China's Latest Ghost Town

The first truly modern city

I’ve been chasing reports of deserted towns and have yet to find one. Over and over, I would read articles in the international press claiming that China is building towns that are never inhabited–only to find something very different upon arrival. Ordos, the most famous ‘ghost city,’ took ten years to populate but now has a thriving downtown and rising home prices. Xiangluowan, Lanzhou, Zhengzhou, Zhujiang, and Zhengdong, former ‘ghost cities,’ currently host the biggest urban migration in history. Newer cities–backwaters a decade ago–are complete and awaiting occupants while others, like Xinyang New District, are finishing construction. Wade Shepard.

When the vast, now empty city, below, opens it will be the first conceived, designed, emulated, modeled, constructed and wired entirely in this century.

Xiong’an New District, bigger than Greater London, on a greenfield site sixty miles south of Beijing, will connect the world’s most prosperous city¹ to its impoverished hinterland while re-housing industries unneeded in a national capital. Tax collection and patent inspection will move there, as will think tanks and high tech companies like AliBaba, that do not need to be in the capital.

SOEs have 100 subsidiaries and branches in the area in sectors like infrastructure construction, frontier information technologies, advanced biological technologies, modern service, energy, and new materials. 3,000 enterprises have registered in Xiong'an, 80% of which are scientific and technological enterprises from Beijing. To accompany them, Beijing’s top universities, hospitals, and schools are building branches in Xiong'an.

Ultimately, however, the New District’s success or failure depends on millions of highly educated youngsters who are picky about lifestyle. That’s why..

• 70% of Xiong’an’s forty square miles will be wetlands and forest,

• its eco-city model² features low-energy construction materials, automated light mass transport and green urban pockets.

• transportation, water, and electricity infrastructure mostly underground.

• all commutes, including downtown Beijing, are under 55 minutes.

• 4 high-speed commuter lines connect 3 new airports³ with the national high-speed rail network. Travel time to all airports is the same⁴.

• the New Area is designed with and for 5G, IoT, AI, big data cloud computing, smart sensors, smart lighting, and integrated personal recognition.

• The entire infrastructure designed for remote-controlled, self-driving vehicles and automated traffic management.

Boom Time?

Justin Lin Yifu, the world’s leading developmental economist, says Chinese GDP can grow 8% pa through 2050, since China’s urban-rural ratio and per capita GDP have just reached Japan’s 1970 levels, when that country’s economic takeoff began.

Xiong’an was designed to repay its capital cost within 30 years by boosting residents’ productivity and, thus tax contribution. If it is on track by, say, 2030, expect Xiong’An 2.0. By 2050, hundreds of millions will live in cities like it.

1. Beijing is home to the most billionaires and the most high-end shops in the world. Porsche dealerships cover acres of expensive land..

2. The new development benefits from lessons learned since 2008, when Singapore and China agreed to build Tianjin Eco-city and use 26 KPIs – like air quality, water quality, noise pollution, wetland and shoreline protection, urban greenspace, water consumption – to measure the city's ecological, economic, and social development. The project is ongoing.

3. Beijing Daxing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang.

4. The trainsets for each airport line are designed to operate at different speeds.