Hell, a good place to dump all that toxic sheetrock and get paid well for it!!!

 

[thomas91169]

Actually, as low as their bid is, they could do it 3 times and still have room left to fix more.

But will they have it right by the time their 3rd chance comes around?

 

[Rick James]

such a waste of assets... the chinese are creeping up in this world; super power within sight!

Umm. Pretty sure China already carries the superpower card, haha....

 

[SVTContique]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to China when their government turns Democratic instead of Communist like it will surely do.

 

[DirtyD916]

China's attempt to cover up their inflated GDP numbers...

Bingo. One of my econ professors last year had a very big presentation on this very issue. Spending billions of dollars on these cities to give the appearance of drastic growth.