Four Years Later, A Journalist Revisited China's Most Famous Ghost City - Here's The Depressing Way It Has Changed
MAMTA BADKAR0JUN 9, 2014, 10.46 PM
Rob Schmitz/Marketplace/American Public Media
An empty street in front of an vacant residential complex in the city of Kangbashi, Ordos.
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China's ghost cities aren't going away. Even as Beijing wants local governments to move away from GDP targeting and is more focused on developing social housing, wasteful construction still plagues China.
A report from CLSA's Nicole Wong,
cited by the WSJ, found that the problem lies in the excess supply in China's third-tier cities. Vacancy rates for homes constructed in the past five years currently stand at 15%, but are projected to rise over 20% around 2016-2017, according to Wong.
Rob Schmitz, China correspondent for Marketplace/American Public Media recently ran a piece titled "
China's economic boom leaves a trail of ghost cities." We reached out to Schmitz to get an update on Kangbashi and Yujiapu.
Schmitz points out that one of they key differences between visiting Ordos now, and back in October 2010 was people's attitudes. Back in 2010, residents of Kangbashi (new city of Ordos) were defensive when the place was dubbed a ghost city, but now many had come to accept it.
Schmitz said that many people had abandoned these ghost cities and moved back home. He also points out what China bulls like Stephen Roach have got wrong, when they argue that these cities tie into China's urbanization plan.
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