Last year Tony Blair came to Guiyang, Guizhou province. Why? To talk about sustainability. Guiyang is on of China’s 60 eco-cities. In this weeks issue of Dutch weekly ‘Vrij Nederland‘ you can find a story and photo’s from our trip to Guiyang, last January. Run to the store!
You might fear that the Go West Project is slowly turning into a research project about the Chinese economy, instead of urbanism. Don’t worry, that’s not the case. We stay tuned on the development of new metropolises in Central and Western China.
Nevertheless, we cannot overlook the hausse on news concerning growing pressure on China to change it’s economic model, which is based on export and investment (the latter mainly in fixed assets, such as housing, offices and infrastructure - see here the connection to Go West).
Last week we wrote that the fight between the US and China over a low RMB was intensifying. It looks as if the US has found some interesting supporters. Firstly, the World Bank started to openly criticise Beijing, writes the New York Times.
The World Bank recommended higher interest rates and a stronger currency for China on Wednesday, as it raised growth forecasts for the country.
The IMF is following track:
Separately, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also said the renminbi’s exchange rate was too low. “Some currencies in Asia are undervalued, especially the renminbi,” Mr. Strauss-Kahn told a committee of the European Parliament in Brussels.
This seams to be a regular building site in Chongqing, one of China’s fast growing mega-cities. But it also is a so called ‘floating village’ : a temporary residence of migrant workers around one of the thousands of construction sites in China. The inhabitants work as a chef, a shop owner or a prostitute. China’s ‘floating population’ counts 150 million. After work is finished, the whole village moves to the next building site.
For one week we walked through the village on the picture. We talked with restaurant owner Deng and his wife about their business model, and with manager Wen who dreams about retirement. We tried to reveal why the 800 inhabitants leave their homes and kid and move into a container or under a corrugated roof. What seems to be a slum, turns out to be a vibrant village with its own fresh market, health center and cinema.
The whole story about the floating village in Chongqing is in this weeks’ Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland.
Check also: Eeuw van de Stad » Go West Project (5): China’s ‘dolende dorpen’.
The story is already some weeks old, but I stumbled upon it today. The vice mayor of Chongqing (a city of >30 million souls in central China) has said his city will have a cargo railway straight to Rotterdam, the Netherlands before 2012. This will greatly boost economic potential of central and western China. More on Shanghai Daily.
Ethnic riots broke out between Uygurs and Han Chinese in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang. According to Chinese reports, 140 people died so far. Ürümqi is one of the cities which will be visited by the Go West Project.
Xinjiang province is originally a muslim area, but has seen a growing Han Chinese population over the last decades, due to government policy. In August last year I visited the ancient city of Kashgar and wrote this report (sorry, only in Dutch) about how the two groups (muslim and non-muslim) live in completely seperate worlds. They even uses different time zones. Also read Ethnic violence in China leaves 140 dead | World news | guardian.co.uk.
From Danwei.org comes an interesting story about the dissapearing old characteristic center of ancient Silk Road town Kashgar:
Building a new Old City in Kashgar
An article from The Guardian newspaper about Chongqing, a city with over 30 million inhabitants that most people outside of China don’t know. Apart from that, it’s one of the cities the Go West Project visits. Read The megalopolis you’ve never heard of | World news | The Guardian.
RSS