New developments in Kunming

Kunming south development, January 2010

In January this year, we visited Kunming. The city has big plans to expand to the South. Big plans. Today, the SCMP writes:

Kunming, in southwestern China, is the capital city of Yunnan province. It is building six underground railway lines in a bid to improve accessibility. Lines 1, 2, and 6 are scheduled to be completed and operating by the end of 2012, followed by Line 3 in 2014, and Lines 4 and 5, which are due to open in 2018.

The crossing of these subway lines will be the opportunity to create a landmark, according to the vice-mayor He Bo:

One of the major projects at the intersection of three of the lines will include a 456-metre-high skyscraper – “the city’s future landmark in the core business district”, He said.

But there’s more. Kunming has a big and beautiful lake in the south east part of the city. The lake is now heavily polluted, but offers potential for great development. Into what? Right, en eco-city!

Apart from the skyscraper project, Kunming also hopes to invite investors to participate in a 25 billion yuan redevelopment of the 8.73 square kilometre Chao Hai district in the southwestern part of the city. The area will be developed into an “eco-city”, surrounded by a lake.

As for the development model, Kunming looks at the Hong Kong model, of creating real estate value with the development of public transport:

Mayor He, however, believed land value would have a greater upside potential when the metro system was completed. “The Kunming [property market] will present a big surprise to investors over the next three to five years,” he said.

Read the whole story here:

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Government warns developers about land hoarding

Apparently unaffected by the global economic recession, Beijing’s real estate prices have continued to rise this year after last year’s brief slump. Amidst complaints about the house price escalation, last week a government minister openly admitted to the media that he couldn’t afford a house in the city.

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Property Developers Emerge from Doldrums

This article by Caijing’s Ci Bing gives insight in the way property development in China is (already!) recovering from the downturn: “Real estate investment is rebounding thanks to an improved credit environment and state-owned companies with plenty of cash.” Read: Property Developers Emerge from Doldrums.

Waiting for people..

The city of Taiyuan (3 million inhabitants) wants to expand in the coming years with 1 million people. In the last week, we were more than once confronted with the enourmous impact these plans have on the urban condition. Some impressions:

Residential area under construction between Changfeng Jie and Nanzhonghuan Jie.

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A window to the future

On the west side of the river Fen in Taiyuan, a part of the city center will be realized: a culture island with 5 public buildings containing a diverse program. This is the current situation.

Zhengzhou, Central Business District

The Central Business District is designed by Japanese architect Kurukowa. This new urban area consists of a circular shopping mall of 2 km which is still under construction. The apartment buildings are finished and mostly sold, but still empty, due to speculations.  

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Evergreens

A development in the Northeast of the city of Zhengzhou was started in the nineties, to lift up the area. The buildings were hotels and spas. The area has known more active times in its existence than nowadays.