[ghastmaster]

The image reminds me of Guangzhou, China. I recently looked at google earth images of Guangzhou. I then looked at images of New York City. It is incredible to me that we in the U.S. think of New York City as a sprawling metropolis when not far from the city center it is mostly single family homes on plots of land. Whereas Guangzhou has many more high rise buildings for miles and miles. Get the ruler in Google Earth and check it out.

[Cactus2018]

Guangzhou, China timelapse

https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/#v=37.79184,-122.33...

[foota]

China looks different than the last time I saw it.

[chefandy]

Personally, I think Guangzhou or any other tier-1 Chinese city would be a great place to live if China wasn't a police state. I know a lot of people see urbanity as something to be minimized or mitigated, but I think well-designed huge cities with robust public transportation are an absolute delight. Sure it's nice to get out every now and then... but people who live in the country also sometimes like to get out and visit a big city where they have museums and theaters and 12 kinds of ethnic cuisine within 5 blocks walk.

[randomsearch]

Lockdown has given a lot of time to think about this.

Humans are social animals. We need to have contact with people outside our families.

Living in the country / distant suburbia doesn’t give enough social contact to be healthy, I think, at least in the U.K. In the past I imagine small villages were much more sociable, because people weren’t commuting out, and families lived in the same place for a long time.

So overall, I think living in a city is psychologically better for you. Not necessarily in the centre, but close enough that you can easily get there, can access lots of social venues and find people you get in with.

Of course that was pre COVID. Now is the time to go spend that year in the country, you’re not going to miss out on anything.

[scott31]

> The police state has essentially eliminated free will and allowed the city to maximize its size while reducing quality of life to a minimum — and still maintaining total control over the citizens.

Sounds like China as well

[thiagoharry]

No, the economic growth in China is in fact vastly improving the quality of life there.

[kyuudou]

How many of those are actually occupied?

[ezconnect]

On the major cities along the yangzhou river they are mostly occupied, only on the other cities that tries to attract more investment and people they build ghost cities and there are a lot of cities in China competing for progress.

[chii]

it's a false narrative that these cities are not occupied - i think you'll find that the CCP plans for decades, and the population growth of china will fill those apartments in time.

[dragonwriter]

That explains that there are plans for future occupation, but does not support the claim that it is a false narrative that they are unoccupied.

[chii]

> does not support the claim that it is a false narrative that they are unoccupied.

no the false narrative was that they will remain unoccupied and is just built as a form of economic stimulus.