China's New Ghost Cities:

[Brock Samson]

 The ghost towns of China: Amazing satellite images show cities meant to be home to millions lying deserted.
    Lots more pics at the link...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339536/Ghost-towns-China-Satellite-images-cities-lying-completely-deserted.html

Excerpt:
"Regional governments across China have been building massive real estate projects, including Kangbashi in Inner Mongolia and Zhengzhou New District, which have remained empty, because of the high prices and interest in investment.
Kangbashi, which was built in just five years, was meant to be the urban centre for Ordos City - a wealthy coal-mining hub home to 1.5million people.
It was filled with office towers, administrative centres, museums, theatres and sports facilities as well as thousands of homes, but remains virtually deserted".


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339536/Ghost-towns-China-Satellite-images-cities-lying-completely-deserted.html#ixzz1E4glxQib

[Ghoste]

Isn't communism wonderful?

[oldgold69]

but every one has a job  or they eat a bullet

[TK73]

How much more of a swim is that compared to the Rio Grande?

I got an idea... 

[Vainglory, Esq.]

One word: bubble.

In somewhere between 1 and 10 years, I'll look like a damn prophet.

[tricky lugnuts]

I remember reading that article . . . Very strange!

A World Bank blogger wrote something about it, too:

http://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/rise-of-the-chinese-ghost-town

Malinvestment? Planning for the future?

I can't help but laugh some of the comments on a Business Insider article about it: "Are you sure that's not Flint, Michigan?" Or, "They're building all that for an influx of indentured servant Americans desperate for a job!"

But from everything I've been seeing, property has been getting pretty darn expensive in China's major cities, and the central bank has been raising interest rates to try and cool down the economy.

[Iceyone]

I was working over in Heshan, China in Oct-Nov 08 and saw one of these. There was a scale model of the complex set up in the hotel I was staying in and they were bussing in Chinese expats at an attempt to get them to come back home. People I met over there with "good jobs" were making about a hundred bucks a month.