Ghost Towns of China
13 Сентябрь, 2013
Why do so many virtually uninhabited towns continue to build in China?
National correspondent Australian television network SBS ONE, Adrian Brown recently returned from China and shared his impressions:
«I am, honestly, tired of endless reports about China strogostjah when visiting its towns. The Government of the province of Inner Mongolia refused to issue me an invitation. Could be, they have seen my previous reports on cities-ghosts of China.
Anyway, No amount of persuasion does not succeed, and no letter was not followed. So, in the end I had to visit the Ordos informally – This is, the General view, the largest ghost town of them all.
Arriving, I was struck by the similarity with the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang. Broad, empty boulevards. Monumental architecture with confusing street system. And a terrible lack of people. On smooth, a straight road in the city we saw only two other vehicles. And it was all 8:30 Morning – rush hour in most cities.
My Guide took me to the central square, that was more than two and a half kilometres in length and about 200 m across. And all this for a city with a population of only 140 thousands of!»
Tianducheng is a real ghost town. In some cases you have to pinch yourself and say: «Yes, This is real!».
«My guide was suspicious of my endless questions about how, why there was so empty. After all, came her boss, along with an official from the Public Security Bureau.
After checking my passport, their suspicions were confirmed – No journalist visa. Weird, but I was told, it meant, I did not have permission to speak to anyone, but I could continue shooting.»
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