China Building Boom

[Anonymous]

The answer to your question egoebel is most likely yes. China's safety concerns are outweighed by the desire to build quickly. This reminds me of the Wenzhou train collision less than a year ago. The official investigation blamed faulty signal systems and management failures on the part of railway officials for the accident. Instead of having an official investigation the Chinese government responded by hastily concluding rescue operations and ordering the burial of the derailed cars. These actions resulted in criticism from Chinese media and online communities. In response, the government issued directives to restrict media coverage, which was met with limited compliance, even on state-owned networks. Chinese builders want the biggest and most awe-inspiring structures without taking the time to inspect and make sure they are structurally safe. The building boom is more about money than it is about safety.

[Anonymous]

wow this is interesting and scary! Somewhere I read that there is a correlation between high building booms and economic crashes.
BTW talk about economic crashes, it would seem, based on the last lecture that China has made some bad treaties that I'm sure cause a lot of grief in the area of economic growth.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Regarding the incredible building boom going on in China, the LA Times reports that a 30-story hotel was build in 3 weeks! Prefabricated in a nearby factory, the building is just the first of 50, 100, and 150-story buildings that the planners are saying are coming next. As we discussed in class, there is an exodus from the country to the cities, with a population explosion in the urban centers of -- "almost 400 million since 1990". ("Fastest Nail Gun in the East" LA Times, 3/8/12) This building style has been exported to Mexico and may possibly also be used in Saudi Arabia, and India. In the U.S., the Chinese model may not conform to fire codes. Also, reviewers wonder if the construction inspections happened too quickly. Does this Changsha hotel contain hidden flaws.

[Anonymous]

After reading the posts above, I thought I'd look into the "building boom" in China. Here is what I found:

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“China’s building trend is a solid long term play. It is going to go on for five years, easily, and probably realistically at least another 10 or 20 years,” says Aaron Visse, a fund manager at Forward Management’s $112.8 million Global Infrastructure (KGIAX) mutual fund...I remember going to Shenzhen from Hong Kong and seeing the skyline from the water. It looked like the size San Francisco from afar. But in 2000, that skyline looked nothing like that. It’s all been built in the last 10 years,” Visse says. Shenzhen doesn’t look like San Francisco anymore. In 2011, the city is about the size of São Paulo, with 10.3 million inhabitants, making it one of the 10 largest cities in the world.
Since I know little about what China used to look like and have nothing to compare it to, this gave me a little context.

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