Inside China's ghost cities | 60 Minutes Australia

it's very easy to be overwhelmed by China a booming nation of 1.3 billion people who's increasingly prosperous lives are driving development on a scale the world has never seen China is constantly on the move it's estimated that in the next decade 350 million people will leave the land for the city it is the largest population movement in human history and it's leading to the rise and rise of the mega city [Music] the old gives way to the new entire cities emerge seemingly from nowhere well it's absolutely phenomenal then when you look at the scale of the cities Chongqing 31 and a half million people in Chongqing it's and most people have never heard of it Melbourne architect Robert Caulfield is among the experts who've been invited in by the Chinese they like his grand designers and have awarded him prized contracts to transform not just a few blocks but entire cities just over in that area there will be the new hub from sketch to animation to construction it all happens at dizzying speed one of our projects they were actually putting in the roads before we'd even finish the drawings and we just couldn't produce it fast enough so as quick as you're drawing it they're building it well quicker than we were drawing it's like China Inc it's like a a corporation that the five-year plan everyone going in the one direction I've had it suggested to me that doing business with the Communists is good because they make a decision while they do make decisions it's that full-throttle philosophy that has transformed cities like Shanghai no matter what the cost [Music] this is a common sight on old buildings these red painted characters translated mean to be demolished it won't be long before this block becomes another skyscraper [Music] in the middle of this soaring metropolis we come across a grand old traditional Chinese house marked for destruction Nihao good to meet you mrs. sure and her family have lived here for 70 years and that protest banner in the window lets everyone around here know they don't want to move so let me understand this let's have a look at your neighbors one big high-rise there another big high-rise there and your house right in the middle but you don't want to move no they're asking us to leave but we will never be willing to do so mrs. shows not alone in trying to hold her ground have a look at what happens when people like her refuse to budge the developers just build around them no matter how absurd the lengths or depths they have to go to there's no time to dispute no lodging a building complaint with counsel developers simply move too fast and the new buildings appear as quickly as it takes to demolish the old ones this 30 story hotel went up in just two weeks [Music] so basically prefabricated floor plates and prefabricated walls that are all just moved in and put in place by a crane it's like a big Lego set the danger with that sort of development is that there is a risk of a lot of buildings being built that all look the same however this unfathomable ambition to rehouse hundreds of millions of citizens has created some truly bizarre anomalies [Music] have you ever wondered what it might be like if you were the last person on earth well I'd imagine that it would be something like this and I've got to tell you it is a very strange and eerie feeling everything is here an entire city all the buildings the roads schools hospitals you name it everything that is except the people and looking around there is not a soul to be seen this is a new city he called Lingam an hour's drive from Shanghai built for nearly a million people it's almost like a cardboard cutout of a city and in some places a giant facade rows of vacant shops restaurants and office buildings waiting for customers diners and works when you walk around these ghost cities what are your thoughts what am i thought well I mean I just don't gobsmacked I mean I'm gobsmacked that there are so many malls and an empty apartments just standing vacant and yet they're still building more it just it doesn't seem to make sense Hong kong-based Financial Analysts gilliam taluk since neither he nor the world has ever seen anything like the phenomenon of China's ghost cities they've constructed huge residential areas with shopping malls etc and no one's moved in to live in them just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come clearly they're not coming no I mean 700 million people in China live on less than $2 a day they simply can't afford these and that's why these apartments are sitting empty because there's no one who can afford to live in them [Music] it's not just residential developments sprawling commercial districts also lie empty this is you job Putin new city type to become China's Manhattan in fact challenging New York is the world's biggest financial district but on our biblical journey we find it is utterly devoid of any sign of life this is one of the more staggering sites I think I've seen it's an entire city quite literally frozen in time now only six months ago construction on this massive project was in full swing but now it's all that a standstill I can count at least 30 skyscrapers over there where the work has completely stopped officially they say that this project is just on hold but you've got to say especially in these sub-zero temperatures the future of this city looks especially bleak [Music] this is the largest prophecy bubble that has ever been selfishly from Australia's point of view we like this bubble because we keep shipping iron ore and other raw materials to China so they can keep building these cities yeah I wouldn't give up the day job as they say I mean I'd be very nervous because if the bubble does burst then you simply have to follow the supply chain and the supply chain ends up in in Australia but for the Australians helping to build the new China all this construction makes perfect sense when you remember China's booming population thriving middle class and unwavering drive to become the world's dominant superpower well it's absolutely phenomenal because there's somewhere between 4 and 500 million people still living in what the Chinese government considers to be inadequate accommodation so they're going healthful ever to build this accommodation four to five hundred million people I mean it's hard to get your head around it they're staggering you know I could take Robert Caulfield has been commissioned to redesign a vast area of the historic city of Nanjing and the journey there is a reminder of why China's mega cities work they're connected by 10000 kilometers of high-speed train lines and look at the speed now 303 kilometers an hour and accelerating imagine run of these running between Sydney and Melbourne on blinking you'd be there yeah that's right [Music] it's got a very long and rich history Nanjing was once the ancient capital of China home to the Ming Dynasty and a revered site it's now entrusted to an Australian architect with some big ideas we're proposing a cable car system that goes right along the front of the lake core field also has approved plans for a futuristic project in the city center well we've got here Michael is that just over in that area there will be the new hub building and there's a high-speed rail that goes actually through these buildings here and this goes for about five kilometers down this road and there'll be a number of high-rise factories in this area but it's one thing to sit in your Melbourne office and dream up this amazing renovation of a city but to be standing here and seeing it underway it is quite remarkable that's it happened so quickly and there's 24 square kilometres in this master planning area that we've done that's enormous [Music] that just seems to be the way things roll in the new China everything happens at a frantic pace Robert Caulfield just hopes they let him get the drawings done first so no idea is too big it's really quite strange Michael because you know I'll go back in a couple of days to Melbourne office where we're working on three or four retirement villages and in the next week we'll be working on a city yeah it's fear it's a very exciting time though and for all Australians there's a fantastic opportunity here hello I'm Liam Bartlett thanks for watching so keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our Channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 1,949,678

Rating: 4.5084558 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Peter Stefanovic, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Paul Barry, Peter Harvey, Michael Usher, Ross Coulthart, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, China, ghost town, people, haunted, Shanghai, housing

Id: Ie6zd3Rwu4c

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/CILISI_SMITH]

Isn't there a circular deadlock when trying to get these cities populated? I.e. how do you get residents to move in when there are no operating shops, schools, hospitals, etc but those will not be established until you have enough residents to support them.

​

Do they try and organise startup settlers go in and form mini-cites inside, like planting seeds and let them grow naturally from those first small numbers?

[u/Marisa5]

ghost cities started around the 90s. this is around the time ghost cities are disappearing and actually taking on life.

[u/dog_in_the_vent]

Could do without the overdramatic music and editing. Interesting video though.