

Have You Hugged a Concrete Pillar Today? - locusm
http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Making-the-Modern-World

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glifchits
A lot of China's construction efforts are due to the government's affinity for
infrastructure projects that inflate GDP. The result are these ghost towns,
because the cost of a newly built apartment is much, much higher than most
Chinese can afford. [1]

[1]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E)

For a chart of concrete consumption per capita vs. GDP per capita:

[http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-21/chinas-ghost-
cities...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-21/chinas-ghost-cities-are-
multiplying)

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letstryagain
These 'ghost towns' will still be there in 10 years and the buildings will
still be valuable. Eventually they'll get used. The 'ghost town' problem is
overstated.

“No question, there are towns (some city-like) with empty buildings for the
world to see. And, there certainly have been cases of poor planning and
overbuilding. But as my team and I travelled around China, it was clear to us
that those represent a small sample of projects and not the country as a
whole.”

\-- Mark Mobius

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locusm
The level of construction is astonishing, made clear in this comparison of
Shanghai over 10 years. [http://www.penmachine.com/2011/01/vancouver-and-
shanghai-gro...](http://www.penmachine.com/2011/01/vancouver-and-shanghai-
growing-fast)

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adamconroy
Interesting enough, but can someone explain the title. I assume it is some
reference to tree hugging but I don't get it.

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desertjedi
Hey, I just read the post. I noticed that the share icon which appears on the
left is actually the IOS/OSX one.

