Daily Chart: Over half of China’s people now live in urban areas
China Turns Predominantly Urban
Map: China’s Top 100 Industrial Clusters
The map below illustrates the concentration of industry in China, using cities to identify locations where resources and competencies have been concentrated to produce a competitive advantage in a specific industry.
Comparing Populations: China, US, Europe
Infographics comparing real GDP growth rates from 2005-2020 for cities in China, USA and Europe.
Ai Weiwei on Beijing
Newsweek Magazine: Aug 28, 2011 10:00 AM EDT
Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don’t care who their neighbors are; they don’t trust you. The other city is one of desperation. I see people on public buses, and I see their eyes, and I see they hold no hope. They can’t even imagine that they’ll be able to buy a house. They come from very poor villages where they’ve never seen electricity or toilet paper.
Every year millions come to Beijing to build its bridges, roads, and houses. Each year they build a Beijing equal to the size of the city in 1949. They are Beijing’s slaves. They squat in illegal structures, which Beijing destroys as it keeps expanding. Who owns houses? Those who belong to the government, the coal bosses, the heads of big enterprises. They come to Beijing to give gifts—and the restaurants and karaoke parlors and saunas are very rich as a result.
Beijing tells foreigners that they can understand the city, that we have the same sort of buildings: the Bird’s Nest, the CCTV tower. Officials who wear a suit and tie like you say we are the same and we can do business. But they deny us basic rights. You will see migrants’ schools closed. You will see hospitals where they give patients stitches—and when they find the patients don’t have any money, they pull the stitches out. It’s a city of violence.
The worst thing about Beijing is that you can never trust the judicial system. Without trust, you cannot identify anything; it’s like a sandstorm. You don’t see yourself as part of the city—there are no places that you relate to, that you love to go. No corner, no area touched by a certain kind of light. You have no memory of any material, texture, shape. Everything is constantly changing, according to somebody else’s will, somebody else’s power.
To properly design Beijing, you’d have to let the city have space for different interests, so that people can coexist, so that there is a full body to society. A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.
I feel sorry to say I have no favorite place in Beijing. I have no intention of going anywhere in the city. The places are so simple. You don’t want to look at a person walking past because you know exactly what’s on his mind. No curiosity. And no one will even argue with you.
None of my art represents Beijing. The Bird’s Nest—I never think about it. After the Olympics, the common folks don’t talk about it because the Olympics did not bring joy to the people.
There are positives to Beijing. People still give birth to babies. There are a few nice parks. Last week I walked in one, and a few people came up to me and gave me a thumbs up or patted me on the shoulder. Why do they have to do that in such a secretive way? No one is willing to speak out. What are they waiting for? They always tell me, “Weiwei, leave the nation, please.” Or “Live longer and watch them die.” Either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.
My ordeal made me understand that on this fabric, there are many hidden spots where they put people without identity. With no name, just a number. They don’t care where you go, what crime you committed. They see you or they don’t see you, it doesn’t make the slightest difference. There are thousands of spots like that. Only your family is crying out that you’re missing. But you can’t get answers from the street communities or officials, or even at the highest levels, the court or the police or the head of the nation. My wife has been writing these kinds of petitions every day, making phone calls to the police station every day. Where is my husband? Just tell me where my husband is. There is no paper, no information.
The strongest character of those spaces is that they’re completely cut off from your memory or anything you’re familiar with. You’re in total isolation. And you don’t know how long you’re going to be there, but you truly believe they can do anything to you. There’s no way to even question it. You’re not protected by anything. Why am I here? Your mind is very uncertain of time. You become like mad. It’s very hard for anyone. Even for people who have strong beliefs.
This city is not about other people or buildings or streets but about your mental structure. If we remember what Kafka writes about his Castle, we get a sense of it. Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.
(Source: youmightfindyourself)
Red China's Green Buildings
China has discovered that environmental design is an efficient way to save money and earn prestige.
Now Coming out of Chinese Factories: Cities in a Box
The new demographics: how countries are coping with rapid rates of urbanisation
A look at how various countries are coping with rapidly rising rates of urbanisation and other shifting population patterns.
China prepares for soaring number of city dwellers
Urbanisation is the centrepiece of the Chinese leadership‘s next five-year plan in a country where as many as 300m people will move to cities over the following couple of decades, writes Geoff Dyer
India struggles to keep pace with urbanisation
India’s cities are not coping with supplying the necessary infrastructure to support rapidly growing populations, writes Amy Kazmin
Sway of the wealthy remains strong in Brazil’s cities
Brazil’s boom years have catapulted into the stratosphere the country’s mega-rich, who increasingly tuck themselves into expensive neighbourhoods, reports Vincent Bevins
China’s skyscraper boom: next a bust?
China is on track to complete one skyscraper every five days over the next three years, in a height-obsessed construction frenzy that could presage economic trouble if the experience of other nations is anything to go by. China will have 800 buildings taller than 152 metres by the end of 2016, more than four times as many as the United States now has, according to a report by Motiancity, a Chinese website for skyscraper enthusiasts.
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Visualizing alternatives for China's urban growth
This is a great visualization of possible growth scenarios of urban China:
- 5 scenarios: trendline, supercities, hub and spoke, distributed groth and townization
- Crossed with different indicators: GDP, flor space, transportation, jobs, water,…
China’s Ghost Cities and Malls
A City of 260 Million. Where Else But China?
