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 »

A village turning into a metropolis

The city of Kunming grew from 1 to 4 million people in about ten years. Therefore, the city is extended with a satellite in the south. The university moved there already, and the government building is ready for use. The satellite will be connected to the urban core with a light rail system, that is currently under construction, and finished in two years. There are also residantial areas under construction. We ran into a 200 year old village, surrounded by skyscrapers. Take a look:

The 200 year old village with the constructions surrounding it Read the rest of this entry »