New satellite pictures show massive skyscraper cities which are still completely empty

[Earth_First]

As sprawling housing developments and skyscrapers in one of the world's most populous countries, these tower blocks and recently-built neighbourhoods should be busy and swarming with people.

But on closer inspection these stunning pictures show elaborate public buildings and open spaces which are left completely empty.

The most recent pictures of unused housing emerged as China announced plans to build 20 cities a year for the next 20 years.

Soulless cities: Despite being unable to find buyers for the hundreds of millions of new homes, China plans to build 20 cities a year for the next 20 years

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005231/Chinas-ghost-towns-New-satellite-pictures-massive-skyscraper-cities-STILL-completely-empty.html

[Drale]

1. What a freaking waist

How many people could they feed, not only in China, but around the world, with all that money they are waisting on building ghost cities?

[Maru Kitteh]

19. "Waist" is what exists between your rib cage and your hip bone. Waste is happens when someone

gives Sarah Palin a book that doesn't have pictures in it.

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. ....

:spray:

[Taverner]

48. What a Waest

I hait et wen peeple waest stuph

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. Maybe they're expecting an influx of Americans moving to China to find jobs.

:sarcasm:
Fascinating though, isn't it?

[robinlynne]

43. sans sarcasm... I was thinking of all the homeless people, looking at those pics.

[Avalux]

3. WTF? n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

4. I like the pics, but that satellite must have been flying low in the last pic.

:)

[Earth_First]

5. lol, touche! n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

52. lol. There are other ground level pics of these empty cities on the web

[Sky Masterson]

6. This is a must see!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E
China's Ghost Cities and Malls

[Earth_First]

8. Thanks for the addition... n/t

[KittyWampus]

15. That was an eye opener.

[RKP5637]

18. This is excellent! Very interesting and informative! Thanks for posting this link. n/t

[marmar]

7. This is going to make the Dubai bubble bust look bush league-ish.

nt

[Ikonoklast]

11. Yep. You are absolutely correct.

The coming real estate bubble bursting in China will be a stupendous one.

There are people right now shorting China, for a very good reason.


The capitalists there make ours look like tourists.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. This is precisely why I don't fear the Chinese. I knew their greed would get them.

It is only a matter of time before they fuck up. Won't be good for us either, but we will not lose our edge in the long run.

[wickerwoman]

10. This offends me less than heaps of empty office space.

Here's how working class people live now:


(Older housing in Beijing)


(Typical walk up housing)


(Trailers for construction workers and their families)

At least a glut in the housing market will increase affordability and allow more people to move into modern housing.

The pictures above look like Pudong in Shanghai. There were a lot of developments like that around where I lived and they weren't empty. They were mostly bought by upper middle class Chinese and foreigners as investments. I'm sure they've been hit by the economic slowdown but this isn't really any different than all the empty McMansions in the US.

[Synicus Maximus]

12. What' the purpose?

[TalkingDog]

13. To keep their economy from collapsing the way ours is in the process of collapsing

When they employ builders the money keeps moving through the economy. If they stop building their unemployment rates skyrocket, they stop spending money on materials and well, just go look up our housing collapse and go from there.

Our only current equivalent is sending people to wars and not bringing them home.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Spot On...

Just think of the shock to the economic system if all troops were brought home...with no jobs to come home to. Add to that the large number of contractors and the various stateside contractors. Sadly war is a job works program.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Why not put them to work in infrastructure? PLENTY of that needs to be done. n/t

[KharmaTrain]

26. They Have...

There's the Three Gorges Dam that was the largest public works project ever as well as the development of high speed rail and highway networks. The population shift from rural (where many lived on a subsitance economy) to the cities and factories has changed that country's dynamics.

[Maru Kitteh]

32. Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant *here.* Why not transition the war machine to more productive

endeavor here working on infrastructure. Create a WPA again.

[Fumesucker]

33. Because Republicans and a lot of Democrats will vote for bombs..

But they will never vote for infrastructure.

[KharmaTrain]

34. Only When There's A Bigger Profit Margin...

...in building sewers than Humvees.

[TalkingDog]

41. Because Infrastructure is "Socialistic" Why should my tax dollars pay for your bridges?

We have to get past the idiot teabaggers.

[On the Road]

23. That's What a Lot of People Were Fearing After WWII --

a return to the depression. Instead the country got 25 years of solid growth.

[KharmaTrain]

24. Thank The GI Bill For That...

Many GIs took advantage of the low cost loans to go to school or start a business that was a major catalyst for the boom of the 50s and 60s. These days instead of encouraging education, getting a college degree is nearly cost prohibitive and will hurt this nation in many ways in the years ahead.

[tblue37]

29. The GI bill also provided for low-cost home loans so the

returning soldiers could own a home.

[uponit7771]

35. +1

[JHB]

16. "Trickle-down" Chinese style

Speculation for all the growth that's been promised, but has been rather short on transmitting that new wealth across the whole economy. Paying salaries high enough to live in those places would cut into the profits of the well-connected (and politically reliable) people at the top. Plus it's likely quite a bundle for whoever gets those construction contracts.

It's a big trough of government funds an speculation, and I have my doubts as to whether there is the political will and strength to close the valve on that gravy train before it crashes.

[Fool Count]

14. It's not like there is any immediate danger of China

running out of people any time soon. Or of Chinese government not being able to come up with few million people to fill those buildings up
on very short notice. Call me naive, but I am not too worried yet. I reckon they would find someone to occupy those apartments eventually.
With $2 trillion in the bank Chinese government could probably afford giving those flats away for free if need be. In general, not a bad reserve
to have when it is time to keep disaffected Chinese off the streets and moving into better housing.

[Odin2005]

21. China is heading straight for enviromental-economic disaster.

[Distant Observer]

22. Oh, we are so wise, and China so dumb. They don't know what they are doing!

[Nevernose]

27. China's foolishness is not a reflection

...either positive or negative, on the United States' wisdom or foolishness.

They do have their own massive housing bubble, though, and a huge glut of overpriced, empty homes. It's a real problem, and apparently even the average Chinese citizen doesn't know why people keep building. It's a common rumor even in China is that it's to prevent a total economic collapse as well as a jobs program.

[Odin2005]

30. It shows the idiocy of the "build our way to prosperity" philosophy.

I see no parks or civic areas in those pictures, just block upon block of identical soulless high-rises. Obviously nobody taught the Chinese what a social disaster such "projects" were in the US and Europe. It's the opposite of sustainable and person-centered communities.

[TalkingDog]

42. Do YOU know what they are doing? Cause I sure as hell can't figure it out.

Beyond what I stated upthread: They are desperately trying to keep their economy afloat with make-work projects.

[Distant Observer]

45. Yes I do, but who cares. We have nothing to say one way or the other

[TalkingDog]

53. Well, spill. I like to know things.

"We have nothing to say one way or the other"

I don't know what this means.

[Skip Intro]

25. Hard to imagine that China has a housing surplus. Just sayin...

[uponit7771]

39. Thats what happens when money flows into a relative few hands, no spread wealth or growth

[Scottybeamer70]

28. Well......

If aliens from space land in those locations first, they will think everyone has already left,
and they will turn around and go home. :rofl:

[trumad]

36. Looks like downtown Orlando.

[uponit7771]

37. If you take out 95% of real estate from GDP growth China is still at 8% GDP yty...

...the difference with THEIR bubble possibly busting is there will still be a money flow.

What's bad is theirs a concentration of money right now in China, if it were more spread out there would be a less of a bubble.

From the video up thread China SHOULD be experiencing inflation at the lower income level at a higher rate and they're not again because they're pushing a lot of money into a relative few hands...

Hopefully they'll learn from US mistakes, rich folk don't spend money at the volumes the poor and middle class CAN.

[somone]

38. They also built the largest - and empty - shopping mall in the world

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223747/Ghost-mall-The-worlds-largest-loneliest-shopping-centre.html

[Ganja Ninja]

40. Either wages will have to rise big time or ..

there's going to be a lot of free apartments handed out at some investors expense.

[Canuckistanian]

44. And the workmanship is top-rate

Except when it isn't.

[octothorpe]

50. Wow, I've never seen a building fall over intact like that.

[Lucian]

46. Waste. Of. Money.

[Taverner]

47. If China really wanted to fill these, they could offer free rent to the homeless and poor

Ship them in, and eventually the cities would support themselves

[Distant Observer]

49. Its called "Central Planning," " Industrial Policy," etc. Stuff we don't do - except when we did!

Sometimes it works.

[felix_numinous]

51. Cue Twilight Zone theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSRm80WzZk

Well a whole lot of people made $$ selling this land and building it.