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Recently there has been an increase in questions raised about China’s unrelenting ambitions to connect the country with high-speed rail. Some commentators question whether the new lines will meet projected capacity, others argue that ticket prices are out of reach for China’s  workers, and there is even concern over the safety of the tracks.

Yet given the benefit of the doubt, there is no question that expanding high-speed rail needs to remain a top priority in developing a comprehensive national transportation network. It isn’t as if China has invested only in high-speed rail at the expense of other forms of transportation infrastructure such as roads and airports- in fact the country has been busy building both in addition to focusing on trains. View full post »

by Posted in Infrastructure,Public Policy,Transportation

by Adam Mayer

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  • Hao Hao Report - Someone thinks this story is fantastic…

    This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report – a collection of China’s best stories and blog posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it….ReplyCancel

  • colin - Just found your blog. Refreshing to find another source that is more informed and rational than the typical western media stereotypes of China. I think you hit the nail on head that China is huge, and is composed of many different groups of people. Even if the middle and upper classes are a small fraction of the total population, given 1.6B people, there will still be plenty of people in those ranks to buy the higher priced bullet train tickets.ReplyCancel

  • Another Misinformed Commentary on China’s High-Speed Rail | China Urban Development Blog - […] Yet China is building high-speed rail under a completely different set of circumstances. For one, China is still urbanizing substantially, creating a growing demand for high-speed intercity rail network. In addition, the country’s domestic air travel market continues to expand upon an already strained network. […]ReplyCancel

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Although famous as an international trading and banking center, Hong Kong, save for a strong culinary tradition, lacks in the culture department. The city is just simply not know as an arts destination. That reputation could be changing soon as southwest tip of Kowloon is redeveloped into a large cultural district.

The West Kowloon Cultural District seeks to fill the void of a lacking arts scene in the Special Administrative Region. While undertakings by city governments around the world looking to create large-scale arts or culture districts sometimes come off as desperate attempts to prevent decline and irrelevance, Hong Kong has not such problem of reverting to a backwater anytime soon. View full post »

by Posted in Architecture,Environment,Hong Kong,Landscape Architecture,Real Estate,Urban Design

by Adam Mayer

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The hukou system, or household registration system, is a method of accounting for the country’s population by requiring each citizen to officially register his or her place of residence.

Possessing an urban hukou in a large city means that one is an official ‘resident’ of that city and eligible to receive benefits such as  access to medical insurance and education as well as the right to purchase property. This poses a problem for the floating population of rural migrants to cities who are not afforded similar benefits due to their lack of an official urban hukou.

Given the difficulty rural migrants have in obtaining an urban hukou, most have no incentive to settle in a city once their period of work is finished. This means that until the system is reformed, rural migrants will always have one foot in the big city and one foot back in the village. View full post »

by Posted in Chengdu,Chongqing,Housing,Hukou Reform,Public Policy,Real Estate,Rural Development,Western Development

by Adam Mayer

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An article I wrote about the sustainable development in China’s cities was recently published in the Winter 2010/2011 Issue of the British Chamber of Commerce South West China Magazine “Face“. The piece examines the historical context under which China’s cities are currently developing and looks at some of the important decisions being made  by civic leaders, arguing that they will ultimately prove to be beneficial in the long-run.

For the readers of the China Urban Development Blog, here is a reproduction of the original piece: View full post »

by Posted in Architecture,Chengdu,Environment,Housing,Infrastructure,Public Policy,Real Estate,Transportation,Urban Design,Western Development

by Adam Mayer

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  • Hao Hao Report - Someone thinks this story is fantastic…

    This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report – a collection of China’s best stories and blog posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it….ReplyCancel

  • Milo Jones - Statistics about urbanization in China have to be treated with caution. Often, people begin by citing figures an “authoritative” source, the UN Statistics Division, that say China is only 47% urban. Usually, they go on to discuss a wonderful convergence story for productivity and wealth in China compared to the US’s 82% urban figure, or Germany’s 74%.

    Think again. The UN uses each country’s individual definition of urban. Dig into the details of the UN statistics and it turns out that the Chinese definition of a city is 1,500 people per sq. km (though the overall definition is complex), and the US and German definition of a city is 400 people per sq. km!

    In short, China is already a lot more urban than you’d think looking at the “authoritative” UN Statistics Division headline figure (which people assume are comparable because they all come from the “same” UN source)!

    For more information, see: http://silberzahnjones.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/statistical-cautions/ReplyCancel

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Lan Kwai Fong, the trendy bar district in Hong Kong, has been the island’s premier nightlife spot for the better part of three decades. Developed by Canadian investor Allan Zeman, the small collection of hilly streets above Hong Kong’s Central is an energetic zone of debauchery.

Not long ago, Chengdu, a city well-known for its love of leisure, recruited Zeman and his brand of cosmopolitan nightlife to collaborate on opening a Lan Kwai Fong location in the provincial capital. Given the city’s reputation, Zeman readily agreed and chose a site next to the Funan River in the city’s burgeoning Central Business District. View full post »

by Posted in Chengdu,Hong Kong,Real Estate,Western Development

by Adam Mayer

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  • Hao Hao Report - Someone thinks this story is fantastic…

    This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report – a collection of China’s best stories and blog posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it….ReplyCancel