UN: major Chinese cities at same level of development as developed countries

[powastick]

There is no consensus of classification of cities except for the big 4 in tier one.
But some cities measured in this survey are not normally regarded as tier 2 cities, for example some capitals of Southwestern provinces, such as Kunming and Guiyang （some people think they are "lower tier 2"）

I can show you some cities of tier 3/4 according to the criteria of http://multimedia.scmp.com/2016/cities/
I'll choose citer/3/4 cities not in Coastal China to show the development of the interior.
Because even a non-tier county town in Coastal China will look like a super city.

One county town under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Lin'an County

Tier 3
Yichang City in my province in Central China
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Yichang's HSR Station

Tier 4
Anshun City, Guizhou Province (China's poorest province)
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Anshun's HSR station to open in 3 weeks
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Anshun's industrial park under construction
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Pls refer to #39.
There are significant differences of definition of cities between in China and abroad.
(A city in China= a real city + several counties)
We usually do not talk about the tiers of a county and the main towns of a county.
But these county townships are de facto small cities, can be classified as tier 4/5 or no tier if too small.
(A county=the main county town+ several more rural towns/townships)

Zunyi County, Guizhou Province, Southwest China
You can see the rural townships at the beginning and the main county town at the end

Zunyi's new HSR hub to open in 2017-2018
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What is the different between lower tier 2 and upper tier 2?

 

[Jlaw]

I don't think they will rebuild their railways....
I know most railways in US are for cargo trains, but still, those freight railways look terrible, no fences, dangerous crossings, lack of maintenance, etc.
After half a century, we'll rebuild old infra just like what we are doing today.

Freight railways in China
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US trains are terrible. No match against Chinese trains

 

[terranMarine]

Man you Chinese are something to be taken lessons from. Nobody can match your growth the way you did in 3-4, decades. We are developing but will take a real time to reach your levels.
But I've seen all this construction leading to ghost towns in China.
I think Chinese should calm down a little they got a little emotional on construction thing

reach our level? in your dreams pal
Dhanushkodi now this is what i call a ghost town

 

[Dungeness]

This UN report is about HDI, and there are more to it than infrastructure building. China's HDI ranking is at No. 90 among 188 countries. Long way to go, brothers.

 

[AViet]

I started to question the reliability of HDI index some years ago, after realizing that the HDI is calculated based too much on the self-claimed data by governments.

For example, Cuba is among top 50 HDI, while it is far behind Vietnam and China in quality of education and behind China in GDP per capita (The peso is heavily regulated. If decided by market, the peso is likely to plunge, making Cuba behind Vietnam as well).

I like Cuba and Fidel Castro and respect his achievement. But compared to countries like China or Vietnam, it is no where close.

 

[AndrewJin]

Urumqi . China's far west Xinjiang Uyghur region

Urumqi is a typical tier 3 city, in some ranking as a lower tier 2.
i traveled there 3 years ago, I was totally shocked....
I thought it was a crappy industrial city located in nowhere.......
Now she has a brand new high-speed railway hub bigger than many cities in China.
And their BRT system is efficient and cheap, several subways are also under construction.
As a key port on the New Silk Road, Urumqi has enormous potential....

When I took part in a tourist group to Kanas at Sino-Russia border,
I was even more shocked....
Roads located in nowhere were upgraded to brand-new expressways.....

Bu'erjin-Kelamayi Expressway, Northern Xinjiang

The small city in Northern Xinjiang built on the desert

You do have to have a strong heart living in China.
Changes will be overwhelming no matter where you go......
You might assume you would have a terrible road trip according to a travelogue narrated one year ago...
Then you see this in the mountainous regions in China's poorest Southwest provinces....
That's my general feeling from my numerous trips to Yunnan/Sichuan/Chongqing/Guizhou/Guangxi.....

reach our level? in your dreams pal
Dhanushkodi now this is what i call a ghost town

What is that?

 

[ahojunk]

Dhanushkodi is an abandoned town at the south-eastern tip of Pamban Island of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is situated to the South-East of Pamban and is about 18 miles (29 km) west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The town was destroyed during the 1964 Rameswaram cyclone and remains uninhabited in the aftermath.

 

[koolio]

The infrastructure in China is top class, gone are the days when the westerners used to look down on Chinese, It would be a dream if Pakistan had similar infrastructure and basic necessities, sadly its not the case in Pakistan until the corrupt mafia is taken care off.

 

[AndrewJin]

Thanks; even a town in China is so developed. I was in Hangzhou this March and really like its landscaping.

Hangzhou is a upper tier 2 city.
Hangzhou's wealth is not in the main city but its rural counties and villages....

The third expressway in Hangzhou's western mountainous counties and Quzhou City was inaugurated 5 days ago....
(some sections and service centres not open yet)

What is the different between lower tier 2 and upper tier 2?

It's again a very obscure classification.......
The only confirmed cities are those big four in tier one, Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Shenzhen.....
Some have added lower tier one like Hangzhou/Wuhan/Nanjing.

I guess the main difference is on per capita GDP and total population....
You have to have strong per capita index as well as a big population to make a stronger tier 2 city.....

A simple example: Nanjing (upper tier two or lower tier one) vs Nanning (lower tier two or upper tier three)

Nanjing

Nanning, Southwest China

Again, the criteria is not about "high-rises".
Beijing has fewer high buildings but still a tier one.
Chongqing has more high buildings but a tier two.
The difference lies in education, medicine, high-tech economic zone, public transport, financial activity, urbanisation rate, etc....

We should not just focus on underdeveloped tier3/4/5 cities, but in many tier 2 cities (even in tier 1 cities) the room for development is huge.....Nearly all tier1/2 cities are developing at a growth rate more than 7%, tier3-5 more than 10%.

 

[terranMarine]

Stunning photos displaying mass development

 

[AndrewJin]

Jin, where you get all those damm photos.

if you r a Chinese from mainland, you will know the number one forums netizens like to navigate are development-theme forum, for example the development forum of a province, the forum of a certain high-speed railway, the forum of metro in one city, skyscrapers of a region, the forum of a certain new technology.......

These forums are very important platforms for citizens to take part in future development and urban planning....The discussions there are 10000 times more fierce than any of the closed threads here in PDF....Two parties in one HSR forum could fight for years for a station, and they could literally influence the ultimate plan.....They will use every method they could to influence the final choice, though in real life they are probably just teacher, office clerks or students.....The famous demonstrations for a railway station in real life originated from these forums.

Baidu Bar of Chongqing-Xi'an HSR, a HSR not yet confirmed.....but already 66k comments
Look at page one, all fights!
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kw=%CE%F7%D3%E5%B8%DF%CC%FA&fr=ala0&tpl=5

Chongqing-Wanzhou HSR(already inaugurated last week) forum, 126k comments
You could see how they fought at first, then discussed the construction, and last month anticipated, last week in jubilance, now appeal to more trains.
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?ie=utf-8&kw=渝万高铁&fr=search

Another famous forum is called Gaoloumi, where every building, every grand project will have a thread.
Fans will update every little bit of progress....
For example, this thread is about the project of 1.5 Ring Road of Guiyang, already 154 pages, from planning to construction.
http://www.gaoloumi.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=781820&extra=page=1

I have to say, Chinese netizens have completely different agenda online......
Their pro-development altitude and devotion to their hometowns is nowhere to be seen outside China......

I'm proud to be one of them....
I have contributed to this thread, 1216 pages now.
Recording every moment every progress of a building in Wuhan.
http://www.gaoloumi.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=104055&extra=page=1

photos from this week....

 

[SBUS-CXK]

Developed countries? Which ones? Greece, spain, italy, Portugal or Ireland .?

I do not see any city in these so called developed countries is as modern and advanced as Shanghai or Hong Kong.

It would be a shame for Chinese cities to be compared with the likes of Athens or Rome.

I know what you're trying to say is PIIGS

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I know what you're trying to say is PIIGS

I feel like people underestimate the PIIGS, having a stagnant growth rate is not too bad if they are already developed countries.

Though big negative growth rates like Greece are a problem.

 

[Shotgunner51]

I feel like people underestimate the PIIGS, having a stagnant growth rate is not too bad if they are already developed countries.

Though big negative growth rates like Greece are a problem.

Sorry bro that's completely wrong, and not even close. The term PIIGS got utterly nothing to do with "growth", or "stagnant", these are terms derived from gross domestic product data. It's all about DEBT.

To be more precise, it's net liabilities, the IMF term is Net International Investment Position. I have said many times, over 2/3 of Europe are debtor nations, and PIIGS the most serious, hence triggering fear and Eurozone debt crisis some years back. It was Germany, the largest creditor nation in the western world, that put the situation under control.

Net International Investment Positions (NIIP) (% of GDP)

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Sorry bro that's completely wrong, and not even close. The term PIIGS got utterly nothing to do with "growth", or "stagnant", these are terms derived from gross domestic product data. It's all about DEBT.

To be more precise, it's net liabilities, the IMF term is Net International Investment Position. I have said many times, over 2/3 of Europe are indebted, and PIIGS the most serious, hence triggering fear and Eurozone debt crisis some years back. It was Germany, the largest creditor nation in the western world, that put the situation under control.

Net International Investment Positions (NIIP) (% of GDP)

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Thanks I guess.