China construction industry booms

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=dae48d5f82de9eff

The wave of building construction that has swept China at an ever-increasing pace since the 1980s has become possibly the biggest building spree in history.

snip...
Almost 7,000 buildings of more than 11 stories have been built in the city since 1990 (New York, by contrast, has managed a mere 5,500 in
total). So skyscrapers are not exactly a novelty in Shanghai.
snip...
Intense construction activity on the WFC is now underway, but if and when it reaches its planned height, it would become the world's tallest inhabited building - only for a brief period, however, since the Burj Dubai, now being built in the eponymous Persian Gulf city-state, would greatly exceed it at a possible 705 meters (though the Burj's ultimate height has been kept secret).
snip...
Many foreign architects working in China feel that the well-known Chinese tendency to rush projects and use subpar materials comes from a sense of transience that is hard for Westerners to understand.

One must remember that Chinese buildings have a shorter life cycle; a building that might be put through a renovation in the West when it ages is often torn down in China. But perhaps deeper than this is a sense that China has experienced such turmoil in its past that nothing is permanent, even buildings thousands of meters tall.
more...

Watchout America ...all our money is going to building a New China...

[NewJeffCT]

1. Shanghai is an awesome sight

The PuDong district was almost nothing in 1990. Now, it makes Manhattan look small & old.

[lovuian]

2. Most Americans don't have a clue do they

Its truly amazing what can be done with American money...

[wickerwoman]

4. I live in Pudong.

There is literally a construction site in the middle of every single block for a five block radius in every direction. If I leave my window open for an hour a film of dust gathers on the floor.

On the one hand, it's great to see the city springing up out of nowhere- on the other, the majority of buildings are *so* painfully ugly and cheap. Ten year old buildings look worn down and ready for the scrapheap. The only striking buildings in Shanghai are Jin Mao tower and the Lotus building. All the rest look like rejects from the Jetson's set. The sooner they are torn down the better. I really don't get the mentality of building a 30-story building so poorly that it needs to be torn down again within a few decades. What a bloody waste!

And half of the buildings are empty. I live within walking distance of 6 major 10-story department stores most of which are absolutely empty of customers 95% of the time. I joke that they're laundering money for the triads but it's only half a joke if you know what I mean.

[NewJeffCT]

5. Shenzhen is the same way

That was basically a small fishing village near Hong Kong until the Chinese gov't decided to make it their first "Special Economic Zone" in the 1980s. Now, it's a city of 4 million or so.

Even though China has been around about 2,000 years longer than the US, Chinese don't always the attachment to physical things like buildings that we here in the US do... my wife (who is from China) was shocked to find out that my parents still have the same furniture in their house that they did 40 years ago - the same bedroom furniture, the same living room couch (re-upholstered) the same furniture in the finished basement as 30 years ago, etc. Chinese tend to buy disposable things - furniture that lasts 5-10 years until the next big new trend in furniture comes along, buildings that last 20-30 years, etc. We've only been married for 4 1/2 years and every once in a while she brings up the idea of getting a whole new bedroom set for us... never mind that the one I bought 7 years back is very high quality cherry.

My wife's old boss moved his whole family from Massachusetts to Shanghai (wife & 4 kids, plus the dog & cat) for work. I think they are in PuDong, but they are in some sort of villa where a lot of English speaking ex-pat executives are living (supposedly, the villa was formerly occupied by the head of eBay China)

On the other hand, if you go to Beijing, there are areas where people live in 800 year old homes with alleyways so narrow that I doubt most NFL lineman could fit down them.

[Lorien]

3. One wonders how long before China exhausts the planet's natural

resources completely-with our help, of course. :-(