(Advanced) China's Ghost Cities

Ordos, China

Vast new cities of apartments and shops are being built across China at a rate of ten a year, but they remain almost completely uninhabited ghost towns.

Vocab:

Vocab


Video:

China's Ghost Cities
SBS Dateline

Connect the sentence halves to complete the paragraph:

One remarkable piece of economic news 

China surpassed the United States 

It is hard to grasp the magnitude and speed 

However, may not be 

It's estimated that 

A sign of future growth 

A) barely rated a mention this week.

B) as rosy as they seem. 

C) ten new cities are being built every year 

D) or just another bubble waiting to burst? 

E) as the world's leading manufacturer. 

F) of China's economic transformation. 

Guide Questions:

1. Why is the government NOT concerned about the problem of vacant cities?
2. How long has it been since The Great Mall of China was built?
3. Who works there?
4. How do they get back in after the police escort them out?
5. How are the greeted when they arrive in the next city?
6. What was there before the city was built?
7. What kind of economy does China have?
8. What keeps pushing the prices of houses up despite a lack of demand?
9. What has saved China from a credit implosion so far? 10. What may happen if there is a credit implosion?


Language used:


Sur_assed
Hard  __ grasp
Ma_nitude
Ros_
B__bble
Spra__ling
Yet anoth__ ex__ple
Yet to ser__
Bo__sted
Hera__ed
A glaring ind__ation
Gro__ly overestimated
Unse__ling vista
be ke_t on
cr__ping neglect
slip b__k in unnoticed
to__t
p__nce
c__ved out
fo__cast
wildly o__ of kilter
o___supply
eq__valent
bet__rment
set a G__P target
co__and economy
bun__e away
lies at the __d
one __y soon
in its p__ce
a da__y reminder
sp__ulating
except__nal
loo__ng
pr__inent
polar__ation
an ask__g price
s__ggy
ear__rked
pay __  front
stri__ent terms
credit imp__sion
an ups__ng
impo__rish
disg__ntlement
__cial unrest

Listen and fill the gaps:

REPORTER: Adrian Brown

These are satellite images of one of China's newest cities, a ________________ complete with public buildings, hotels and_____________ and this is the view from the ground. 11am on a Thursday morning and Zhengzhou's CBD is deserted, shops unoccupied, hundreds of apartments uninhabited.

All the shops in this mall are empty, not that that worries the government, because they're simply more concerned with ________________ and one way of achieving that is building cities like this one. The big question, though, is how much longer all these shops and properties can remain vacant?

But all around me, the construction of this metropolis goes on and here in the southern city of Dongguan, another example. This is the South China Mall - toy shop owner, Tian Yu Gao, is doing his best to _____________ but is already after 2pm and he's yet to serve a single customer.

REPORTER: Do you get very lonely in here?

TIAN YU GAO, TOY SHOP OWNER (Translation): It is a bit boring looking after the shop here - there are too few customers.

But then, slow days are what he's used to.

REPORTER: When was the last time you sold something?

TIAN YU GAO (Translation): Yesterday - I sold one toy. Once it took four or five days

His shop is __________ in the Great Mall. The majority of this vast shopping centre remains as empty as it did when it opened six years ago. Back then, developers boasted that it would become the world's biggest shopping mall, with plans for 1500 shops that would attract 70,000 shoppers a day - the mall was heralded by the New York Times as proof of China's astonishing new consumer culture. But today, the not so great Mall of China, as it is known, is a glaring indication that this consumer culture has been grossly overestimated.

A gondola ride through the mall lasts 20 minutes and takes you past an unsettling and almost unending vista of emptiness. For the few workers kept on to maintain this vast and now eerie complex, it is boring and lonely work and already, there are signs of creeping neglect. Even filming an empty shopping mall is a sensitive issue in China - police arrived and ordered us out but the mall is so vast, it was easy to slip back in unnoticed and just like in the city of Zhengzhou, building goes on.

Despite repeated requests, the mall's management refuse to talk to Dateline, but Tian Yu Gao wonders if the mall may become another victim of the government's obsession with ____________.

REPORTER: Do you think that the South China Mall will be around in five years time?

TIAN YU GAO (Translation): __________,  we'll have to see what happens next year. My feeling is, they said Level Two was all leased out, if it is true and the customers come, there may be a chance, otherwise it's hopeless.

We're on our way to another new city, Daya Bay, a three-hour drive from the not so great mall. As you enter the city, the touts pounce and a well-rehearsed sales pitch begins.

MAN(Translation): Inspecting properties? Two minutes from here. Have you seen any?

WOMAN(Translation): In May we will have another site for sale in the city centre.

Daya Bay is a city carved out of agricultural land and designed for 12 million people. That ambitious forecast, though, appears to be _________________ because, according to even China's State-controlled media, 70% of these new units remain unoccupied.

REPORTER: Is China experiencing a property bubble?

GILLEM TULLOCH, FORENSIC ASIA: Absolutely. A property bubble like which I don't think we've ever seen.

REPORTER: Bigger than the one in the United States?

GILLEM TULLOCH: Yes, I think it will _____________________________. It is said that there are 64 million empty apartments in China.

REPORTER: 64 million?

GILLEM TULLOCH: 64 million.

Gillem Tulloch is a Hong Kong-based analyst who has been investigating China's residential and commercial real estate market. He maintains that there's massive oversupply and over valuation of properties right across China.

GILLEM TULLOCH: It's essentially____________________________. It doesn't really add to the betterment of lives, but it adds to the growth of GDP.

And maintaining economic growth is the government's number one priority.

GILLEM TULLOCH: It's basically happening because China is a command economy and the Chinese Government can dictate where the resources are spent.

REPORTER: And so, if the order goes out to build, local governments build?

GILLEM TULLOCH: That's right. If the central government a GDP target, they have to meet the target and the easiest way to do it is just to build.

REPORTER: Isn't all this construction a good thing? It's creating jobs and getting the economy moving? That's a good thing?

GILLEM TULLOCH: People forget that it is not the quantity of GDP that matters but the quality and essentially, they're building things for where there's no demand and so they're creating a large problem for the future.

Prices for units here range from $70,000 to $100,000 - a fortune in a country where the average worker's annual wage is around $6,000. But units here are selling -_____________ as investment propers whose owners live in other parts of China. The agent bundled this prospective buyer away before we could talk to her.

REPORTER: You've come today - you've had a look around - what was your impression?

GILLEM TULLOCH: It's pretty alarming. It's incredibly interesting - I don't think that there are many places in the word like this. I mean, we've seen empty apartments, empty condominium projects.

REPORTER: Do you imagine that any of these apartments will be occupied in five years?

GILLEM TULLOCH: I think that the occupancy rate in five years will still be around 25%, but if they bring the prices down to close to zero, some people will move in.

REPORTER: Well here's the thing - you got millions of Chinese who, like people anywhere else, they _______________, and they can't.

GILLEM TULLOCH: That's right - these are far too expensive for them.

Millions of expensive empty homes and millions of Chinese who can't afford to live in them. George Jiao is one of them - his rented home lies at the end of a narrow alley in the capital of Beijing. He knows that one day soon, all this will be demolished. In its place, more upmarket condominiums like the ones that tower above his neighbourhood - a daily reminder of his own frustrated efforts to buy a home. He and his wife live in a single room off a small courtyard.

GEORGE JIAO (Translation): 10 households, two people per household.

There's a communal sink and toilet - there is no place for children here, which is why their daughter remains with his parents in Sichuan - they see her once a year.

GEORGE JIAO (Translation): It's no good, we have been working in Beijing for years, we want to but a property but prices are too high - honestly, we just can't afford to buy. People speculating in the market have pushed prices too high - we need the government to intervene.

George and his wife both work six days a week in _____________, their combined salaries are around $900 a month, of which a quarter goes on rent. He says owning a home should not be a dream but _________________.

GEORGE JIAO (Translation): If the government considered us and provided budget housing as part of our human rights - that would be the right thing to do. I am not optimistic now, I don't like what the government is doing.

Zhao Gang also knows about the difficulties of ______________, he shares a two bedroom apartment with nine other people, including a married couple. Ironically, he's a government ___________________. Three men sleep in this room with Mr Zhao sharing a bed - none of which is exceptional here in China, until you remember all those millions of homes that are empty. Something he didn't want to talk about.

ZHAO GANG (Translation): I can't tell you my views because I work in the property sector, I know a lot about it and if I talk about it I will get into trouble.

But trouble is looming if the lack of _________________ continues, warns this prominent sociologist.

PROFESSOR ZHOU XIAO SHENG, SOCIOLOGIST, PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY, BEIJING (Translation): What worries me most is polarisation, according to Deng Xiaoping, if it leads to polarisation, then our reform has failed. Right now, China is polarised - it continues to be polarised - that is a big worry.

He fears a deepening of social divisions.

PROFESSOR ZHOU XIAO SHENG (Translation): It is clear that polarisation will cause conflicts in society - poor people may come out and start a revolution.

A two-hour drive from Beijing, I'm being shown a duplex with an _________ of almost $300,000. It's a development called Green Island, though it is anything but outside. From the window, a smoggy view of another old neighbourhood developers have earmarked for demolition.

REPORTER: So this will go next?

WOMAN: Yes.

An unlikely prediction, considering buyers are required to pay 50% of the asking price upfront and the balance within three years. Such _____________, which keeps so many workers out of the market, are also the reason why China has yet to experience a US-style credit implosion.

AGENT (Translation):This is a good place for you ___________________, it's quite and the environment is good.

REPORTER: Who will come to live here?

WOMAN: People who can afford a house in Beijing.

REPORTER: But they haven't come yet?

WOMAN: No.

And only months after the first tenants moved in here, the For Sale signs and For Rent signs are already appearing. China's authorities are trying to cool their overheated economy with a series of financial controls. But there are dangers.

GILLEM TULLOCH: It can't stay this way because we're in the upswing of a bubble, and when the bubble bursts, it will impoverish vast numbers of people.

REPORTER: Will there be anger and disgruntlement?

GILLEM TULLOCH: Yes, it increases the chances that you get some form of ____________.

MARK DAVIS: Adrian Brown reporting there. And there are more satellite photos from the report showing the scale of those cities and their empty streets on our website.