Just Burn the Money: China's Failed Megaprojects

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[David-fuvi]

I retired after 40 years in commercial and residential maintenance. My experience has been that a structure not occupied can sometimes deteriorate faster than one that is. I know that sounds strange but, 40 yrs of repairing buildings has showed me this.

[doodlePimp]

That the islands are sinking is funny because they were described as: "Unsinkable aircraft carriers."

[alanbrown]

The last time I was in Tianjin in 2016 I remember looking at Goldin Finance from a distance. The other super-tall buildings in Tianjin are not near it; it stands alone, surrounded by shorter buildings, maybe only 20-30 stories tall that look like dwarves. It is crazy big, and obvious. The fact that it may sit there incomplete indefinitely makes it the world's biggest "sore thumb".

[marc]

Dams are known to be environmentally damaging, but it's rare for the damage to be visible so quickly.
Also, the lack of sediment in the water implies that all the old sediment is building up behind the dam. I wonder if that will break it even more in the future.

[MegaHutare]

It's almost like trains can do everything the first thing does but better

[ignitionfrn]

1:05 - Chapter 1 - Transit elevated bus
1:40 - Mid roll ads
3:00 - Back to the video
5:55 - Chapter 2 - Duplitecture ghost cities
8:25 - Chapter 3 - 1 belt, 1 road
11:25 - Chapter 4 - Goldin finance 117

[leto]

The elevated bus project was really stupid considering metros are a much more practical way of transporting thousands of people without being hindered by traffic. Not to mention China was already building dozens of metro systems at the time, so the project seems kinda pointless - good thing they never really considered it seriously.

[robertpotter]

The company i used to work for had a building built in China and the builders were baffled by the American way. They couldn't understand that we wanted the building to last more than 5 years. I just wonder how long it will be before everything comes tumbling down.

[jrtstrategicapital]

The amount of wasted money on these “tofu dreg” projects is astounding! That’s just one aspect ..I’m shaking my head on all the natural resources and pollution it created is on another level indeed! Crazy.

[StriKe_jk]

One Belt initiative: We loan you the money, to pay us, to build something in your territory, that belongs to us. Also you have to pay back the loan. Basically you pay them twice, for something they own in the end. And if you fail to pay them back they will take all natural resources the land has until the debt is paid.

[CptApplestrudl]

The sheer waste of construction resources in China is astonishing. Building things not because someone needs it, but because thats the rules or to use it as "investment objects".

[rashkavar]

I'm amazed the TEB made it as far as it did. I'm not at all surprised the idea was suggested, as someone with an engineering degree, I can say this is exactly the kind of idea that will get engineers excitedly drawing up sketches and starting a preliminary feasibility study (which is to say: thinking about it and maybe writing a draft proposal in their heads)

But...that's where it ends. Height minimums and maximums are a pretty obvious problem to anyone who has looked at traffic for 5 minutes. Weight tolerances are going to be an issue for anyone who knows anything about vehicle design, and the relationship between the distance between wheels and turning radius is somewhat variable depending on specific design, but the general issue of a wide wheelbase meaning a wide turning radius is pretty obvious.

This should be a really fascinating half-written proposal in some engineer's recycle bin. This should not be a thing that made it to prototyping.

[alanconway]

They're even better at wasting money than we are.

[derekstein]

"Duplitecture" sounds less like a portmanteau of duplicate and architecture, and more like a portmanteau of duplicitous and architecture.

[johndoh]

China has this thing about not understanding base structure. They CONSTANTLY fail building, well just about everything in cities because they never get the base structure correct. They fail to get proper drainage in place and water wears away at these base structures which then fall apart, including roads right next to tall buildings and you find out ground water is removing the earth around these buildings. Scary really. There are videos galore of cars and trucks falling into holes that opened up right in front of them or collapsed under the weight of a truck. And THEN you look closely and you wonder where the rebar went to. Oh, it was never there. Is that why the road fell open so easily?

[calendarpage]

I watch a lot of videos about failed Chinese engineering and new cities. Even when they try to force people and businesses to move to reduce crowding and build up an area, it usually fails because the infrastructure isn't there. It's amazing to see how much money the Chinese waste and how much corruption there is in the building industries.

[Qingeaton]

It would be interesting to hear archaeologists of the future explain China's ghost cities.

[stephenpercy]

China have overlooked one little point with their megaprojects -- ongoing maintenance!

[Aussiemarco]

Last month I transited through Shanghai Pudong Airport. That thing is crazy gigantic and doesn’t even make it onto Chinese megaproject lists. Miles of vast corridors whose floors and walls are all paved in shiny granite. 552 departure gates. A transit area that I couldn’t see the end of. Multiple terminals connected by a full-sized underground train. And the entire airport was pretty much empty - both times I transited through at two different times of the day.

I Googled how much it all had cost - $49.8 billion!!! China is on another level of government spending on these insane projects.

[SmashGhost]

China: A country-sized version of what happens when a high school dropout wins the lottery