The ghost towns of China

Mail Online ^ | 18th December 2010 | Daily Mail Reporter

[GravityFree]

These amazing satellite images show sprawling cities built in remote parts of China that have been left completely abandoned, sometimes years after their construction.

Elaborate public buildings and open spaces are completely unused, with the exception of a few government vehicles near communist authority offices.

Some estimates put the number of empty homes at as many as 64 million, with up to 20 new cities being built every year in the country's vast swathes of free land.

The photographs have emerged as a Chinese government think tank warns that the country's real estate bubble is getting worse, with property prices in major cities overvalued by as much as 70 per cent.

[GravityFree]

If you think we had a real estate bubble here in the United States

The scope of the problem in China truly boggles the mind. They may have as many as 64 MILLION unoccupied homes ! ! !

[M-cubed]

if only Mexico bordered China!...We’d be home free!

[sinanju]

If this is for real, China is going down and seeing as they are holding us up that can’t be good.

[ClearCase_guy]

Economic trouble in China.
Economic trouble in Europe.
Economic trouble here.
Crazy people with nukes in North Korea.
Crazy people with nukes in Iran.
RINOs in Washington.

2011 will not be better than 2010.

[Army Air Corps]

Deport the illegal aliens to China, perhaps...

[redgolum]

It is real. My company has plants in China, and in many of the towns the buildings are empty. No one can afford an apartment.

It is getting worse too.

[JRios1968]

The trouble is, one hour after occupying a Chinese house, you want to occupy another...

Thank you, I’ll be here all week...

[Army Air Corps]

No one can afford an apartment.

Is that the result of overvalued property or a drop in incomes?

[Viking2002]

I'll go the conspiracy theory route here: possible emergency civilian housing in the event of war, in case established major population centers are destroyed or rendered uninhabitable?

Props to cripplecreek for the graphics!

[omega4179]

Send 64 million Mexicans, after all, cheap labor drives a good economy.

[WestwardHo]

When they say “homes” are they talking individual houses or high rise apartments?

[maine-iac7]

Gulags for American ‘terrorists’ - like Tea Partiers and returning military and FOX news folk and anyone else who dare to cross “the WON”? (Slave labor for China, bought and paid for?)

[steveab]

No wonder China is encouraging their citizens to buy Gold.

[Nowhere Man]

I'll go the conspiracy theory route here: possible emergency civilian housing in the event of war, in case established major population centers are destroyed or rendered uninhabitable?

I was thinking the same thing. After the fallout has dissipated after an atomic war, these cities could be ready for occupation. If they stored factory equipment, vehicles, food, fuel, supplies and so on, that would be an excellent jumpstart.

[maine-iac7]

What about the decay in America? - see links below - and know that in the last two years, the abandoned buildings, the closed malls, the businesses shuttered with tumbleweeds blowing through the lots - has quadrupled. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_weekend/20101210/ts_yblog_weekend/lost-treasures-of-the-city

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yahooeditorspicks/galleries/72157625544979000/

One of my sons is a long hauler - drives the country coast to coast, back and forth - up and down. He says Americans have not a clue how bad it is out there - we all live in our little bubble and either don’t see it or don’t realize it’s everywhere in this country.

The media is not going to tell us.

[Viking2002]

I was thinking more along the lines of immediate emergency relocation in the instance of smaller-yield tactical nukes being used in an outbreak of hostilities. Even more intriguing is the idea that the ChiComms may have it place to help absorb a big influx of Norks if/when that regime finally either collapses under the weight of it's own folly and oppression, gets into the losing end of a slugfest with the South, and/or China gets dragged into the conflict. You don't build ghost cities unless they're there as a possible contingency over perceived future events, kind of like the old Eisenhower-era Civil Defense bomb shelters back in the 50's (but on a much larger scale).

Props to cripplecreek for the graphics! ther

[gunsequalfreedom]

Price of food is going up dramatically. Pork now costs more in China than in the U.S. That is a significant problem in China.

[gunsequalfreedom]

When they say “homes” are they talking individual houses or high rise apartments?

Anything that can be considered an acceptable house is a high rise apartment. Very few single family homes. There are some that cater to foreigners living and doing business there but any I know that moved into those areas moved back downtown.

[Seven plus One]

You don't build ghost cities unless they're there as a possible contingency over perceived future events...

You're right. Nobody is going to build infrastructure like this with a 'build it an they'll come' type of attitude. The authorities in China reserve the right to plan whatever they want, and the distribution of populations by any means they think is best is one of the basic rights totalitarian regimes give themselves. There's definitely a plan afoot here, but the strategy behind it is a mystery to me. During the Stalin/Khrushchev years large cities were suddenly established in the middle of nowhere for strategic, industrial, agricultural, etc. reasons which were known only to big shots in the party. Soviet planners didn't advertise their plans to the world, and the chicoms are similarly inscrutable.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Gosh, I wonder how the supporters of Free Trade with Communist China will spin this....

Even Communist China is losing due to Free Trade Globalism.

60 million empty properties is usually not a good economic sign