'CLONE CITIES': Welcome to the deserted German city outside of Shanghai?

by ~ The Rebel ~ Posted 2011/10/19 17:54:47

Related Topics: Single, China, Office, Son, Moving, South, Park, Mall, Living, Parks

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This may look like your average German suburb on a quiet day, but it's actually a planned community 30 kilometers outside of Shanghai. This is Anting German Town, a one-square-kilometer residential development founded in 2001 and built specifically to resemble a little slice of Deutschland. There's only one problem for this quirky Teutonic oasis —nobody wants to live there.

Anting was conceived by the architectural firm of Albert Speer & Partner (yes, the son of that Albert Speer). Despite low housing costs, this community's isolation dissuades tenants from moving there. Indeed, this is the same problem that plagues places like Ordos City and the sprawling and empty New South China Mall.

In the case of Anting German Town, it is surrounded by industrial parks — a single road links it to nearby city of Anting. This model city is further hobbled by awful infrastructure (for example, the post office is finished but unopened), pollution, unfinished apartment buildings left to rot, and crappy feng shui.

Flamingolady 2012/02/02 14:10:23

+1
Not well thought out. There should have been a study done to gauge if there was either a need or a want for this type of housing.

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Loverofcountry 2011/10/25 19:43:14

+1
This is an example of central planning, creating something that has no demand or market for it.

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Link 2011/10/19 23:50:50

+1
Interesting... Seems like a nice town aside from being surrounded by industrial parks...

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fredrik19 to Link 2011/10/20 03:38:19

+1
what is the point of the town any way ?

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Link to fredrik19 2011/10/20 11:19:17

+2
well, the only thing I can think of is the fact that there's a VW plant there, so they're trying to attract German workers or they're attempting toi make the German workers already there feel more at home by building a German-style town... or maybe they're attempting to work on the culture barrier [I doubt that but hey]...

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fredrik19 to Link 2011/10/20 13:19:50

+1
if u want to feel at home stay in ur country i don't see the point in wasting money for foreign worker i mean it was ur decision to come at first to the country not mine so i don't see why the government want to waste that big amount of money

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Teleos ... to fredrik19 2011/10/21 11:27:29

+1
i think it´s a try to get more "cultural".
i cama ´cross this phenomenon by tv and as i understood it is siuted to be for chinese people and another copying by the chinese....

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Link to fredrik19 2011/10/21 11:36:28

+1
Oh, I agree... no argument there...

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fredrik19 to Link 2011/10/22 03:57:12

+1
true

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Sheila 2011/10/19 21:40:21

Sorry, I don't understand the concept.

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Cyber 2011/10/19 20:48:23

+1
Obviously the product of a government jobs project.

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gbudavid 2011/10/19 18:53:31

+1
Your Tax Dollars at Work....

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Boris Badinov 2011/10/19 18:51:23

+1
I don't understand if it'sphysical isolation or cultural difference that makes it unattractive to the Chinese. Sounds like the price is right.

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Shae 2011/10/19 18:33:48

+1
Seems like a waste of time and money.

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