methinks

Building China

I don't know much about economic development or percent increases in GDP. I don't know if China's construction boom is a profitable enterprise or a World Bank funded diversion for would-be idle workers. I don't know when - if ever - this China bubble will burst. But I do know that four months ago the new eight story apartment building to the right of mine was not there. One year ago the same could've been said for the building to the left and the one across the street. My building is the last building on the block to be razed and rebuilt. And the only reason that hasn't happened yet is because the college owns the building and can't give the teachers a new place to live until its new 10 acre campus is complete. It will be finished next year.

Like in the photo above, you see entire suburbs in progress. This community used to be where that pink and white tower in the background stands; that's prime riverside real-estate. And this 'relocation' is minuscule compared to what happens when a new damn is planned. I don't know how it happens, where the people live in the interim, who pays for it, if it should happen. Most all of the details, I don't know. But I do know that it can happen, that it does happen, and that China's regenerative powers are impossible to fully comprehend from facts and figures in the newspaper.