• gandalf_der_12te
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    6 months ago

    Not all cities start from villages: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underoccupied_developments_in_China

    Although a feature of discourse on the Chinese economy and urbanization in China in the 2010s, many developments that were initially criticized as “ghost cities” in China have since become occupied and are now functioning cities.

    Some cities are literally just built into the empty space, then wait until people move in. It has worked multiple times in China. Some cities literally went from zero to a million inhabitants in under 20 years.

    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I actually remember this one. Weren’t western articles shitting on China endlessly for this? Calling it “ghost cities” and making up conspiracy theories and all.

      • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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        6 months ago

        You still get lemmitors who think China just has empty cities made of tofu, trains that nobody uses, giant concentration camps full of people whos only crime was desiring freedom, and that china will collapse any day now.

      • gandalf_der_12te
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        6 months ago

        yes exactly, it’s even in the article i linked

        Ordos City, Kangbashi New Area – in 2009, a reporter from Al Jazeera, had reportedly accidentally visited Kangbashi and despite the city having 30,000 people at the time, had written the place as being a “ghost town”. But writing in Forbes in 2017, Wade Shepard had noted that when Al Jazeera had visited Kangbashi, the city back then was a “mere five year old” city, and that it really should “have impressed the world” for being able to build an entirely new city and have it partially populated in half a decade’s time. Shepard also noted the population has grown to 153,000 people and housing prices rose with an increase of approximately 50% compared to the end of 2015 when local real estate markets were at its bottom, and around 4,750 businesses were now in operation in the city, and that it was getting harder to justify the label of “ghost city”.