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China's "Ghost Capitol Building" Has Been Overrun By Vagrant Food Vendors
An impressive replica of the US Capitol Building has stood dormant in the city of Wuhan for several years now, similar to some extent to the original in Washington in its effectiveness. Originally intended to be used as a luxury hotel, construction halted after financing for the building dried up, and now, perhaps portending the future of American politics, China's Capitol Building has become a makeshift home to wandering food vendors in the area.
An impressive replica of the US Capitol Building has stood dormant in the city of Wuhan for several years now, becoming a makeshift home to wandering food vendors in the area.
The building features five floors and is configured in a U-shape, remaining faithful to many of the design elements of the original, namely the domed roof and Romanesque columns.
Originally intended to be used as a luxury hotel, construction halted after financing for the building dried up. It has now spent the past few years falling into a state of disrepair.
The building has not gone to waste, however, with vagrant food vendors now taking residence inside the edifice and local residents using the courtyard to grow vegetables.
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Perhaps Washington should take up some of these more productive uses of their own Capitol?
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There are already plenty of vegetables in the US capitol.
I'm thinking of starting a demolition company in China ...... the next boom
That'll make for a great movie set when they implode that thing someday.
Even better 'Movie set' if it was the real thing!
With everybody still inside.
I never realized the Chinese admired Detroit. You learn something new everyday.
Is there anything they won't copy?
Copy our stupid moves in MENA?
Or maybe bring in 10 million blacks'n'browns . . . to pick their rice.
I'd rather have vegetable vendors in DC right now as opposed to the destructive and/or apathetic people there now.
I was looking at the rust coming through the concrete in a few of the places. The poor quality construction/materials should allow the iron to rot away along with anything it was helping to support. What a waste. It will make a very good set for another Planet of the Apes movie.
They should have used marble.
I'm sure the correct answer mathematically, has to be paradoxical.
That was Funny.
Better wait for commodities prices to return.
Scrap steel, aluminum and copper are in the crapper.
Will the Chinese buy the scrap from their own buildings to build new buildings? PERPETUAL GROWTH!!!
They could break the windows and replace them, rinse and repeat.
At least the Chinese had sense enough to stop putting money in their "building".
it's painful to watch. Even in good neighborhoods, i do the 9:30PM walk around these new home high rises in China. 10-20% have lights on. I know this isn't scientific, but when I ask the locals...THEY say, "all the others are empty". You can't maintain a high rise with 15% occupancy. Eventually the maintenance costs will overwhelm the current occupants. At this point, perhaps just giving the places away MAY fill these buildings...but I doubt it. There's too many.
Demolition company may actually be a great options. So sad. billions of man hours wasted.
According to the same research by Standard Chartered, typical occupancy rates for a new district in China during the initial phase (first five years of a development) are under 20 percent. They then increase to around 50 percent in the rapid growth phase(six to 10 years) and then to between 70 and 80 percent in the mature phase (11 to 15 years).
China is not America. Things work differently. 10-20% occupancy is normal and expected. With a low occupancy rate, maintenance cost are small. No, they will not be overwhelmed. Trash, elevators, cleaning, are much smaller when there few people to wear out things and make a mess. The unoccupied units are shell. That's how new homes are sold in China. There are no appliances, fixtures, fllooring, wall coverings, etc to break or wear out. Heat is provide by a city heating plant. There are no individual furnaces. A/c units are typically the last an owner puts in.There are no property taxes for the owner of unsold units to pay. If somebody bought one for speculation, he needn't pay much for carrying charges. Millions and millions of people buy a home for their son when gets married about age 30. This is often done decades in advance.
This is how almost EVERY large construction project in China has gone. Stand Chartered would know.
If you assume that the same pattern will continue indefinitely. then fine. But at some point the music stops and those left standing will be in bad shape.
bingo....those stats are based on history. today's construction explosion in China has no historic context...and it is phenomenal development.
Yes and that model is baed upon a 10% anual growth rate. Being that China is no longer growing at that rate the model is now useless.
China's infrastrucure boom is all based upon the economy being larger when the time comes to pay the debt used to build the infrastructure. China grew at ten percent per year lartgely because china was building things needed to enable that growth. Now that the economy no longer is growing at ten percent you end up with empty ghost cities and factorys and mines that have no market for there products. But the debt used to finance that malinvestment is still coming due.
Location, location, location ... even in China. Those apartments in or near the CBD in Beijing, Shanghai, etc sell like hot cakes my friend tells me. He finally saved enough to buy a tiny apartment within what he calls The Fourth Loop. He said smaller cities further inland are dropping in price since demand for them has dwindled and there are too-many-to-count empty spec apartment buildings in those areas, similar to what was said above.
However, with the new two-child policy things may change. Plus, if the government there changes policy to attract capital instead of chasing it out of the country, this RE thingy there could turn pretty fast, he said. He said everyone he knows with some money wants to send their kids out because of things like pollution, corruption, few job opportunities, etc.
I read China is considering a property tax in various cities but I do not know if they passed that yet since that would further slow their growth.
China is not America. Things work differently
People like to project what they know, and have a hard time understanding something when it is outside of their mental paradigm.
China's money system works differently than in the U.S. They have state banks, which act something like the U.S. Treasury did in the old days before FED takeover.
State Banks then inject State Bank Credit where they think it is needed. Housing was a good way to inject and have money as demand before goods were produced.
In other words, by spending into infrastructure, they pre-loaded their money supply with Yuans. This allows more Yuans relative to dollars and hence also helps with exchange rates. Low exchange rates in turn allows western industry to relocate to China, which in turn means rapid industrialization.
Rapid industrialization i.e. China becoming the workshop for the world, means peasants moving from farm.
Where are the 100's of millions of peasants going to live? In the pre-built cities.
Buying up U.S. Treasuries is another way to keep Yuan exchange rate low.
Chinese are NOT stupid. They spent their communist years watching the west. They know who screwed them over in Opium Wars.
The mistake China are now making is NOT TAXING PROPERTY RENTS.
This has allowed a portion of their real estate markets to boom unnaturally in a bubble, similar to what happened in U.S. This is private credit driven bubble.
During the first phase after liberalization, property was transferred from Communist hands and a fee was charged. Effectively this fee kept land from being bidded up in price. But, now property is being re-sold, and is in a second or third buy/sell cycle, which is causing unwanted price bubbling in certain markets.
All of the pictures show solid concrete structures ready to be finished as needed when population surges in from countryside.
By the way, America and the West spent the same way during WW2. Only instead of leaving behind almost finished cities, they left behind destroyed war material and bomb craters.
Was America hugely in debt to bankers after WW2? How about Civil War?
What are your thoughts on the capital flows between Cathay and "the West", in terms of dynamism,
velocity, and future trends. And the dichotomy between private and public flows.
China is not America. Things work differently. 10-20% occupancy is normal and expected
LMFAO. Do you make this shit up as you go along or do you do a few good hard bong hits first? For the last 200 years China has been in a cultural upheaval that has left most of the population destitute. Who's leaving what to whom when how? As recent as 1980s I had a boatload of Chinese grad students studying with me, commie cadre kiddies ALLLLL mind you, and basically all of them were living hand to mouth. The commie party was sponsoring their US studies. China was fucking BROKE and has been BROKE for nearly the entire 19th and 20th century. It's not until the 1980s the commies figured out, hey... the US is printing fiat... we can print fiat too!
The laws of physics still apply in China. Empty buildings that are not maintained will turn to shit FAST. In fact, that shit will probably deteriorate faster since it was built according to those exceeeeedingly rigorous standards. Pffffffff.....
"China is different." LMFAO............
The laws of physics still apply in China. Empty buildings that are not maintained will turn to shit FAST.
They are concrete construction, not wood. Get a grip.
Even exposed re-bar takes a long time to rust. Slap some rust paint on it and fix the reaction rate. A few Yuans.
The cost of maintenance would be a crew that cruises around to make sure roofs stay in good shape. Trimming shrubbery and trees would be another cost to keep plants from invading.
Here is a link to world without humans, "If humans were to disappear."
Buildings can crumble from natural stresses. Buildings that are made from concrete last a very long time. Buildings that are made from Metamorphic rock, last practically forever - tens of thousands of years. The roof is the most important part, to then keep plants and root stresses from breaking down the rock.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/aftermath/videos/world-without-hum...
Laws of physics do apply
I live in Asia, have done business in Asia,S. America and the Middle East.
My guess is you have never even set foot in Asia. Read Jim Chanos's stuff.
The Chinese are so fucked it's not even funny. I'm here in Thailand watching them blow up their property market. I live in a condo of "shells" that cannot be sold. A view of the ocean that would make your head spin for $340 a month. Five grand a month in Miami Fl. Nice. Guess what....NO BUYERS.
Six years old and no fucking buyers. Nice girls, hot Russian chicks but NO FUCKING buyers.
STFU about shit you do not understand.
No shit they are blowing up their property market. That has nothing to do with ghost cities that are created with a different channel of money, and were state planned.
Chinese citizens are also borrowing new credit and pumping up their stock market, the same mistake U.S. made in the 20's. which led directly to great depression.
The private property market bubble has the same dynamics as the West:
Here is Hudson, speaking to the Chinese as a guest lecturer. They have made him a professor at Peking's university, their most prestigous. Do you think maybe the Chinese are listening? I think so.
He is telling them directly to tax natural land rent to then supress the prices, and prevent property being too high priced.
Quote:
China has spent the last half-century solving Marx’s “Volume I” problem: the relations between labor and its employers, recycling the economic surplus into new means of production to provide more output, higher living standards, and most obviously, more infrastructure (roads, railways, airlines) and housing.
But right now, it is experiencing financial problems from credit creation going into the stock market instead of into tangible capital formation and rising consumption standards. And of course, China has experienced a large real estate boom. Land prices are rising in China, much as they are in the West.
What would Marx have said about this? I think that he would have warned China not to relapse into the pre-capitalist problems of finance funding real estate – turning the rising land rent into interest – and into permitting housing prices to rise without taxing them away.
http://michael-hudson.com/2015/10/the-paradox-of-financialized-industria...
There is a solution. Liquidation. Sell the properties to the highest bidder and let markets figure out the details.
And write down a wee bit of bad debt? NOOOOOO!
Get in bed with Hollyweird on this. Sell them the rights to On-Location Demo effects. Use Detroit as a pilot.
The stench of the rotting vegetables isn't as bad nor can it spread as far as the stench that comes out of Washington, DC and spreads across our country.
"There are already plenty of vegetables in the US capitol."
and fruits
" Barney Franks could not be reached for comment before this article went to press. "
They're not Romanesque columns, they're Greek order columns / capitals. I can see ionic and corinthian.
Quit being an architectual doric
What is the infatuation with domes in Capitols?
They will soon be turned into spare organs for the wealthy when the time comes!
http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2015/10/time-travel-is-no-l...
its like looking into the future
Yes, they all will be growing their own food one day too.
Politicians make the best compost.
"similar to some extent to the original in Washington in its effectiveness."
lol :]
no...in this one...there is someone trying to make an honest living. Not one person in the US capital is trying to make an honest living.
Some cheeky Politburo member needs to have a Brawndotm water type tower erected near the vegetable patch.
Vagrant food vendors are a better use of space than the batch of parasites occupying Washington.
I don't think this is what China wanted when they adopted the "build it and they will come" mentality.
funny - Washington's capitol buildings have been overrun by communists - how ironic
Veggie gardens sounds like a win. They have enough land and more than enough fertilizer.
The land may very well been wrested from them prior to construction.
Farmers market would be better than a lobbyist market
POTD
The peasants return with a vengeance.
This may have been constructed so their shock troops could drill for the possible eventuality that the 'Murcans would plead to be
liberated from the Deep/Neo/Zio/NWO/state. We No Cho Zen!!! SOS.
Do these 'Vagrant Food Vendors' have to swear an allegiance to Israel before frying up some less than fresh pork bellies?
They can film 'chOdeBama's Had a Good Run' there.
(Logan's Run)
It's got nothing on Lost Wages, Nevada
Squint and it looks like Newark.
If we could send all of our "will work for food" vagrants overthere and they could hookup with the vagrant food vendors, Hell they could start an old time economy.
Bonus: They are already in a gov building, so the Gov can step in and ruin it once it gets going
But can I get the spicy Kung Pau?
Pretty sure you can get spicy catdog
At least McDs has added Mice to their menu.
Took awhile but I think there's enough Chinese to create a demand for those exotic McFoods.
Who better to buy one's food from than the Prime Minister of garbage scraps and pickle-jar toilets?
Who is buying the food from these vendors ?
That is the key question that no one seems to be asking! Belive me after living in China in the past; if they are selling from that location, there is a bunch of traffic nearby and the building is empty because? Who cares? They are using the building and I would buy from them before buying from a supermarket. Just as I do everyday in Russia, now that I live there...
You can see the same thing in Detroit this afternoon.
If the Chinese think they can provoke us into destroying their empty buildings with our expensive bombs for free then thay are........ probably correct.
I'm beginning to think the Chinese don't give a crap about life or reality - they just like to do the stupidest shit and enjoy themselves in the process.
At least our politicians get something for the stupid shit they do....votes and lots of taxpayer money to enjoy.
Did Maoist Communism just clean the slate of the Chinese people, opening them to the most crass and vulgar materialism?
They seem to have no real culture of their own, only these pale simulacra of Western creations.
Despite their bitter feelings about it being their turn, they certainly have no business at all running "the world".
Keep it up! (sarc) with this kind of attitude the world will become a better place ...
Ever thought about where the ´american´ pillars, dome roofs etc came from?
Well I can tell you one thing the Americans didn´t invent them.
"Did Maoist Communism just clean the slate of the Chinese people, opening them to the most crass and vulgar materialism?"
Yes, it's true ... they turned the Chinese people into Americans.
Looks like a good location for refuge during the zombie apocalypse. They have plenty of room and even started a farm. Now they just need walls. I'm sure they can learn from ancestry and build one.
This Chinese chap goes into a bank to change some currency. After receiving his money he asks, "How come I came in here with same amount of money as yesterday but today I get less Yuans in return?"
The banker says, "Fluctuations."
The Chinese guy replies, "Fluck you Blitish too."
Courtesy of Sickipedia.org: http://www.sickipedia.org/racism/chinese/this-chinese-chap-goes-into-a-bank-to-change-some-1716#ixzz3qRRR6gIW
Lol.., had to read it twice. I'm a bit slow today.
These chinese are gonna face a serious problem .. akin to the mess in food they faced in 1959-1961 when they all had to eat dogs and cats to survive.
This "un natural" state planned capitalism is a faustian bargain.
You didn't build that.
Here in Thailand the Chinese are hated. The most disgusting, rude and hillbilly fucktards you have ever seen come here. After Youtube exposed a kid pissing and shitting on a Buddhist temple they made them take class on how NOT to be a fucktard. Total followers like sheep. The classes do not work.
Sometimes they can be fun. They love our culture. Rock and roll. You see them wearing our flag T shirts and singing rock and roll. The women have great skin and nice tits.
They say they even deal shitty weed in China so they come here and party. Kinda nerdy and shy with no fucking manners.
I read alot of peasants became very wealthy very quickly, without the benfit of some basic education, etc ... and you know what that means. It's like putting an inner city thug into a brand new expensive Section 8 public housing project.
It's destroyed within a matter of weeks.
The Chinese government has it's models now so it knows how to arrange the furniture when it gets the keys to the white house in DC.
Capitol "dung hill"
Entrepreneurs at work! Well done. Make it happen.
They should remake Independence Day but this time make the disintergration of the WhiteHouse a little more real. And make the pilots of the F-16s a little more batshit insane.
Look at those rusted gutters! That's how you know something's really "Made In China".
(My last shower curtain rod started to rust within a week; talk about planned obsolescence!)
And may the same happen here; may the entire capital complex be turned into something productive, like a garden. It's a pipedream I know.
The free market at work. Rising from the ruins is poetic imagery.
China has adequate unused housing for millions of refugees = opportunity
Hey, good idea
maybe Europe could pay China to house these folks
Cheap labor and what every else the Chinese would do.
Fuck europe. Pay your own way.
Erin go bragh. Fucker.
What is mine is mine. Schwartz.
Like something out of Mad Max.
OT but I love bilionaire Mel Gibson.
He did it right.
- scion of Mulroney
This article is racist propaganda.
Vagrant means both homeless and no job except begging. Clearly these people have a free home and a business selling food, the same food that I eat everyday and I find it quite delicious. I would call them Libertarian entrepreneurial migrants. They do not live off of the state, they are self-supporting.
Overrun is a term used in Nazi propaganda to describe undesirables such as Jews and Gypsies who were considered vermin.
Shanghaiist.com should know better.