China Ghost Cities: A Myth?

There is pervasive media coverage of China's giant, sprawling "ghost cities". And over previous months, there is comprehensive reporting about the bankruptcies of major Chinese property developers, including Evergrande, Sunac, Country Garden, and Xinyuan.

Chinese citizens in general, however, seem to be relaxed about the overbuilding problem, and indifferent to the plight of the country's property developers.

So what is their perspective? And why is China continuing to build expansive new housing developments and infrastructure projects?

Government policy and planning involves moving an additional nearly 300,000,000 China citizens from the countryside to urban centers in the next generation. That is nearly the population of the United States, who will be moved from rural villages to cities.

This point of view, that of Chinese citizens who have known nothing but dizzying levels of urbanization, tends to be lacking in the coverage of the situation from foreign sources.