[seanmcdirmid]

I don't know. I have a hard time imagining Europe flooding with just a bit of rain as happened occasionally in Beijing for brand spanking new stuff they just built but...oops, forgot to add drainage underneath.

China has focused a lot of sexy infrastructure (gleamy sky scrapers, HSR, mega-bridges) but not enough at all on unsexy infrastructure (water-treatment plants, drainage, almost anything that isn't superficial).

[goty2]

I get what you mean. I definitely wouldn't say Shenzhen is a modern city as such, despite the skyscrapers and greenery. That is part of the charm though. It is, or used to be, an order of magnitude cheaper to live in SZ than HK. There is of course also absurd levels of inequality, which is less charming but reality.