Chinese Malinvestment

[tenthring]

http://www.triplefiveshanghai.com/thames-town-shanghai/

To set the record straight, Thames town is a wholly built, fully functioning copy of a small English town. Complete with everything you would expect from an English town… except the people.

There’s a high street of shops, with names like “mike’s records’ and ‘the fish bar’. All of them are empty, shells. It’s eerie to walk around. There are the cobbles, the wooden beams, the double yellow lines, the telephone boxes and street after street of nothing. It looks deserted. In fact it was never used in the first place, barely anyone came.

The problem? It’s in the middle of nowhere for one thing (sorry to those who live in Songjiang). It’s a monumental £500m white Chinese elephant and never took off. Even their website hasn’t been updated since the the month it opened in 2006. Supposedly all the properties were snapped up as investments, now they’re trying to sell them. Posters with telephone numbers are stuck in apartment windows around town, the ones within reach are being covered by Haibao stickers to keep up appearances.

Found this over at MR. In true commie fashion they are planning to build an exact replica of a German town as well.

Just remember that this sort of thing "contributes" to GDP growth.

[tommie frazier]

wee britain? what time does mary poppins hit a tourist?

[axjoke]

There sure are a lot of fascinating stories coming out of China.

Wrong thread, but a really good book is Mr. China.

[Arthur Kade]

Ruth’s bar [...] they’ve got a menu written only in Chinese and don’t serve English food.

Tis a shame. Could film an awesome movie there. Or have a massive game of paintball.

.

[johnny storm]

And yet their people are seeing dramatic improvement in their standards of living* while the country stockpiles massive amounts of foreign reserves.

Kind of makes you wonder what they could do if they made smart investments.

*obviously from a very low starting point

[axjoke]

Originally Posted by johnny storm

And yet their people are seeing dramatic improvement in their standards of living* while the country stockpiles massive amounts of foreign reserves.

Kind of makes you wonder what they could do if they made smart investments.

*obviously from a very low starting point

I'm not so sure I admire anything about China and your disclaimer makes it so I hardly care what improvements they've had thus far.

[tenthring]

Originally Posted by johnny storm

And yet their people are seeing dramatic improvement in their standards of living* while the country stockpiles massive amounts of foreign reserves.

Kind of makes you wonder what they could do if they made smart investments.

*obviously from a very low starting point

This culture of mass savings means that most peoples consumption levels are low, so how much is their standard of living improving. Foreign reserves are only good if you actually get to use then one day to buy goods. Meanwhile I've seen many studies that show if you factor in the massive environmental damage caused by expansion that quality of life has decreased for many people.

I think we will find one day that real GDP growth, the kind that represents improvements to peoples quality of life, is much lower then reported growth rates.

[axjoke]

Originally Posted by tenthring

Foreign reserves are only good if you actually get to use then one day to buy goods. Meanwhile I've seen many studies that show if you factor in the massive environmental damage caused by expansion that quality of life has decreased for many people.

I think we will find one day that real GDP growth, the kind that represents improvements to peoples quality of life, is much lower then reported growth rates.

Agree

[James Madison]

More outrageous Chinese malinvestment is shown is this photo essay from Time Magazine. It’s about the empty city of Ordos. Some folks think that China is the country of the future but with mismanagement like this I just don’t see it.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1975397_2094492,00.html

[axjoke]

Originally Posted by James Madison

Some folks think that China is the country of the future but with mismanagement like this I just don’t see it.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1975397_2094492,00.html

Not to mention their level of corruption. Look what they did to YHOO with Alipay. If i was a company i would be leery of dealing with them.