[mitchi]

I didn't know some countries could still play Sim City. A tunisian friend was talking to me about the same thing. A new coastal city, big investments coming in, we make this city a center for investments, arts, technology, finance. Well... Good luck. It's more likely to end up empty, like a big mall or expensive appartments no one can afford.

[TeMPOraL]

> I didn't know some countries could still play Sim City.

I wish more countries would - at least cities wouldn't be "designed" by bunch of developers fighting against each other for cash, building tons of useless buildings, destroying parks and public spaces. Cities I know could use some order and effective design.

[agumonkey]

I was a bit resentful of the ideas behind urban design and architecture, then two weeks ago I found this on imgur (http://imgur.com/gallery/4FuyX/comment/373343373):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AYE3w5TWHs (skip to the second half)

It seems a creative, yet more balanced environmentally and humanly, way to conceive buildings (and in the large, cities).

[Apocryphon]

You'd expect China or the booming Gulf States to do something like this. Irrational exuberance.

[seanmcdirmid]

There are definitely plans to move a lot of government functions out of Beijing into nearby Hebei cities. But the problem is that Beijing is becoming too congested and polluted (the surrounding cities in Hebei are just as bad, so I'm not sure if this will actually work).

[stefantalpalaru]

They do: http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-ghost-cities-in-2014-2...

[1timeUse]

I apologize for being critical, but that piece is extremely ignorant of what China is actually aiming to do.

Were the city builds part of economic stimulus? Yes, of course.

However China also has a goal to move 250-350 mm citizens into urban living by 2025.

Here's a 2009 report on the subject:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/urbanization/preparing_for_...

Without being rude, my link is substantially more weighty / less noisy than yours.

[agumonkey]

Sometimes big is all needs to be. People will come for novelty. It may suck energy from surrounding places, drying them, becoming the new center.