Chinese cities much bigger than previously thought

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by muppet

The building codes in Eastern Asia (China, Japan, Taiwan) are the toughest in the world as they have to deal not just with earthquake proofing but bi-annual typhoons and floods (and megafloods every 50 years).

The worrisome buildings of course tend to be the old ones before legislation (though the Chinese historically built from wood, without nails to make them relatively earthquake proof), and the ones built in the 80s-90s, when corruption allowed for fragrant corner cutting, as seen in Sichuan's 'tofu schools' in 2008. Also any town/ village on a mountainside (2/3 of the country is mountainous or hilly), whereby no amount of earthquake proofing can protect you from landslides, as entire towns found out such as Beichuan.

However in the cities it's a different story, don't forget that Chengdu, a city of 10 million survived intact 3 minutes of shaking at double the earthquake proof intensity (globally it should be a 7.7-7.8).

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Tbh though if the Tangshan earthquake revisited it would still be as disastrous - although it was weaker than the Sichuan one, it was so shallow, so intense (lasting only 14 seconds) and one of the few to have a direct hit on an urban area the intensity of shaking was catastrophic - thousands of people were killed in their sleep by being thrown into their ceilings, buildings 'exploded' and 20 sq miles of cityscape was levelled. Even with modern earthquake proofing few buildings would survive being thrown in the air.

The part about Chengdu is encouraging. The Tangshan quake was really an anomaly anyway, right? But I just can't help but think of it when that city or any nearby city like Tianjin comes up.

And those "rural sprawl" pics are insane. I knew about the cities, but had no idea about that very specific form of higher density sprawl.

[MolsonExport]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_River_Delta

Metro population estimates for this megacity are as high as 120,000,000. Perhaps the closest thing to Coruscant on Earth.

Shenzen metro will soon be connected to neighboring Dongguan Metro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_Metro

Guangzhou's and Foshan's metro systems are connnected.

Dongguan is proposing a metro link to Guanzhou, and Huizhou is actively promoting the extension of Guanzhou's metro into their city.

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_River_Delta

Metro population estimates for this megacity are as high as 120,000,000. Perhaps the closest thing to Coruscant on Earth.

Shenzen metro will soon be connected to neighboring Dongguan Metro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_Metro

Guangzhou's and Foshan's metro systems are connnected.

Dongguan is proposing a metro link to Guanzhou, and Huizhou is actively promoting the extension of Guanzhou's metro into their city.

Would that be equivalent to the Bos-Wash mega city or is this significantly more connected than that?

[MolsonExport]

substantially much more connected.

I don't consider Boswash a mega city.

[mello]

Just looked on the map Foshan and Guangzhou are only 12 miles or so from eachother so they are essentially one city.

[JManc]

Those Chinese cities (plus Macau & Honkers) are all on top of one another, BosWas spans hundreds of miles over several states.

[jbermingham123]

Originally Posted by toddguy

Would that be equivalent to the Bos-Wash mega city or is this significantly more connected than that?

Much more connected. All of the cities in this area are arranged in an arc, and the whole region is roughly the size of Connecticut. Just imagine if 100 million people lived in Connecticut

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_River_Delta

Metro population estimates for this megacity are as high as 120,000,000. Perhaps the closest thing to Coruscant on Earth.

Shenzen metro will soon be connected to neighboring Dongguan Metro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_Metro

Guangzhou's and Foshan's metro systems are connnected.

Dongguan is proposing a metro link to Guanzhou, and Huizhou is actively promoting the extension of Guanzhou's metro into their city.

The entire province of Guangdong, larger than England+Wales, has 108 million people as 2015. Therefore those 120 million people estimates for Guangzhou-Shenzhen are not real. 50 million, in an area the size of Netherlands, is the most likely figure.

[chris08876]

Spotted this on Reddit.


Credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/com...living_in_one/

[muppet]

Originally Posted by Swede

By Nordic standards if the gap between buildings is under 200 meters it's the same Urban Area (in Swedish: Tätort). By the above map and a few minutes on google maps looking at the borders I'd say all of this is would count as the same urban area. The Guangzhou-HongKong Urban Area (with actual plans for subways to connect through Foshan-Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen-HongKong). Already at over 50 million.

(Tho by Nordic standards, most of the Gangetic plain is one single urban area probably).

Hong Kong is never counted because of the border. A bit like Tijuana/ San Diego not being counted singularly.

[chris08876]

The amount of "completed" towers is stunning in China. I checked the CTBUH, and was surprised since I don't really check the East Asian countries.

Just some stats from the CTBUH:

# of 300m+ buildings: 59
# of 200m+ buildings: 586
# of 150m+ buildings: 1,683

Above is for China, here is the U.S. for reference below:

# of 300m+ buildings: 19
# of 200m+ buildings: 188
# of 150m+ buildings: 741

Granted the U.S. is 2nd, but point being, China is in a whole different league. I mean, the lead itself is huge. No one else compares remotely.

Granted the U.S. is going through an urban boom nationwide as a whole, but in terms of construction, its just shunned completely.

Its interesting when you look at those Google Pam time lapses (satellite footage) to see how places like Shanghai and Shenzhen grew in the last 20 years.

Here is India:

# of 300m+ buildings: 1
# of 200m+ buildings: 6
# of 150m+ buildings: 50

Here is Japan:

# of 300m+ buildings: 1
# of 200m+ buildings: 39
# of 150m+ buildings: 241

The only place that can somewhat compare or at a modest 3rd is the UAE.

# of 300m+ buildings: 26
# of 200m+ buildings: 97
# of 150m+ buildings: 228

I'm sure once we get into the 50m-149m realm, its through the stratosphere.

[chris08876]

These are some pretty good aerial drone clips/fly-overs.

Shenzhen:

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Shanghai:

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Especially the Shanghai one.

[GWN]

Chongqing also looks amazing on video:

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[muppet]

Beijing

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Guangzhou

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[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by GWN

Chongqing also looks amazing on video:

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Chongqing is amazing. I was there a couple of months ago for the first time and it really is an incredible city.

[itom 987]

Chongqing is my favourite city in China it is in a class by itself.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by itom 987

Chongqing is my favourite city in China it is in a class by itself.

I hear this all the time too. Have yet to experience it. Is it because Chongqing is nowhere near the coast and thus probably more "Chinese" than the Eastern Seaboard cities?

[muppet]

CQ hasn't become as sanitised as the richer coastal regions so you'll see beauty and ugliness on an epic scale, all very Bladerunner. Also its topography makes the city dramatic -
like HK and Manhattan, it's one of the few places that genuinely demand dense highrises - islands/ peninsulars surrounded by water with high land prices that happen to rest on
solid bedrock or granite so it's far easier to build high. Also CQ is steep, the highrises literally cling to slopes and step upward for dramatic effect. The city is absolutely riddled with tunnels,
flyovers, bridges, and cables, some of them going in and out of buildings.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by chris08876

Shanghai:

• Video Link

Especially the Shanghai one.

This looks like someone's personal drone. I had no idea these things could get high as a skyscraper or that they could just fly them around these buildings without any problems.

[muppet]

part of the Puxi side of Shanghai's skyline



https://www.flickr.com/photos/sebast...415752/sizes/l