Dead city china. Why China is building ghost towns

In 2010, the State Electricity Network of the People's Republic of China conducted a census of electric meters of subscribers from 660 cities. As a result of this event, a rather strange fact came to light. According to the results of the census, there were zero on the counters of 65.4 million apartments. That is, no one lives in these areas. As it turned out, since 2000, China has been building ghost towns. More than twenty points under construction remain uninhabited. Why does China need empty cities? Let's try to understand the article.

No housing crisis

It is hard to believe that in an overpopulated country where the birth of every child is considered almost a crime, there are empty cities. New buildings, highways, shops, parking lots, kindergartens, offices are being built in China. Of course, housing is provided with running water, electricity, sewerage. Everything is ready for life. However, he is in no hurry to send his citizens to the empty ones. What is the reason for their appearance?

One of the options

Why is China building empty cities? The government of the country sacredly keeps the secret, leaving the possibility only to assume the true purpose of these points. There is an opinion that empty cities in China are just a "duck". However, there are pictures of these uninhabited areas. Here it is worth saying that getting a photo of an empty city is, in general, not difficult. In any, even a large, metropolis, there is a period when there are neither people nor cars on the streets. It usually happens in the early morning. Well, if you didn’t manage to catch such a moment, you can use many well-known Photoshop programs. However, there are objections to this view. First of all, it should be said that the Chinese themselves do not deny the existence of such cities. In addition, there are reliable satellite images. They clearly show that at the very height of the day there is no one on the streets, and there are no cars in the parking lots.

"Conspiracy theory"

There is also an opinion that every empty city in China stands on huge underground shelters. They are designed to receive several hundred million inhabitants. Thus, the Beijing government makes it clear to the authorities of Washington and Moscow that the country is quite ready for. As you know, underground shelters are considered the most effective way protection of the population from damaging factors(penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination, radiation).

Empty cities in case of disaster

Another suggestion is that the Beijing government, anticipating the imminent change of power in the United States, is preparing housing for its fellow citizens who are currently in America, but will be ready to leave it in the event of an economic collapse. A version is also put forward that empty cities will become a refuge for the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire when the water will hide all coastal territories under it. And houses are being built in the most remote areas.

Investment

According to another version, empty cities are a monetary contribution of the government. The Beijing authorities considered that it is more profitable to keep money in real estate than in the accounts of Western banks. In this regard, monumental, but empty cities are being built - just in case. Again, this view is debatable. How long can an empty city last? The photos presented in the article quite fully illustrate these uninhabited areas - some of them have been standing for more than 10 years. They will stand for another 20 years, what will happen to them next? If no one populates empty cities, they will most likely have to be demolished.

New holiday villages

All empty cities are really being built away from the coast. At the same time, the least seismically hazardous territories are selected for their construction. Actually, all this can be explained. If there is a choice of area where to carry out such monumental construction, then it is better to play it safe right away and provide adequate protection for future residents, at least from earthquakes and floods.

Kanbashi and Ordos

Above was a version of a profitable investment. There is some truth in this assumption. Many owners bought apartments from developers for early stages erection. Now the cost of living space has increased several times. As it became known from some sources, in the city of Ordos, apartments in houses have their own owners. One of its districts - Kanbashi - is located twenty kilometers from the center. It is built in the middle of the desert. The area is designed for approximately 500,000 people. However, it looks completely empty, since about 30 thousand permanently live in it. In fact, there are almost no vacant apartments in the area. Ordos is considered one of the richest Chinese cities. It stands on deposits of natural gas and coal. At the same time, the Kanbashi district for its residents is something like a dacha. They go there for the weekend. It should also be said that the number of people who would like to work and live in Ordos is increasing every year. It follows from this that apartments in houses, even those built 20 km from the center, are constantly becoming more expensive.

A spoon of tar

Almost no major undertaking can do without it, even in a country like China. Any large-scale construction is based on government subsidies. Responsible officials are appointed to control the movement of funds. However, not all of them are clean on hand. From time to time someone comes across on large thefts and frauds. So, for example, a fairly large settlement of Qingshuihe began to be built back in 1998. However, over the next ten years, it was never completed. By the way, middle city for 500 thousand people is being built in China in about 6-7 years. The money allocated for Qingshuihe magically disappeared. The perpetrators, of course, were found and brought to justice, but the settlement was never completed. For a long time it stands abandoned and completely uninhabitable. However, this story is more the exception than the rule.

Finally

Most experts still tend to the version associated with competent economic planning. In China, the population is constantly increasing, houses are being built. People go to work on construction sites, get a decent salary. And, of course, they all pay taxes. Having savings, people invest them in real estate. Often they buy the same apartments that they once built themselves. Thus, there is a uniform settlement of empty areas. According to statistics, every year a huge number of people move from villages to larger settlements. And the former Chinese metropolises will soon not be able to accommodate everyone. For those who do not want to live in the countryside, the government provides an opportunity to purchase an apartment in a new area.

There is very little information about these cities in the media, because this can worsen the situation in the housing market. But despite this, experts at Peking University were able to draw up a map that depicts ghost towns. Nevertheless, we decided to consider seven huge ghost towns in more detail.

Some time ago John Maynard Keynes- the famous economist suggested digging holes and filling them up again - as a cure for the economic downturn.

Chinese government decided to take this advice and develop it to perfection. Thus, ghost towns began to appear throughout the Middle Kingdom, this helps the people of China solve a series of problems: unemployment fell to 4-5% also every year many millions of peasants move to ready-made cities, constantly replenishment of the local budget due to apartment sales.

But the Chinese sages did not take into account the speed of the emergence of new cities. In the created cities, they do not have time to populate the inhabitants and the cities are empty, which evokes thoughts of ghostly castles.

With the advent of the financial crisis, the situation with China's ghost towns worsened as the country began producing cement in huge quantities. This process could not be stopped and therefore the state decided to continue building cities.

Yingkou

Liaoning Province is dependent on mining. So the decision was made to reshape the economy, as this was supposed to make a difference: the Chinese government channeled finance into new industries, and construction companies quickly began to build housing for employees. The city was built very quickly, but it has no inhabitants still.

New Hebi

Hebi is the capital of Henan Province. This city existed thanks to coal mines. But after some time, a new deposit was discovered near Hebi. This prompted the city authorities to create another industrial zone - "New Hebi". For twenty years, no one has mastered the new territory.

thames town

In this town it was decided to reproduce British outback. The city was designed by an American architect Tony Mackay. Real estate was bought up by wealthy people - as a worthy investment. Due to the fact that real estate prices in this town have risen sharply, it scared ordinary people, and at the moment, Thames Town is a place visited by tourists.

Tianducheng

This city was built in Zhejiang province. This town can also be called little Paris. But unfortunately, there are no residents in this city either, despite the fact that a copy of the Eiffel Tower looks almost real.

chengun

Chenggong city was built because of the huge number of students. It was planned to build huge high-rise buildings for hundreds of thousands of residential apartments. Local residents bought up the bulk of the housing as investments, but no one began to live here.

Caofeidian

Caofeidian was to become the first ultra-green city. It was built several hundred kilometers from Beijing. The plan was to use only renewable energy in this city. The goal of the people living in this city is to show how good an environmentally friendly life is. In spite of 90 billion invested in the construction of the city, it is still empty.

Ordos

Ordos is a major center of the Autonomous Republic of Inner Mongolia. The Chinese government decided to expand the city, placing a new district, Kanbashi, nearby. It was expected that about a million people would live in the new district, but at the moment the population of the district is only twenty thousand.

August 18, 2014 A lot has been said and written about ghost towns in China. Recall that we are talking about huge complexes built in different, sometimes very inhospitable, regions of the country, including office skyscrapers, administrative buildings, residential towers, houses and other things that are commonly called urban development, up to universities. All this is connected by roads, a network of communications, maintained in order, but ... empty.

According to some reports, there are now more than twenty such ghost towns in China, and in total, according to some estimates, about 64 million houses are empty in the country. And this is in China, where overcrowding in large cities has long been a national problem!

Why people do not live (or almost do not live) in ghost towns is not difficult to understand. Hardworking and active Chinese simply have nothing to do in strange cities where there are no industrial facilities. But for what purpose such cities were designed and built - Internet browsers have not yet found a clear answer to this question, although there is no shortage of versions.

For example, such an assumption is made: China is preparing for a global military conflict and new cities are a kind of “bomb shelters” where residents of megacities will be saved. This version does not stand up to criticism - it is difficult to imagine tens of millions of people populating expensive elite housing "on alarm".

There are versions that look more believable. For example, it is assumed that housing in ghost towns was purchased during construction, but the owners live in other cities and use the apartments as capital investments. However, this "market version" also does not stand up to serious criticism. There are not as many rich people in China as is sometimes believed, and expensive luxury apartments in empty cities need to be guarded and maintained in order, which will certainly cost a lot. In addition, in ghost towns, as you can see in numerous pictures on the Internet, not only housing has been built - there are many state and municipal facilities.

The following version seems to be the most probable: the construction of cities is an anti-crisis measure taken by the Chinese leadership. Like those that in the 30s of the last century, at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt undertook in the United States. His program of "public works" - building roads, schools, hospitals, prisons - helped to overcome unemployment and brought America out of a deep crisis.

The only difference is that such a measure is being taken in the Celestial Empire, not waiting for a crisis or recession, but, as it were, “in anticipation”.

Objective reasons may push Chinese leaders to this: industrialization reserves have already been exhausted, GDP growth rates are slowing down, and an internal economic crisis, despite the fact that the economy uses huge amounts of borrowed funds, can happen at any moment. The first victims, as a result of socio-economic tension, as always happens during crises, will be the current megacities. That's when "ghost towns" come in handy as new investment sites. This is also a variant of "settlement on alarm", only not military, but economic.

The plot about ghost towns is quite popular on the Internet. Cities such as Pripyat and Detroit regularly get there. But with them, everything is clear, but the Chinese ghost towns cause real amazement. Who and why is building these huge empty megacities, why does almost no one live in them? By the way, there are many such places in China, and there are both entire cities and areas in fairly busy metropolitan areas. Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon.

It is interesting that during the years of the rise of the Chinese economy in this country, they managed to build not only residential areas. The imagination of foreign journalists is struck not only by the even rows of high-rise buildings. No less impressive are multi-storey hypermarkets, vast amusement parks and stunning theaters and museums, reminiscent of frames from science fiction films about the distant future. Huge empty squares look no less strange, and beautiful highways, where it’s good if a dozen cars pass a day.

There is a suspicion that the authorities of the country simply decided to attach tens of thousands of free pairs of hands, because, as you know, labor resources are available in abundance in the country. Or are those in power, thus, snatching off pieces from state subsidies? There are also voices that this is the product of a grandiose "bubble" in the real estate market, which has already begun to seriously disturb Beijing. True, there is a more positive opinion. This is supposed to be a long-term investment in residential and business infrastructure that will allow China to maintain the same economic growth in the future.

It all started with a law that 15 years ago allowed Chinese citizens to acquire ownership of real estate. The real estate market began to grow almost immediately, giving rise to many millionaires and billionaires. The country began not only the active construction of new residential areas in existing settlements, but also completely new cities appeared. The outskirts of large cities no longer resemble those "Shanghai" that in the Soviet Union served as a synonym for slums. Now these are huge, as we say "sleeping areas" from typical houses, where the authorities, unlike many cities in the CIS, do not forget about the associated infrastructure. There is everything here - wide avenues, schools, hospitals, office buildings, etc. It is undeniable that such active construction not only helped to absorb huge amounts of money, it raised related sectors of the economy, which in turn also had a positive impact on GDP growth.

However, such a generous investment in construction led to a number of negative consequences. Despite the fact that many Chinese still live in rather cramped conditions, a huge amount of housing is empty in the country. The point is that, despite low interest on mortgages in many Chinese megacities, entire empty areas have been formed, built in anticipation of increased demand. Not just apartments or cottages are empty there, but high-rise buildings and entire streets.

But, China, which has huge funds, builds and builds everything. At the same time, such ghettos as for are the exception rather than the rule. Now new districts are not only high-rise buildings with comfortable apartments, but also all the necessary infrastructure. And not just roads, schools and hospitals. Buildings for universities, new large-scale administrative and public centers, including government buildings, museums, theaters and huge shopping malls are being actively erected. All this is also almost empty, only occasionally residents of neighboring old districts come here. Look especially impressive central square and a huge supermarket in Xinyang - only cleaners of people, and a rare car will rush along a beautiful road.

Since 2005, that is, from the day of its opening, the New South China Mall has been empty, the shopping and entertainment complex of Dongguan, a city in the south of China, in size, second only to the Dubai Mall, the largest building of this type in the world. This complex is designed for 2,350 stores, but there are only a few catering outlets and a go-kart track located in an unused parking lot.

New South China Mall (photo)

This complex reminds of Las Vegas with bright copies of world architectural celebrities. There is a sector stylized as Paris, little Amsterdam, Egypt, Venice, etc. The reason for the neglect is that the mall is located away from popular freeways, although it is still maintained in working order. Probably in the hope that the situation will change.

The same can be seen in the new microdistricts of Suzhou, a metropolis located on the lower reaches of the Yangtze. There is also an Asian scope, although why Asian - Soviet urban planners also drew a lot of similar projects, but, however, they implemented much less. Or another striking example is the Honey Lake amusement complex near Shenzhen, eerily reminiscent of photographs of the recreation park of radioactive Pripyat, one of the most famous ghost towns in the world.

Near Shanghai, there are also empty areas, and with a rather nice, stylized European architecture. For example, Qianduchen, built in 2007 and designed for 100,000 people, is a small copy of Paris. Moreover, the Chinese were not too lazy to build even their own Eiffel Tower here. It is interesting that until now there are almost no inhabitants here, and some revival is observed only thanks to the newlyweds taking pictures against the backdrop of a copy of the main Parisian attraction. In Thames City, a pretty English town, the same situation is observed.

Europe in Asia (photo)

True, areas resembling the suburbs of European capitals are rather an exception. Mostly in the country, streets are built from typical multi-storey buildings. A classic example is Chenggong, a satellite of the Kunming metropolis of 6 million. Few people live here yet, but the Kunming administration and some other state institutions have already moved to new buildings.

But the most famous ghost town in China is probably Kanbashi, located in the province of Inner Mongolia in the north of China. Its construction began in 2003, and it was immediately stated that it was designed for at least 1 million people. This “Dubai of northern China” has turned into a grandiose construction project, where an astronomical amount was invested - about 161 billion US dollars.

At the same time, to date, housing has been built for only 300 thousand inhabitants, but in reality about 100 thousand live in the city. Such costs can be partly explained by large investments in infrastructure, the quality of which can only be envied. Here, too, officials were forced to move to new administrative buildings. In this case, the state institutions of the Ordos city district from the city of Dongsheng were obliged to do this. At the same time, the families of officials still live in populated areas, and every evening they return to them in Dongsheng.

The new city has gained notoriety on the internet, not only for its empty streets and shops, but also for its vast Genghis Khan Square, with more than imposing sculptures reminiscent of the region's past. It is also worth noting the various public buildings, which are excellent examples of modern architecture. For example, an original city museum, a national theater or a library resembling a stack of giant books.

What are the ghost towns of China

Those who find themselves in these surreal settlements (or rather, not settlements) first of all ask themselves the question - why were they built? Some are sure that these are the consequences of the "bubble" in the real estate market, which appeared due to the investment boom, artificially caused by the state. Others believe that cities like Kanbashi have bright prospects. The latter are more likely to be right, because Beijing's plans to resettle 100 million rural residents in the cities are being systematically implemented and gradually the "ghost towns" are gaining their residents. At the same time, it should be noted that a large part of the apartments in empty houses have long since found their owners. After all, many Chinese are actively investing in real estate, acquiring both a second and a third apartment, and since the cheapest housing is located in new buildings, it most likely finds its buyers. The owners themselves continue to live in the old districts. Many citizens of the PRC, having received the opportunity to purchase real estate, have made it an object of investment.

The Chinese government, which has set such an amazing pace of construction, is well aware that such huge amounts of free funds need to be invested in real things, including infrastructure and real estate. Indeed, over time, these, at first glance, thoughtless expenses will bring their dividends. Therefore, in China, not only new urban areas and business districts, but also entire cities are being built so actively. The construction of modern roads and railways is simply amazing. For example, the Chinese part of the route "", which will cut along the entire country, but do you know that the average speed of trains in China is already 200 kilometers per hour? Can you imagine such a speed on Russian railways? They don’t even talk about it, although at our distances, this is more than necessary.

Let's get back to Kanbashi. This city will definitely turn into a very lively place in a few years, because the place for it was chosen for a reason. It is located near the richest deposits of natural gas and coal - minerals that China desperately needs. As soon as they begin to be actively developed, the more actively Kanbashi will begin to be populated. In addition, the example of Ordos, the richest city in China, where GDP per capita is twice that of the capital, Beijing, speaks of excellent prospects for Kanbashi. After all, he is a satellite of the Ordos.

Unlike American ghost towns like the recently bankrupt Detroit, China's ghost towns have a bright future - population growth, active business and social life.

Despite the fact that China is considered the most overpopulated region in the world, there is a huge city in which no one wants to live. No living, no business. But a lot of money was spent on the construction of this Chinese metropolis, but the city still frightens with its emptiness. What is the reason for this? According to some information from tourists, about 50% of China's territory is empty due to the fact that they do not want to live there. The Chinese do not like the cold, and the climate in Ordos is not very good. What will the Chinese government come up with to attract its heat-loving citizens there for permanent residence?

Now a question for backfilling. So what then attracts the heat-loving Chinese to our Siberia? Or maybe the size of China is greatly exaggerated to intimidate the Russians? A well-known case, one of the types of lies is statistics.

“Post from the past”: Ordos in China is a modern ghost town. The Kangbashi area, designed for more than a million inhabitants, remains deserted even five years after the start of construction. Photo by Michael Christopher Brown.

1.The construction of the Kangbashi district began as part of a government project in Ordos, a city located in the province of Inner Mongolia, whose source of wealth is coal mining. The area is built up office buildings, administrative centers, government agencies, museums, theaters and sports grounds, as well as residential areas. But there is one problem. In an area designed for more than a million inhabitants, almost no one still lives.

2. Despite the fact that most of the real estate has already been purchased and it was planned that by 2010 the area would be populated, Kangbashi is still empty.

3. Most of the one and a half million population of Ordos considers Dunsheng their home, located half an hour from the empty Kangbashi.

4. Two workers clean up the area around the public library building. The per capita income in Ordos is the second highest in the country after Shanghai.

5. Treasury. Workers carry pieces of Styrofoam up the stairs leading to the Ordos Museum, which is still unfinished.

6. Monument. A pedestrian walks down the street behind a giant sculpture depicting two horses in Linyuynli Square, Kangbashi district.

7. Desert highway. View of empty houses.

8. There is a complete lack of business in the city. Pedestrian walks past empty retail space. Almost none of the companies wanted to move to a new area.

9. Oppressive silence. The streets are deserted even in the morning, when residents have to go to work.

10. Construction of new facilities in Kangbashi continues despite the fact that the area is not populated.

11. Old man pushing a cart as he crosses a road separating completed buildings from those still under construction.

12. Construction in progress. Workers are chasing the walls of the future shopping center for non-existent residents of an apartment complex.

The largest ghost town is in China (video)