Latest comments posted about China’s urban fever on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/667-China-s-urban-fever http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/667-China-s-urban-fever I can't agree more with this article. Local governments in China are increasing urban constructions blindly as a way to secure GDP growth. It indeed brought about economic developments in many ways, making it possible for China to talk to the world with numbers. China has construction projects everywhere, rebuilding existing buildings or starting new ones from scratch. It seems to be an effective way to solve the housing problem of its 1.3 billion population. However, in fact, those who need housing badly will still remain in need, probably forever. Most of them can never afford a place to live without spending the income of their whole life. While the rich, on the contrary, always own several luxurous houses simultaneously and they are the main forces of wasteful consumption of resources in China. They are robbing resources from the working class, processing them a bit and reselling them back to the working class at a price ten times higher. If the people can't afford it, they will easily be entitled to the consumption of those resources. The naive thoughts of the government are supporting those hypocritical trades. They seemingly contribute to the upgrade of China's status in the global community, but are actually wasting resources and deteriorating the living standards of the poor. Hope the government can adopt some strong and effective policies, making them pro lower and middle class, to get the blind expension of ruban constructions under control! Juliet Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:21:41 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-4160 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-4160 Comment 4 makes a reasonable point. Yet I agree even more with Comment 3: the reason why the social, environmental, and resource problems of China are so enormous can be led back to the sheer enormity of China's population. Japan's classic four-person household generally lives in an area of 70 square meters; yet China's so-called "middle class", three-person household now lives in an area of 100 square meters! China's land is also large, yet how much of it can be tilled? And where will the resource capabilities come from to build and live in houses? Where will grains and vegetables be planted? On the high plateaus of Qinghai and Tibet, the Taklamakan desert, or the Gobi dunes in the northwest? Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:44:30 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-3922 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-3922 如果生活在农村的人们没有相对较好的生活，他们当然会想进城谋取更好的生活。 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:07:41 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-3912 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-3912 Thanks for your comment, Aturen. The population of Japan is approximately 127 million. Take a look at: https://cia.gov/cia//publications/factbook/geos/ja.html Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:54:29 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-913 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-913 China's problem is not that land is too scarce, but that it is not reasonably used. The population is 1.3 billion, out of which I'm not sure how many are really middle class, but I know that in Japan they claim 100 million in the middle class. That is to say, in Japan from a population of 300 million, there are 100 million who belong to the middle class. And yet in Japan, a small island nation, one does not see the same kind of crowding as in China, and in China those who can buy cars and big houses don't quite reach 100 million? Therefore, it is not so much about returning to the problem of China's population, but more about taking the direction of thinking towards government management and elevating the character of citizens.　-Aturen Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:53:59 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-907 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-907 Being Chinese, we must contract our lifestyles. If every Chinese stays in a big house, high rise buildings will be scattered everywhere. If everyone drives cars, the roads will all become car parks. With a population of 1.3 billion, what else can China do? Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:19:05 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-898 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-898 This is a very interesting article, which however, does not highlight the underlying issue at hand. I agree with the above comment, that not only the immediate problem of construction needs to be addressed, but also the influx of large numbers of rural immigrants as a result of an ever-widening rural-urban divide. This is a very complex issue, which requires an enormous effort on behalf of the Chinese leadership. This, unfortunately goes far beyond the problem of urban construction itself, and touches upon some of the greatest challenges the Chinese leadership will have to face in terms of social policy. Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:42:37 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-885 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-885 China’s population is very large. Therefore, even if everyone was affluent, I’m afraid we would not be able to all live in villas like people in western societies. Hence, a change of consumption patterns is still needed, especially of the rich. The speed at which the rural population is entering cities is accelerating. China needs an enormous reduction in rural-urban disparities in order to bring about a stabilisation of the floating population, in combination to faster displacement of people to the suburbs. Actually, the pollution in China’s cities is so grave that if the suburbs were well-built, who would not want to live and work in a nice environment? In that case, the suburbs would certainly become much more attractive. Hence, controlling urban construction is a serious issue of social development. Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:07:15 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-880 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/667#comment-880