0 to 30 floors in 14 days

[Phalanx]

Found this, and thought some people may get a kick out of it. Since it isn't about anything being built in Halifax, I may as well put it here.

China builds a 30-story skyscraper entirely in 2 weeks

[fenwick16]

Very interesting. I wonder about some of their claims - 5 times more earthquake resistant, 5 times more energy efficient, 20 times purer air; is it really as good as they say? I have my doubts.

[someone123]

One thing I've heard from many friends who've visited or live in China is that the housing units frequently have a lot fewer amenities built in than we would expect in North America. For example, many people have plug-in water heaters for their showers. When you consider that plus all the prefab components and cheap labour there it's no surprise they're a lot faster.

They also have another variant, 13 to 0 in 30 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pktM__i-8IQ

[DigitalNinja]

After living in China for a bit, the apartments are of an alright quality. Each one is customized, basically there are no apartment buildings in China, just condo buildings, where individuals buy a condo and then rent it out. Where this stuff is bought with cash there normally isn't much of a mortgage when you're building a building, so the possibility of building a rental building is quite slim.

My apartment is located in a 20 floor building with a plug in hot water heater, no hot water from the bathroom or kitchen sinks, just for shower. For electricity there is a terminal located on each floor and you go downstairs to the drug store which has a machine that you load up a chip card with electricity then you insert it into the terminal on the floor of the apartment. This is good to know exactly how much you're using and IMO better than getting a bill every month.

This building is only 7 years old but looks a lot older, in the common areas and on the outside. Which showcases the crappy quality. My friends uncle bought a condo located close to Tianamin square a few years ago for 2million RMB, or about 340k canadian, it is now close to 6million RMB. And it is a 6 floor building built in 1999 that looks like a communist block. Not something a million dollar condo would be in. The inside of his area is nice, but there is no upkeep of the building itself. Here is a pic of the building http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2896826#comment I'm in a tall section on the left that is not pictured, like the one on the right. (It looks a lot worse than in the picture)

Then my friends home in Zhengzhou was a detached home, in a newer neiboughood. All of the streets were underground and above ground was just or walking, really nice neiboughood. Hot water in every tap of the house, central AC and everything. It was a nice place.

My point of this is that from my experience it is hard to catagorize China into any particular catagory. There are a mix of every life style, and the countryside is like a different country from the cities. There is no central term to describe the situation, and each one has to be described seperatly.