The second subway line for Zhengzhou, running from the north end of the city to the airport was completed last year. I took it out to airport city a couple of weeks ago.
Along the way, there is an enormous new real estate development--it must have run about 2 km along the track, almost entirely filling in what used to be a forested area between Zhengzhou and what used to be a separate town (Hua'nancheng). Unfortunately, the subway is enclosed in tube with these horizontal lines, obscuring the imagery.
And here's some video to give you a sense of scale.
Along the way, there is an enormous new real estate development--it must have run about 2 km along the track, almost entirely filling in what used to be a forested area between Zhengzhou and what used to be a separate town (Hua'nancheng). Unfortunately, the subway is enclosed in tube with these horizontal lines, obscuring the imagery.
And here's some video to give you a sense of scale.
Just wow!
ReplyDeleteA huge complex of unfinished buildings. It seemed windows had not yet been installed, so occupancy is not yet possible. Getting tenants will be slow until that work is completed.
Is there a big demand for housing in that region?
There has been a huge development--the population of the city has grown from about nine million to over 12 million in the past four years, but I'm not sure how much of that is due to extension of the municipal boundaries, and how much represents people moving into the city.
ReplyDeleteZhengzhou is the capital of Henan province, which is the most populous province in the country. One reason is that since the province was a farming province, a lot of families had exemptions to the "one-child" policy.
Developers here usually build out these towers sequentially.
ReplyDeleteThat way the initial purchasers help pay for the remaining construction.
This Zhengzhou complex is pretty much all in a similar state of completion, so someone put up a lot of money up front. Guess high stakes gambling is still alive and well in China.