I'm pretty sure he just admitted that it was a serious issue, and he stated it had legal consequences.Originally Posted by TheMiddlePath
The fact that it seems normal to search without a reason a Chinese citizen just because he happens to be poor and from the countryside seems to be what he's talking about.
How does China deal with the issue property rights?
What is the overall vacancy rate of new office and residential buildings?
In talking with some Beijingers, many of the new high rise residential buildings are empty sitting on former populated Hutongs.
At issue in China is the discriminatory residential system that denies access to local education and health care.
Raze? What a funny definition! I got it that the development of China were equal to raze.
Some people had 2 dictionaries in their mind - one was normal dictionary, another was devil dictionary. Then, they have made some devil comments.
Personnaly, I don't like skyscrapers or fancy condos in the middle of a city. I prefer our German Altstädte (singular Altstadt), e.g. an old town with timbered houses. That's pretty common in our country, with many buildings preserved by the local government for example, with residents still living in them.
Here's a pic from my hometown's center (sadly, it was bombed to bits in March '45 by the Brits, but largely reconstructed):
Around 1900:
Today (pic shows part of christmas market):
Here is a preserved street from 1548:
Of course, not everything was reconstructed after the war. I remember some really ugly buildings built in the 50's and 60's, with some of them being razed and replaced with new ones. A mix between old and modern, but not too stylish..
I've never been to China or the Old Kashgar, however in my opinion the Chinese should preserve their ancient town centers. They have tradition and life, like the Hutongs in Bejing described by Ordie. Only because of these old things we Europeans visit China. Because it is thousand of years old. Because we want to see some old school China.
Modern condos, huge shopping malls, full glass skyscrapers, way too much lightning on the buildings - no thanks. I do not need to see that in Bejing, Kashgar or whatever city in China.. We have it in Berlin, Potsdamer Platz, or Paris, La Defense, for example.
Beautiful building, but people don't want others tell them what values are. Me too. You have your value judgement. Others have theirs.
And may I have a look inside of your hometown's houses, modern or medieval?
There are some pics of Kashgar below.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=z...%89%87&aq=f&oq=
http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduima...CA%B2%20%CD%BC
Don't get it wroong, I didn't want to say that China has to preserve it. Just my humble opinion. For inside pictures of the houses, you may find some images here. But I guess most houses are renovated inside.
China's urbanization is a on going process. The current econimic meltdown will not last forever.
Residential system allows an orderly movement of people from the rurul area to the cities without creating the slums and choking the cities social and infrasturcture system (Schools included). As the earlier video clip shows, China will be moving millions and millions of people to the cities in the next 20years. Housing, schools and infrastructure must be build first to accommodate these millions (Which is larger then the entire US population).
Yes there are problems.
BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) -- China's urban population surged to 607 million with an urbanization rate of 45.7 percent at the end of 2008, a social researcher revealed Monday.
The urban population had increased by 148 million since 2000, almost level with the rural population in the world's most populous nation with 1.3 billion people, according to Shan Jingjing of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
In the early 1980s, the rural population accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total.
The urban surge reflected economic growth and internal labor movements, including 130 million migrant workers who left rural homes to work in the cities, said Shan, who is also vice editor-in-chief of the Blue Book of Cities in China, published by the CASS on Monday.
According to the blue book, China has 118 megalopolises of more than 1 million people, and 39 such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang are super metropolises of more than 2 million residents.
Compared with the 2000 figures derived from China's fifth census, urban citizens covered by basic medical insurance had increased 93.87 million, basic pension insurance participants increased 17.53 million, unemployment insurance participants increased 7.55 million, employment injury insurance participants increased 16.37 million and maternity insurants increased 14.06 million.
Urbanization had not narrowed income gaps. According to the blue book, the urban: rural income ratio averaged about 5 in 2008 by contrast with the gap in 2000 when the ratio was 2.79, said Wei Houkai, co-editor-in-chief of the blue book.
With rapid urbanization, China was also encountering surging challenges amid the global downturn, which has had a serious impact on the economy, the book warned.
"One of the challenges will be unemployment," Shan said. "According to research on 15 enterprises in five provinces, job vacancies have decreased by 5.3 percent since the end of March."
The unemployment situation would be worsened by China's huge labor pool with an annual 15 million new job hunters and some 6 million college graduates this summer, Shan said.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture in March, there were 11 million unemployed migrant workers.
But the book also mentioned that a CASS survey conducted in Jiangxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Guangdong Provinces after this year's lunar new year (late January-early February) found that the migrant return rate was not as high as media reports claimed.
Yep......Speaking with a lot of "CLASS".
I beg to differ.
It creates an "aparthied system within China's cities of where migrants laborers and families who are shut out of being part of the overall community.
It's a principle of equity where you have a significant segment of the community who contributes to the overall economic devlopment of the city without getting anything in return.
Moreover, as Chinese society is becoming more affulent, the residential system becomes more of an hinderance than a benefit for the common Chinese. It does not allow for the flexibility and mobilty needed for an emerging economy.
There primary reason why we don't see as many slums is that major employers usually provides room and board at the worksite. It's not uncommon see dormatories at factory and construction sites.
It dosn't matter how big the buildings are, how massive is the road network, or how extensive the public transportation are.
All of it is meaningless without water.
Access to water will be the greatest struggle for China in the next decade.
Well, it's nice. Nothing is matter. For you, maybe. China is experiencing a process of urbanization. Millions of people from countryside moved into cities to seek working opportunities. They take anything they can find to earn their livings. A lot of them maybe eventually will go back to where they came from, but what they experienced is eye opener. Their next move or next generation can stand better chances.
The cities where I lived is full of immigrate workers. They are doing all kinds of works, living in everywhere in the city. I rented my old apartment to one of them. My tenant's kid was enrolled in a nearby elementary school. I don't know where your theory came from. You problem is when you see something, you just stay there, you don't see the trend of change.
In the times before the internet people managed to recognize irony by understanding the text instead of looking for smilies.
China earmarks 53.87b yuan for water diversion project
09-05-23
China earmarked 53.87 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) for the country's huge south-to-north water diversion project as of the end of April, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said Saturday.
The figure was 8.2 billion yuan more than the end-of-November figure of 45.67 billion yuan, the last time when such figure was announced.
China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project is designed to divert water from the water-rich south of the country, mainly the Yangtze, or the country's longest river, up to the dry north.
The earmarked money is from budgeted spending from the central government, at 15.42 billion yuan, special funds in treasury bonds from the central budget, at 10.65 billion yuan, funds of local governments, at 7.99 billion yuan, and loans, at 19.81 billion yuan.
Zhang said several key projects along the eastern route have been completed. The Danjiangkou Dam in central China's Hubei Province, the source of diverted water along the central route, is still under construction.
The huge water diversion project consists of eastern, central and western routes. The eastern and central routes are already under construction, while the western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is still at the planning stage.
China's State Council has allowed an investment of up to 254.6 billion yuan for the phase-one projects along the eastern and middle routes.
Zhang said 30.48 billion yuan, part of the earmarked 53.87 billion yuan, had been spent, with 5.66 billion yuan on the eastern route and 24.82 billion yuan on the middle route.
A 225-kilometer canal linking Shijiazhuang City of Hebei Province to Beijing has started pumping water into the capital as of September 28 to ease the city's water shortage.
The canal is designed to divert up to 300 million cubic meters of water annually. It has so far pumped 190 million cubic meters of water into Beijing as of May 6.
Construction on the eastern route began in December 2002, and on the central route in December 2003.
The eastern route is expected to be ready for water diversion to Jiangsu and Shandong provinces in 2013, and the central route would be ready to pump water into Beijing in 2014, according to latest estimation of the project office.
The South-North water diversion has been a centuries old pipe dream for China. The problem is that its highly dependent upon the Tibetian plateau glaciers and snow pack.
Thanks to global warming due to carbon emissions, it's melting at a rapid rate.
Besides, the south-north diversions is like robbing "Peter to pay Paul".*
Much more investment needs to be done in term of water quality conservation and reuse. Moreover, argiculture methods such as drip technology can help.
Otherwise the nearest large source of fresh water in the region is Lake Baikal in Russia.
*(For the Chinese who are Biblical historical illiterate, this is in reference to St. Peter and St. Paul and the founding of early Christianity)
Besides water from Tibetan plateau, another major water source for south part of China is the seasonal rainfall. The flood almost happened in every single year in the south part. In my college years there, I always worried about the flood would cut off the railway during summer break, because I need to take train home.
After the dams are built on the rivers, it becomes possible that those seasonal rainfall can be saved for the places where needed more water. I for one am looking forward to the huge project to be done.
You sound more like a racial bigot than a guy who 'likes' Chinese
Personally I'd rather those guys rule the place than a bunch of theocratic nuts who want Islamic law. If the rightists in Taiwan had won the civil war instead of the commies in Beijing we would have a slightly different China today and none of you guys would be giving a damn about that region.
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