Pop-Up Cities: China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis is a story on Wired about a built-from-scratch city in China that’s designed for peak environmental efficiency:

Today Gutierrez and a team of Arup specialists from Europe, North America, and Asia are finalizing a plan for a scratch- built metropolis called Dongtan. Anywhere else in the world, it would have been a thought exercise, done up pretty for a design book or a museum show. But Shanghai’s economy is growing three times faster than the US economy did at the height of the dotcom boom. More than 2,000 high-rises have gone up within city limits in the past decade. The city’s most famous stretch of skyline, including the jewel-box-like Jin Mao Tower and the purple rocket-shaped Pearl TV Tower, was a rice paddy just 20 years ago. Now some 130 million people live within a two and a half hour drive of downtown. Even the wild ideas get built here.

This idea that the only limit to construction is imagination seems to something that resonates with visitors to Shanghai. I know I was floored by the sheer grandiosity of the plans city-builders had for Shanghai, and Amanda wrote a great piece on it after she visited the city earlier this year.

People have often remarked that one of the huge advantages China has over the west when it comes to building and development is the ease with which it can repossess land. Need an extra couple of blocks? No worries; just bulldoze whatever is there and move the people elsewhere. It’s one of the reasons I’m so glad I visited Beijing before the bulldozers moved in for the Olympics.

That said, a consistent theme in current Chinese developments seems to be a desire for environmental sustainability and that can only be a good thing.

Posted in China on Sunday May 6, 2007. Shoutouts [1].

Let’s jump away from Korea for a moment and focus on China, and in particular an amazing set of photographs and audio commentary by Canadian photogapher Edward Burtynsky:

In headlong leaps toward capitalism, during the past 25 years, the lifestyles and landscapes of China have been changing beyond recognition with blinding speed. To officially signal the change to the world, in 1992, Deng Xiao Ping proclaimed, “To be rich is to be glorious!” Yet the mad rush to embrace Western ideals has — and is — creating profound consequences for the people of China and for the rest of the world

Canadian photogapher Edward Burtynsky worked through diplomatic channels to gain access to photograph many sites undergoing enormous change. With his large format camera, over the course of three years, Burtysnky has captured the vast scale and minute details of monumental transformations of a society.

The photos of Shanghai and the Three Gorges Dam are breathtaking.

Posted in China on Monday May 8, 2006. Shoutouts.

A gallery of photos from my recent jaunt to Taipei and surrounds:

Posted in Travel on Thursday September 22, 2005. Shoutouts.

Train timetables are horrible bastard things. I’m convinced that somewhere in the world there’s a cabal of evil designers who use their secret underground lair and limitless resources to ensure that train timetables remain firmly trapped in the 18th century, from now until the end of time. I can see them now, sitting cross-legged in their robes made of burlap sacks chanting their mantra, “If on rails it runs, cluttered and indecipherable its timetable must be.” Forget even trying if it’s written in another language.

So, I’m standing on a train platform near Fulong Beach, Taiwan, trying to work out which of the myriad trains I can get on and actually end up in Taipei. This is proving to be rather more difficult than initially expected because the “stopping in Taipei” column appears to be entirely blank. A Taiwanese dude is jabbing at the timetable with a finger and muttering to himself. He turns and has a rapid-fire conversation with the guy behind the window in the manner in which only two Chinese speakers can accomplish. Sharp, jagged bursts of sound that rapidly increase in volume and, uh, screechiness. If they were speaking English, I’d be slowly backing away before the knives came out, but these two are grinning at each other when they finish.

The jabber (also: jabberer) notice me looking bewildered and asks “To Taipei?” I nod and he points at a time, then at his ticket, “One hundred. Two dollar. One hundred and two dollar. Taipei.” Bing. I have a ticket and a time. I thank the guy and walk across the road to grab a drink.

The closest store is a restaurant with a big fridge out the front. I pick a brightly coloured bottle of tea at random and walk in to pay. From the second I walk in the store, the owner starts shooting high speed Mandarin at me. When I grin sheepishly and make it clear that I don’t understand a world, he smiles back and just keeps on talking. I nod in what I feel are pertinent breaks in conversation, get my change and scoot for the door. He thanks me as I leave.

Still ten minutes until the train. I haven’t gone through the gate, as I have my random tea to enjoy. While I’ve been getting said tea, a van has pulled up in front of the station and a bunch of Chinese Aunties are piling out. One of them has a couple of greenish looking tomatoes. She shoves out her hand and offers one to me. “Uhh, Ok. Thank you?” I half put my hand out and she snatches hers back and begins to mime washing a tomato. “Wash?” The Aunties repeat “Ouashie! Ouashie!” and cackle to each other. They stomp off in a huddle, presumably to wash their prize tomatoes and return.

Then the station master appears and starts gesticulating wildly, “You! To. Taipei?!” “Yes!” “Go now. From now. Ok?” “Ok” “Ok! Ok! Bye bye!” The train is early. I fight my way through the mobs of people buying station food from vendors on the platform and grab a seat.

The train goes to Taipei and costs $102. It arrives on time. Take that you evil timetable corrupting bastards. The people will rise above your petty schemes and prevail. There might even be a free tomato in the deal somewhere, if you play your cards right.

Posted in Travel on Wednesday September 21, 2005. Shoutouts.

Here’s the first of four posts of photos and observations from the trip. I should have them all up by the end of the week and then it will be back to regularly scheduled programming. Here’s some photos of hiking in the New Territories. The Hong Kong SAR is made up of a bunch of islands (of which Hong Kong is the second biggest) and a peninsular leading up to mainland China. At the bottom of the peninsular is Kowloon, the big residential and shopping area facing Hong Kong across the bay. North of Kowloon are the New Territories, which geographically are much much larger than Hong Kong but have only a fraction of the population of the big city.

It’s only about an hour out of Hong Kong but it feels like another country. On the hike were a bunch of old abandoned buildings, a whole village worth, slowly rotting away. It was kind of creepy standing on the roof of an abandoned house and looking out across the village, wondering how long ago people had lived there.

Posted in Travel on Tuesday January 11, 2005. .

Holy crap, I’m back in mainland China for the second time in less than six months. How bizarre is that? I found out that you can get on the spot visas to visit the S.E.Z. area quite close to Macau for only $150HKD (for Aussies, Americans and Brits pay about five times as much, which warranted a chuckle) and figured I’d burn some money where things are cheap. So on the list for today is a swanky haircut and a extremely luxurious massage followed by a spot of shopping and a big dinner. Good thing I haven’t washed my jeans in a week and I’m wearing a grubby t-shirt, or I might actually qualify as being a metrosexual. Ferry back to Hong Kong tomorrow morning and then it’s on the plane homeward.

Posted in Travel on Sunday January 9, 2005. .

Suprisingly enough, the Indonesian food in Hong Kong is really good. Had dinner last night in a pretty swanky place called 1962 on Kimberly road in Kowloon and it was some of the best Indonesian food I’ve ever had. The beef rendang was superb, melt in your mouth good. Unsurprisingly, the Dim Sum rules.

Heading out to the new territories today to go hiking. Victoria peak tonight. Macau tomorrow. It’s all action.

Posted in Travel on Wednesday January 5, 2005. .

In an escape to retain my sanity, I’m escaping to Hong Kong for a couple of days for some much needed good food, loud bars and general down time. See you all in a week!

Posted in Travel on Monday January 3, 2005. .

Winding up the China odyssey is Shanghai, a city that I think pretty much confirms that future of the world is in China. The amount of building and construction that is going on there, the infrastructure being put down and the apparently limitless cash being thrown at the city is scary to say the least. If you’ve got any doubts as to what the Chinese can do, take a visit to Shanghai and while you’re there stop by the urban planning museum. They’ve got an intricate, step-by-step plan for zoning and constructing over the next 20 or so years, including the building of a deep sea port of the coast using two artificial islands, then ramping up of their 500km/h airport maglev train system and three more subway lines. Even with the Olympics as a feature, Beijing is going to struggle to come even close to Shanghai as the showcase city of China. There’s a tower in Pudong called the Jing Mao tower, and you can go all the way up to the 88th floor, stand at the top, and pretend you’re watching Bladerunner. Running around in underpants howling like a wolf optional, of course.

Posted in Travel on Thursday September 30, 2004. .

We went to Suzhou. We saw gardens, pagodas and starbucks. Leya knows her noodles very well. We rode bikes. There was Karaoke and Malaysian food. I’m so over this travel journal thing. Here, photos, look.

Posted in Travel on Thursday September 30, 2004. .