China's Ghost Cities: The Truth Behind The Empty Megacities

the skyscrapers are empty the streets are without traffic and chilling silence emanates throughout the area these are the scenes of China's ghost cities these streets resemble abandoned or evacuated cities from a zombie or nuclear Apocalypse movie but nobody even lived here in the first place China's economic plan to build into Oblivion has transformed it into the world's second biggest economy in a short space of time but do these empty cities show the ugly side of this economic boom let's take a look number one ordos the whole city feels like a post-apocalyptic space station straight out

of a science fiction movie The Words of photographer Rafael Olivier when speaking about the Chinese ghost City ordos in northern China in the early 2000s China experienced a coal mining boom and was Awash with cash expecting a huge economic boom they built an entire new city named ordos which was anticipated to be the home of one million people Ten Years Later hardly anyone had moved over ordo's New Town was very close to ordo's Old Town which was already a thriving town there was no need to make this place their home and who wants to live

in a ghost town most of the people who settled in ordo's Old Town were migrant workers and government officials and government offices were moved near ordos in order to encourage them to live in this empty place the whole city is one big investment plan gone wrong 80 to 90 percent of the apartments in this city are owned by investors who have held on to them and are hoping to make money off them in the long term they are also investors who are so wealthy that they do not need to budge and lower the price by

2016 China decided to lower its expectations in hopes that ordos would be home to just three hundred thousand people but a combination of high taxes and poor construction meant that still nobody wanted to live there by 2016 only 100 000 people lived there so even their lowered expectation of housing only 300 000 people were clearly not low enough and this is a nationwide problem in China there are 65 million empty units which is enough to house the entire population of France these empty units could even home at least 25 percent of its homeless population of

300 million the reason why there are so many homes is that China's middle class views property as a safe investment they are not allowed to invest outside of China so having more than one home is a safe way of keeping your life savings intact and invested in brick and mortar China's real estate sector is also a huge part of its economy the country wants to continue growing its economy so it also needs to continue growing Its Real Estate sector and the only way to continue growing Its Real Estate sector is to continue building and building

in the center of ordos are two horse statues representing the traveling nomadic culture of its region turns out they want to travel Anywhere But Here number two Jun Ming's ghost neighborhood sometimes the phrase ghost cities doesn't always apply to what's happening in these areas what often happens is that there are ghost neighborhoods within a city Jun Ming is a city with a population size equivalent to Madrid but there are certain neighborhoods where there are little or no people to be seen not much has happened in sunshine city in jinming in fact the most exciting thing

that happened inside the city was in 2021 when 15 skyscrapers were demolished having stood unfinished for several years construction was started in 2011 but the developer ran into debt and buildings simply halted in 2013. also in Jun Ming is evergrand spender city which is a group of buildings meant to house sixty thousand people although official media Outlets claimed that thirty thousand people live there all of the shops and stores were closed as well as its kindergarten and hospital and evergrand is the name of one of Anna's biggest property developers who have currently racked up mountains

of debt the developer owes 300 billion dollars of debt which is more than the GDP of Portugal they have just continued building and the debts have continued piling up number three Tian du Chung China's Paris one of the most peculiar ghost cities is Tian du Chung the idea of living inside a city inspired by Paris in China seems like a great idea the only problem is they were not only inspired by China they simply replicated it if you saunter through tayanthu Chang you will find Parisian facades and lovely cobblestone streets without any hint of subtlety

they have also literally recreated The Arc the triumphs of the Seas and the Eiffel Tower this has been known as duplicature where you make exact replicas of historical landmarks to some people this looks quite tacky but to others it's a way of visiting Paris without traveling too far the town's original plans were to have ten thousand residents in 2021 they had 10 percent of this figure most of the people are curious visitors from nearby Shanghai so why is it a ghost City is so committed to replicating Paris that the cost of property in this area

is also incredibly expensive and not many people can afford to live there and of course Paris is something you can't just replicate number four yujipu China's Manhattan yujipu was China's attempt to replicate Manhattan a promo video for yujipu leads with a mocking description of major American cities what an incredible Skyline thank goodness it's missing the tons of homeless people drug addicts graffiti trash street gangs and ragtag Street vendors and the video is technically correct there are no homeless people gangs or drug addicts the only problem is that there is not much else there either there

is no rush hour traffic of people going to and coming from work the streets are not littered with crowds and the buildings are the only thing that resembles modern day Manhattan visiting in May 2021 Bloomberg reported quote a weekday visit in May found empty streets long unfinished Office Buildings and a shopping mall and Imax Cinema that both seem permanently shut the situation was better when Bloomberg reporters visited its completely deserted streets in 2015 but not dramatically so end quote number five Thames Town shanghai's London and we see a continuing theme here where China's attempt to

replicate London has also been abandoned welcome to Thames town while tiantu Shaw tried to replicate Paris Thames town has borrowed bits and pieces from Mary old England there are the ICONic red telephone boxes fish and chip shops English pubs and walkways which resemble Victorian and anuardian England but when you walk through the town it's not exactly Piccadilly Circus most of the streets are empty and a lot of the shops have closed down the small town was designed for students and University workers but none of them could afford to live there and none of the property

owners are willing to lower their price so Thames Town remains like the scenes in the zombie movie 28 Days Later number six Chang gong there are ghost cities but there are also recovering ghost cities chengong was a ghost town that managed to escape its post-apocalyptic setting in 2003 Chen gong was transformed from natural farmland and rolling mountains but by 2013 the place had built a city nobody wanted to live in but today Chen gong is only a ghost City during the winter break as the city has transformed into a living space for students a cluster

of seven colleges are now situated in the area a move which has bred new life into the area the city is by no means full or anywhere near as dense as a big city but bit by bit the place is gradually transforming there are night markets Street vendors and young people socializing on the weekends international stores such as h m and Zara have even set up shop in this city too number 7. hudong our last example will give China space for optimism and we will take a look at what was deemed China's first ever ghost

City who dang is just outside Shanghai and was destined to become a brand new Financial District this city was built in the 1990s and was sneered at by critics all across the world in 1998 and during the Asian financial crisis this city skyscrapers had a vacancy rate of 70 percent and construction was halted in some sites the famous economist Milton Friedman described the city as quote a status Monument for a dead Pharaoh on the level of the pyramids end quote and for a number of years their critics were right in 2013 60 Minutes did report

on this city which read quote we discovered that the most populated country on earth is building houses districts and cities with no one in them we found what they call a ghost city of newtowners with no residents desolate condos and vacant subdivisions uninhabited for miles and miles and miles they're building cities giant cities are being built with people not coming to live here end quote but behind the scenes China were desperate to transform this City's Fortune by 2005 the Shanghai government made government-owned Banks relocate to this city and international businesses were given perks for setting

up here too it was a slow and steady period of growth but today the place is much different in 2022 pudong's annual GDP topped 400 billion dollars and is a world away from its ghost City status in fact its occupancy rate is actually higher than Midtown Manhattan so it will be interesting to viewers watching this video in 10 years time to see what ghost cities are left in China we'll be happy to stand corrected if any of these ghost cities ever change but until then China's ghost cities and neighborhoods remain an uncomfortable consequence of the

country's Monumental growth thank you so much for watching and if you enjoyed the video you can help us out by liking the video and subscribing to our Channel [Music]