This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Pictures Worth A Thousand Words: Coafeidian, The Chinese Eco-City That Became A Ghost Town
Authored by Gilles Sabrie, originally posted at The Guardian,
"As precious as gold..." That was how then-president Hu Jintao described Caofeidian during his visit in 2006. It was pledged to be "the world’s first fully realised eco-city" – yet 10 years and almost $100bn later, only a few thousand inhabitants have moved to this land reclaimed from the sea.. as yet another 'centrally planed' idea is completely FUBAR.
China’s ‘eco-cities’: empty of hospitals, shops and people
The leftover gate from a construction site – for a road that doesn’t lead anywhere. Caofeidian eco-city, begun in 2003, is located 200km southeast of Beijing. All photographs: Gilles Sabrie
Locals fish for crabs in the Bohai Sea as construction sites stand idle in the background. Caofeidian, in Hebei province, was originally a small island that has expanded using land reclaimed from the sea.
The ‘eco-city’ was made possible through huge bank loans. Once it was half-built, these loans were halted and many projects suspended due to the rising cost of raw materials and a lack of government support.
The knock-on effects are also to be seen in this abandoned tourist resort by the shore of Bohai Sea.
A lone worker inside Caofeidian city’s mostly abandoned industrial park. He works for a company producing solar panels – a heavily subsidised industry in China that is plagued by over capacity.
Caofeidian eco-city was planned to accommodate one million inhabitants, yet only a few thousand live there today. It has joined the growing ranks of China’s ghost cities.
A torn poster showing the original plan for Caofeidian Environmental Industries Park. Government and state owned industrial enterprises are said to have invested 561 billion yuan (US $91bn) in the area over the past decade, but the park was never completed.
A shopping mall modelled on a traditional Italian city was finished, but businesses haven’t moved owing to the small number of city residents.
Behind the empty mall, a branch of Tangshan University is under construction. The provincial government is moving it to Caofeidian to make up for the lack of businesses in the new city.
Security guards by Cafofeidian harbour, where coal and iron ore are unloaded to feed the Shougang steel mill. The mill was moved from Beijing to Caofeidian in 2006, but is mired in debt.
Bridge to nowhere: a six-lane road span was abandoned after 10 support pylons had been erected.
An Japanese factory stands idle in the Caofeidian Sino-Japanese eco-industry park. The factory moved from Tangshan city, attracted by government incentives, but never re-started operations.
Empty residential buildings in Caofeidian eco-city. Once described as the world’s first fully realised eco-city, Caofeidian is now struggling to pay daily interest rates on the billions of yuan borrowed to build it.
»
- 52096 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I'm starting a Web site that sells bricks and mortor.
It's a spare city built during peace time for after World War 3 usage.
Just think of the ecological preservation had the eco city never been built.
Perfect set pieces for Hollywood post-apocalypse movies.
Actually, this was the set for the Chinese version of "Field of Dreams".
"If you build it, they will come."
Extend the timeline a few hundred years, it may still work!
Miffed;-)
They could use some Mexicans... preferably the environment friendly types...
You have to admire the time efficiency of the Chinese.
I mean it took the Americans decades to do this to Detroit.
The way I look at it that city will probably become a bustling urban center someday. Meanwhile we waste more than the cost of this city on a single F35 jet fighter and what good will ever come of that?
*light bulb* skatepark... big. ass. skatepark.... I need to learn me some Mandarin.
"If you build it, they will come."
I'm not sure if "they" are Chinese buyers/repo-men, cockroaches, or The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalpyse. This planet is surely run by the insane.
For a brand new "modern" city, it sure looks ugly. I guess the chinks have no taste.
How ironic that their "clean" city is really an ecological disaster. Please god, give us a virus that wipes out a few billion chinks.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
No pollution comes out of Coafeiden.
Mission Accomplished.
Don't give Obama and the YYCs any new ideas.
Tell ya what, cute bird, I'll get bulk mortar, we'll repackage it into mortor, and I'll just take 15% off the top. You'll be a marketing genius and I'll advise you carefully and in the background not to give all of your employees $70k/year, despite their experience levels.
Deal?
- Ned
More evidence that China is doomed as well.
Mmm, all that water looks real healthy...
I bet the crime rate there is extremely low.
NO, NO, NO...
In the last pic I see some plants growing wild in that, um, 'water'.
GREEN SHOOTS in the ECO-CITY uv da FEW-ture! Well, the FEW who live there, anyway. I saw a pic of some of them 'crab-mining' a little further up. Heavy metal contaminants make them weigh MOAR, and therefore are more valuable when sold by the pound (or gram, or whatever).
PHHHH! 'ECO-CITY'!
Al and Hillary and Lord Obama (peace be upon his name) have already picked out penthouse suites (actually, WHOLE BUILDINGS; WHOLE BLOCKS of buildings, because the rent is cheap).
An Eco City would obviously have few human inhabitants so they can live in harmony with nature. Duh.
Miffed;-)
"Every man, woman and child compelled to consume so much a year. In the interests of industry. The sole result ..."
"Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches; the more stitches ..."
How's that eco-thang designed by genius 100 kg brains workin' out?
lol...I think they meant Echo City.
good to see ya, how they hangin?
Good (sorry bout that, cuttin taters).
Gettin all psyched for my 30th, on an out of the way place, an island (of sorts), some Cuban rum, cigars, snorklin, site seein ;-)
OT: can you believe this fucking weather? I've figured out where all the weak spots are in my roof.
And P.S. (edit) -- 30 is around when the time vortex starts, and you start saying cliche things like "where did the time go?" Find time to enjoy.
Yeah, we've had a bunch here but nuthin like ya'll.
Some of its pretty hysterical though...the reporter standing in knee deep water as a "Native"...(no, a Floridian dammit!...lol) is caught on camera going behind him poling a surf board...with his Lab.
Just another day ;-)
For all it's worth, happy 30th. Give it a couple of decades, and then you'll see that 30 isn't any different than 50 (if you keep your nose clean). You'll be more well-versed with another 20 years (it's not like you aren't already, but it's something to look forward to).
Aye, laddie...
50 is the new 30 if at 30 you have unexplained pains from regular exercise, where you're not sure if you should work through it or open a cold one and realize you're 50.
lol...I guess it all boiled down to she was the only one who would put up with me ;-)
Congrats on your 30th Wedding Anniversary. That is a rarity these days.
We must be in the same area.
Is there an echo in here?
No, Fred, the Toyota's in the garage (damned thing SHOULD be at the junk yard, though. Those pesky Takata airbags just keep firing off at random...).
That goes hand in hand with Toyota's random acceleration feature.
We must be in the same area.
We must be in the same area, ALTOGETHER.
"We must be in the same area."
I assume you are speaking of Earth here.
NMEWN seems to be on an island in the Florida Keys right now (although I might be mistaken).
I'm not FROM outer space. I only work there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3uhv6oVWg
When I was a kid, I used to practice dialing the phone by tapping on the hangup button in the correct cadence. It was an old GTE rotary phone (black Bakelite). I've got an old LG flip-phone now (2005 vintage). No texting, no bullshit internet wi-frying my brain, no frills. It's been through hell and back, and still works as if it just came out of the box (original battery, displays not broken, original charger; camera still works too). Beats the hell out of the old Motorola 'BRICK' I USED to have (I suppose). HELL, I can turn OFF the geo-locating stuff, and if THAT doesn't work, I can power down by pulling the BATTERY. Talk about 'loving technology'... it's GREAT if you are in TOTAL CONTROL of it.
NMEWN is probably drinking a RonRico rum drink right now, and smoking a big Cuban fattie (Spock has the scanners turned up to full power in order to locate his location in case of an emergency beaming operation). Hopefully, he getting laid as well. OH, YEAH!
11 weeks, and you didn't wish him a happy birthday?
It's an anniversary, not a birthday which we numerically share with our spouses.
I do miss the 30 year old time physically but damn, was I a shithead. Thankfully in 20 years I gained some wisdom.
Miffed;-)
30? Why, you're just one o' them young whippersnappers.
Hey you kids, stay offa my lawn! ;-)
LOL...He has been MARRIED for 30 years...to the same woman who has put up with him.
What does the word anniversary mean? Birthday?
Well, I am jealous. Our 100 year, record breaking 1 inch rainfall in July has dried up and we're back to dust and heat. Crossing my fingers typical August heat won't materialize, a few years we have been lucky.
I wish I could experience rain as a nuisance some time.
Miffed;-)
Visit SE AK and try it on for size some time. In the winter it changes over to nuisance snow for a little variety.
A couple of winters back we had over 30 feet here at sea level, the mountains were properly buried. They had over 500 inches at Thompson Pass north of Valdez that same winter, the National Guard was helping to dig out at Cordova , fun and games ;?
I have a flat here in England you could stay in for a week, miffed...
I find all I need to do is set out my tools outside for a litte bit of motorcycle maintainance in the sunshine, and the inconvenient rain soon appears...
Yo, LTER, I'm mostly old Yankee (not the monied sort).
We have a saying: "When it don't rain, the roof don't leak. When it rains, I can't fix that leak no-how."
I'm think that we are returning to the frugal (and there are many parts of this country where this applies) times.
- Ned
I hear you. I'm a typical Floridian, holding off on the new roof while I hope for a hurricane just bad enough to warrant a new one from the insurance company.
If you're worried about roofing your house, you shouldn't be.
Thanks to our 'Eco-Freindly' production facilities here in Coafeidan, China, we have learned a great deal about housing refugees such as yourself (if you aren't one NOW, you soon will be).
WHY are we so CONFIDENT in our abilities? That's a good question, pilgrim! Due to our experiences with Hurricaines such as Katrina, Rita, and Sandy, we have learned to produce 'just-in-time' contaminated drywall products for easy installation in ANY SIZE of FEMA trailer imaginable! While you WAIT for the insurance payoff (that will never come), you and your family will be securely housed in one of our makeshift facilities (running water, sewer, and electricity connections are OPTIONAL, but WIFI is provided for FREE).
HERE at Camp FEMA, we sincerely wish, hope, and are trying to make it so that your memories of the 'bad times' be erased completely. Bottled water (with special nutrients) is provided FREE OF CHARGE, by the way.
With Walt Disney World just around the corner, and Miley Cyrus being preemed for an appearance, WHY would you choose ANY PLACE ELSE to call 'home'?
Thanks for your continued devotion, citizen.
Won Ho-Li, Senior Party member; and managing Director of COSCO
Damn. I'll be hitting that mark in a few months too.
Good to know theres some young Cadre here on sites like this.
Young or old,
REMAIN BOLD!
They bought me a chocolate cake and a gallon of milk (my favorite beverage) at work last week. Seems they messed up when they placed that candles, though. The 5 and the 3 were juxtaposed (in my favor).
I guess you're older (37) than I am.
AHH. I remember being 30! 5 children and a wife (6 if you count HER!), house, cars, satellite TV, trips, warmth in the winter and cool in the summer, food, clothing, and shit like that.
I think that it's incredible that NMEWN is only 30. I would have pegged him at AT LEAST 35 (or 37).
Props. Nothin like kickin a couple back and visiting our aquatic homies. People that fear the ocean really miss out
30 b good, and please tell Mrs_nmewn our congrats 2 u both.
Cuba?
I'm a'wonderin' whether the new, how did they say it back in the day, "detente" will work with Cuba.
I mean, really, we can flood the country with both rice-cookers and rice. They can flood our country with another flood of beautiful babez. I'd call that even, right?
But, seriously, duuuude, watch out for them mojitaz! I mean really watch out. Don't snort the mojitaz through the schnorkle (no one thinks that this is a good idea).
Enjoy! ;-)
- Ned
lol...no, not Cuba...not yet ;-)
I'll pass the congrats along to Mrs.N, its not always been Beaver Cleaver around here but so far its been a helluva ride!...lol...well worth celebrating.
You know how I am (the eyes...hey its not paranoia if they really are watching you...lol) I'll sign in and let you know, passports in hand, the casita and plane is booked, white sand & valium and I prolly should look around for something to take over and become dictator for life at this point, on the down low of course ;-)
then go play and s/f
We gots lots of folks here who've housing problems. They got lots of houses empty. Shipping rates have fallen.
Y'all seeing my drift here?
I'm sure Bammy would write Xaingshuodingaling a note testifying to all the "folks" character, and they could build a country of their very ownsome.... win win for everybody
You have your own ghost town - Detroit
Credit expansion and amoral leeches always get'er dun good.
Instead of building all that stuff with their QE, they should have given it all to their bankers, like we did.
Financing for this project arranged by Angero Moziro.
Note to Chineses: you've got US citizened.
If the bankers are on the same board of directors as the construction companies, is there really a difference? If the construction companies borrow capital from the bankers AT INTEREST, is there really a difference? If the banks and the construction companies are mandated to borrow, spend, loan, and build by their 'central planning committee' of the government, is there REALLY a difference?
BUT, I DIGRESS. HR1 of 2009 was signed into law by OBAMA. Within this 2,000+ page 'bill' was funding for all kinds of things, INCLUDING a program named 'Fast And Furious'. You remember THAT one, don't you?
WTF is WRONG with the people who are 'in control' of the 'governments' around the fracking WORLD, ANYWAY?
OH. It's something about 'funding' and GREED and AVARICE and shit like that.
Maybe that is actuall Section 8 housing in all those photos?
Or maybe, Wrecho City
Wi No Sho
Stop being so pessimistic, tear it down and rebuild it. Think of the job creation possibilities.
Crash for Crunkers
Why do I get a mental image of Krugman skipping around nude, singing, wiggling his dinky in the air, celebrating?
Ya'know what Doc? I'm reading MaddAddam, the 3rd of Atwood's trilogy (first Oryx and Crake, then The Year of the Flood) and why oh why am I taking to her as a prophet? It's not made up, just insightful.
"Why do I get a mental image of Krugman skipping around nude, singing, wiggling his dinky in the air, celebrating?"
As Mrs. Krugman said: "swish. All net. And thank you for not waking me up."
Free advice to the Chinese government -- to have a middle class economy that supports these cities and malls, you need a middle class. Although Goldman may have sold you on the idea that the middle class will arise magically from the printing of money with you and Goldman taking a big chunk off the top, it turns out it doesn't work that way.
Good thing you did not write that in China, LTER, you'd go to camp.
Oh, wait...
Diang Shout Ping-o's Hildabeast Fun Camp in Sayner, Wisconsin on Beautiful Plum Lake! Come soon and enjoy it for a while. Extended stays accommodated!
Free advice to the Chinese people --- you do not need a "middle class" anything. You just need to be left alone! Like, as if you need me to tell you that. I see potential in this crock social experiment --- I see water! Lots of it! Flock to this ghost town and farm your own rice paddies. Maybe, just maybe, you can be self-sufficient long enough until some doofus starts doling out advice to your government.
<<Free advice to the Chinese government -- to have a middle class economy that supports these cities and malls, you need a middle class. >>
LetThemGrowRice
Un fucking real
This report was more than one year old. What happens now?
It's emptier, I guess.
I learned this today on ZH
https://nextgrandminimum.wordpress.com/
Central planning never, ever works but only fails.
Looks like parts of S FL in 08
"Mises was alone in challenging the socialists to explain how their pricing system would actually work in practice.Mises proved that socialism could not work because it could not distinguish more or less valuable uses of social resources, and predicted the system would end in chaos."
https://mises.org/library/economic-calculation-socialist-commonwealth
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Socialism: "It don't compute."
Precisely. Excellent quote from Mises. I would add Hayek's concept of the "fatal conceit" wherein government rulers believe their own genius and decisions can substitute for millions of individual economic decisions.
When I see these photos, I do not gloat. I feel deep sadness at the wasted resources. All that concrete, steel, planning, etc. could have gone to other uses. It also drove up the prices of those commodities for everyone else and trained tens of thousands of workers in unneeded skills. It is likely many of the men who built this are unemployed or are sweeping floors in a tea house.
When it crashes, they will try to blame something other than themselves. Until then they will probably waste yet more resources trying to make it work.
Dear FG
Calmly kindly said. And fully true.
SK
The giant mining machines, and all the construction automation makes it easy to overbuild. In the past when they were building a bridge brick by brick with the hands, things were not overbuilt. Manufacturing of items is cheap now too. I wish food was inexpensive to make, but it doesn't seem to apply to food.
Food is actually at historically low prices worldwide despite the record high population. It is a smaller part of everyone's budget than ever before. This goes with the largest and heaviest population, ever, as well.
And where would the cost of food be at a historic low? At the local Costco, the price for a flat of eggs just jumped 33% from $6 to $8 overnight.
The Green Revolution was nothing more than a highly lucrative scheme to transmute petroleum calories (and petroleum dependent industrial fertilizers) into food calories. Nothing more. "Unintended consequences" have arrived.
The problem is obvious. The place was built to accomodate a measly 1 million, who never moved in. Should have been built for 100 million, who would never move in. When will the world learn, the solution to debt is going MUCH DEEPER INTO DEBT MUCH FASTER VIA ENTERPRISES THAT ADD NO VALUE. Love, Paul K.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kim-jong-un-peace-prize_55bf7f82e4b0...
oi vey
Looks like the Chinese have some overcapacity. Let them build affordable housing in US, but I guess greedy politicians have something against it.
I say that you should include 6 year old pictures of new cars parked on old runways to get this articles comments up to 300-400!!!
Hell the Fed printed that much a month and didn't get the first brick out the door yet, at least the ChiComs got some concrete poured.
Why? Who benefitted? Who got screwed?
Looks like Detroit... just newer.
Fishing for crabs? Hope these fuckers are on a little vacation and just looking for a fun way to get a snack and not looking to support a family with their fishing methodology.
Why is there no information about the people in this city and how they live?
Maybe it is good.
can we send the north american homeless there? It does not look like they would have to live in tents.
And here in the "richest country in the world", we can barely get a new highway built or repair a couple of death trap bridges. Sickening.
Hell, looks like the perfect place for me. No neighbors, plenty of open space.
When can I move in?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then pictures of all the military gear blown up in WW2 should be included.
Labor meets money, which then mobilizes resources to make goods. Then those goods are sunk, blown up, obliterated, etc. This also includes loss of life.
This money type that prosecutes the war is usually some sort of debt free treasury money. In the case of the U.S. they spent out of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the money originated as line items in Government's budget.
In the case of Germany, it was MEFOBILLs, that Schact issued first as credit, and then when they were discounted they were funded with Treasury money...money that came from nothing. In the case of Canada it was BOC which had been turned into a Crown Bank; similar situation in Australia.
Given a debt based economy, where the majority of the money is private bank credit, then exogenous money must somehow enter the system. In the case of China they have both private bank Yuans, and also State credit via their four large state banks.
So, the real question is what type of money financed this ghost city? Also, where are the debts located?
Without knowing the debt and money type, then the article is just so much pablum.
A clue is in the article, "The ‘eco-city’ was made possible through huge bank loans. Once it was half-built, these loans were halted and many projects suspended due to the rising cost of raw materials and a lack of government support"
This statement implies that it was a government/private partnership, most likely with government seed money. I'm speculating here, but would bet some federal reserve notes, that the rest of the money funneling into this Chinese project was debt based private credit.
Debt based money comes with an accounting periodicity. It has to be paid back starting almost immediately. This then causes a chicken and egg problem, where the infrastructure has to be in place before the loan.
A money type that is not under drain pressure could easily build out these cities and not leave a debt burden behind. Even if it took a decade, it would be easy to fill the city with people moving in from the countryside. Is there a lack of people that want to live in a seaside town?
Most likely it was private credit that withdrew due to interest demanded "NOW" when a city of this type requires long range planning and long range low cost money. Costs went up, which changed the balance sheet projections, especially gains for finance and builders.
China is still confused on how to tax land, and how to channel money types, but this city represents much less in the way of losses than what the U.S. and the West are currently doing with Austerity. U.S. has at least $1T of lost yearly activity just due to lack of economic stimulation. (According to the Congressional Budget Office, and this is a low number.)
sovereignmoney.eu
If they build their buildings, like they make their shoes (cheap), no wonder, ghost towns!
throwing good money, after bad
I bet obama paid for those shovel ready projects
In 2003, 140,000 people lived there. This article claims "only a few thousand people live there".
What's the population now?
I do not get it. What is the big deal?
If folks can live peacefully in Slab City without any water nor electricity, how is this ghost-town statist waste a problem??? Freedom-loving folks should be flocking to this Caofeidian place.
Having crashed the Australian economy, in part by halting projects such as this, and hence the price of iron ore, China is now able to buy Australia at bargain basement prices.
The next move would be to relocate the out-of-work Australians to this new city.
Good plan?
Being an "anarchist", you are aware that anarchy leads to tribalism?
I'm not so sure that tribalism worked out so well for the Native Americans or Afghans.
Anarchy is a fools game.
—The Chinese are long-term thinkers.
—Wall Street thinks about the next 90 days while the Chinese think about the next 90 years.
—The Chinese economy is going to surpass the US economy as the largest in the world.
Some recent delusions from the past decade espoused by over-educated elitist morons.
Is total an "eco" city. Since like no ppl living there. See no polluation?
Rural residents are being forced at gunpoint to move to the cities and their ancestral lands confiscated. Agenda 21 is in China. There are 5 cranes up in the air in San Francisco right now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/world/asia/new-china-cities-shoddy-hom...
"The primary motivation for the urbanization push is to change China’s economic structure, with growth based on domestic demand for products instead of relying so much on export."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/world/asia/as-chinese-farmers-fight-fo... (Stifled to Death)
"A plan to speed up urbanization was supposed to have been unveiled earlier this year, but it has been delayed over concerns that the move to cities is already stoking social tensions." "...Tang Huiqing said she was feeding her 8-month-old grandchild at 5 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2009, when men dressed in camouflage and carrying metal rods surrounded her sister’s workshop." (to evacuate).
"Almost everyone is either unemployed or works in factories in distant places (6 hour commutes) where migrant workers are not allowed to put down permanent roots."
"All told, 250 million more Chinese may live in cities in the next dozen years. The rush to urbanize comes despite concerns that many rural residents cannot find jobs in the new urban areas or are simply unwilling to leave behind a way of life that many cherish."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/world/asia/pitfalls-abound-in-chinas-p...
This is fucking with my mind.
How on gods earth are you building and marketing this as FUCKING ECO-FRIENDLY, if you are taking land from the sea (therefore fucking with the environment) and building Highways with 6 Lanes? I can't see the ECO here?
Unless the YUAN notes are printed on recycled paper, I can't see the ECO value of this piece of crap.
It is certainly ECO friendly now. The plants will overgrow the ugly concrete monsters and the water will come back and do the rest. Nice artificial reef there for the crabs.
Greed. Waste of resources. This type of unbridled greed chasing fiat financed resource consumption is problematic long term.
The Powder Puff Girls are gonna whip your ass!