Shanghai's Faux World Cities Fail to Catch On
A decade after its inception, Shanghai's One City, Nine Towns project, an ambitious attempt to manage the city's massive population growth via the creation of international-themed satellite communities, has failed to deliver hoped-for results.
Sarah Wesseler pays a visit to Luodian New Town, a Scandinavia-themed town on the outskirts of Shanghai. She found the stores and streets mostly deserted, and cracks appearing in many of the facades.
The One City, Nine Town project was initiated in 2000 by Shanghai mayor Ju Huang.
Wesseler writes, "By providing unique architectural identities for some of the new satellite communities, the government hoped to lure wealthier residents to expensive, exotic new homes, and, for the less well-off, to provide recreational centers that would serve as community anchors and tourist attractions.
It didn't quite work out this way."
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