First day in Lanzhou

A day full of variety in Lanzhou. We are investigating socially problematic areas in this city and our first day consisted of: a very interesting interview with professor Chen, sociologist; interview with mr. and mrs. Li, who rent out rooms to migrant workers;  visit to former Danwei area; a visit to a school for children of migrant workers in a muslim area. See the results below:

scheme of the Chinese city by mr Chen, with the city expansion, Urban Villages, Danwei and new empty residential areas.

Vivian and Michiel interview mr. and mrs. Li on their rooftop; they rent out 12 rooms where migrant workers live. Read the rest of this entry »

Go West arrives in Lanzhou

We just landed in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. After a 1 hour ride from the airport, through empty and dry mountains we arrived in the city. Some first impressions from our taxi ride:

Read the rest of this entry »

Real estate bubble - or not?

When travelling through China, we often see empty buildings. Or streets. Or city parts. Whenever we ask people what is happening they say ‘Don’t worry, all these apartements are already sold. People are renting them out as an investment.’ We heard that story so many times, and we thought it sounded so unconvincing that it made us ask some questions. And apparently we are not the only ones.

The New York Times is one of a lot of sources that is reporting about China’s real estate market and questioning if there is a bubble appearing, or maybe already there. The article describes a up market development at the Shanghai riverfront, and states that the effect of a Chinese real estate bubble on the worldwide economy is huge. Read the article of the NYT here: The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia.

But there are more people writing about this subject. Patrick Chovanec, an economist and associate professor at Tsinghua University frequently reports about this subject. He did a very interesting interview with Zhang Xin, the CEO of real estate developer SOHO China, last month. In this interview mrs Zhang states the following:

Basically . . . our strategy is to sell everything we have.  The real estate business should really be looking at rental yield; build a building and then lease it out with the rent giving a decent return.  But, because of where China is with asset bubbles, people want to buy the assets regardless of whether they can be leased out or not.  People just want to hold [property], even if it is empty.

These are quite remarkeble statements, especially for a CEO of a real estate company. More indicators of a possible bubble can be found in this post of Chovanec.

Go West lecture @ De Balie online

The lecture Go West did 2 weeks ago in De Balie, Amsterdam, is now online.

NYT: Beijing Police Beat Artists Protesting Evictions

From left, Liu Wei, Liu Yi, Wu Yuren, Zhang Jun and Sun Yuan are among the artists protesting the demolition of their homes and studios in the northern part of Beijing.

BEIJING — Nearly two dozen artists protesting the forced demolition of their homes and studios marched through the ceremonial heart of the capital before the police intervened and prevented them from reaching Tiananmen Square, the artists said Tuesday.

Read the whole article

Go West Live

Last week, we were interviewed for Dutch radio program OBA Live. If you want to hear (and see!) the radio interview please click here. The interview is in Dutch.

Go West at De Balie Amsterdam, February 11, 20.30 pm

On Thursday, February 11 the Go West Project will give a presentation at De Balie in Amsterdam.

In this presentation we will present results from our research in the cities in the Central and Western part of China. We will show redevelopment in Shijiazhuang, preservation in Kunming and the new business district in Wuhan. The evening will end with a panel discussion about several topics. How do these cities develop? Does China build a new type of city? What does the growth of these cities mean for China and the rest of the world?

The panel consists of China watchers, amongst whom Annette Nijs, director Global Initiative of the China Europe International Business School and author of the book ‘China with New Eyes’ and Michelle Provoost, founder of Crimson Architectural Historians and director of the International New Town Institute.

Also on February 11, De Balie will open a photo exhibition about the performance of the Go West Project at the Shenzhen / Hong Kong Architecture Biennale in December, where they asked 6 taxi drivers from 6 different Chinese cities to drive across the country to Shenzhen.

Time : February 11, 2010 at 20.30 pm
Location : De Balie
Address: Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10, Amsterdam (near Leidseplein)
Admission : Free

China News: New Rules Seek to Ease China Property Disputes | China Digital Times (CDT)

Property disputes are happening all over China. This is not strange in a country where all land is state owned and every urban settlement is booming: real estate development within these conditions is like preparing a meal in a pressure cooker. Last week, news was that there will be possible changes in the legislation concerning property disputes. China Digital Times had this article about the pending legislation:

Disputes over forced evictions as land gets sold for redevelopment have resulted in violent protests in recent years throughout China. New rules may give homeowners more rights and help ease tensions, Reuters reports:

With China’s feverish real estate market stoking developer appetite for land, existing guidelines allowing local governments to confiscate homes and claim land have drawn demands for change, which could eventually slow demolitions.

Property disputes in a country where the government legally controls all land can lead to rowdy protests, fights with police, imprisonment and even suicide.

According to a set of State Council Legislative Affairs rules pending review through February 12, anyone losing land should be paid market value, while demolition disputes should go to court and lawsuits should settle contract violations.

Chinese facing removal have long complained that the amount of compensation offered is far below the real value of their homes. Some allege that officials collude with developers to demand land in the name of public needs, such as roads, then turn it over to commercial investors who can reap big profits.

Strong-arm tactics should also be forbidden, they say.

Read more about forced evictions and land rights via CDT.

China News: New Rules Seek to Ease China Property Disputes | China Digital Times (CDT).

The Nine Nations of China - Patrick Chovanec, The Atlantic

Recently, Bert de Muynck of architecture / urbanism think tank movingcities.org showed us the following article.

The Atlantic (according to Michiel the best magazine in the world) had an interesting story by Patrick Chovanec stating that China does NOT EXIST. Instead, he writes, you should can think of this country as nine China’s. Read the article below, and check out the interactive map!

This week, President Obama makes his first state visit to China. What kind of country will he find there? We tend to imagine China as a monolith: 1.3 billion people sharing the same language, history, and culture. The truth is far more interesting. China is a mosaic of several distinct regions, each with its own resources, dynamics, and historical character.

As a traveler, teacher, and professional investor who has been exploring China since 1986, I’ve come to think of these regions as the Nine Nations of China (inspired, in part, by Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations of North America). Taken individually, these “nations” would account for eight of the 20 most populous countries in the world.

As China’s economy becomes more integrated, these regional differences are taking on greater importance than ever before. Each of the Nine Nations faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities in carving out its own competitive niche. Anyone who wants to do business in China, make policy towards China, or simply comprehend the dramatic changes happening there should understand the Nine Nations and the role each of them is playing in shaping China’s future. Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese village is building 15th tallest skycraper in the world

Although not in the West of China, this is a remarkable post on the blog chinaSMACK: Huaxi village in Jiangsu Province is building a skyscraper. As the village party-secretary put it: “People’s impressions of rural villages were always low-rise buildings, now we must make a breakthrough.”

That is an understatement. With 328 m. this building will be the 15th tallest in the world.

See below for the blog input (which contains some double information here and there). Read the rest of this entry »

China’s housing investment is preposterously large - Shanghaiist

Cary Hooper on Shanghaiist writes:

The more we hear about China’s housing market, the more outrageous it seems. China’s real estate investment grew by 75% last year: in total, 4.4 trillion yuan was spent last year, a large part of which was fueled by 9.5 trillion in new loans. If you need a physical gauge for just how much that is, chew on this: over the course of the year, China sold 937 million square meters of space, nearly twice as much as in 2008. In order to curb housing market mania, Wen Jiabao announced new curbs on lending to manage credit growth, but with the enormous contribution that housing makes to the national GDP, we’d be surprised if anything but a crash will stop people from buying new houses.

Also check the Shanghai Daily: property sales in China surge 75%

De geschiedenis verdwijnt uit China’s steden, Bron: ANP - architectenweb.nl

An article from Michiel for the Dutch Press Office about preservation in Kunming. The article is in Dutch.

In het historische centrum van Kunming, de hoofdstad van de provincie Yunnan in Zuid-China, leggen bouwvakkers de laatste hand aan een fonkelnieuw ‘historisch’ pand. Een eindje verderop hebben zo’n dertig werklui een houten skelet omhoog getrokken. Aan de vorm en het houtsnijwerk met drakenkoppen valt te zien dat hier eveneens een nieuw gebouw moet verrijzen in Kunming’s traditionele bouwstijl. Read the rest of this entry »

The other Huaxi Project

Guiyang received architectural world fame last year with the Huaxi project, a masterplan made by Beijing MAD Architects. In this masterplan, 11 young architecture offices were invited to contribute. The result is a bouquet of contemporary architectural forms. The project is widely published, widely discussed and widely criticized. And not yet build.

Last week, we were taken to Huaxi by Wei Haobo, director of Westline Studio in Guiyang. He showed us his project “Dream Stream”, consisting of 4 different buildings in the hills of Guiyang. Each building has a - especially for Chinese means - radical building typology. And most of all: they succeeded in building these proposals! Take a look:

The Bamboo Tree House is a structure with different dwellings lying on the hill. The houses are connected by staircases. The shape refers to the informal architecture of the farmer villages. Wei was also inspired by the village architecture in the South of Spain, he told us. The facade was meant to be filled in with local stones. However, the developer decided to make a cheaper solution by filling the structure in with tiles…

Read the rest of this entry »

Washington Times on Copenhagen fiasco

John J. Tkacik Jr, former China analyst of the US State Department writes an interesting article on China’s climate stance in the Wastington Times.

Tkacik quotes Mr Ding, China’s “most prestigious geophysicist” and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ding doesn’t believe in a human cause for rising global temperature.

Mr. Ding now purports to be upset that “developed nations” of the West, after emitting carbon gases into the atmosphere for over a century, suddenly insist that poor “developing” nations — including China — now share the burden of mitigating “predicted dire consequences” of global warming. He deduces that the secret motive for the climate controversy among the Western powers “is to restrain the growth of the developing nations and to preserve their own preferential position.”

More on China’s imprints all over Copenhagen talks fiasco - Washington Times.

China Digital Times: Chinese netizens lay flowers at the Google headquarters

Picture from China Digital Times. Chinese netizens lay flowers at the Google headquarters in Beijing as a reaction to the statement of Google that it’s reconsidering its operations in China.