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On this episode of China Uncensored,
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has a Chinese dream.
And if you're going to dream, dream big!
Like the size of New England big!
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored. I'm your host, Chris Chappell.
China has already begun working on what will be... the largest city in human history,
and they call it... Jingjinji.
"Jingjinji with knit together three distinct geographical areas
that's been 82,000 square miles
is roughly the size of New England".
I can't even picture that!
No, seriously!
I mean, New England?
How about.. regular England?
Actually, it's much bigger than the entire regular England
and its population would be greater than the largest 100 cities in America
combined... plus the entire population of England.
Yes, they want 130 million people to live there,
what could go wrong?
Well, for one, Beijing already looks like this now with just 21 million people.
And for two, that's an insanely big city!
Why would the Communist Party even want to create this?
Because... money!
They want to help the economy of northern China keep up with the more prosperous south.
To do this, the government plans on doing some serious social engineering.
Beijing will be the center for politics, culture and technology.
Tianjin with its valuable port access will focus on research and manufacturing.
Hebei well, well... it seems no one really knows what Hebei will do.
But, for this plan to work, there are some serious problems that need solutions.
First of all, where do you put 130 million people
as it is living in Beijing is next to impossible.
Real estate prices are already so high
that the average worker will never be able to own a city home in their lifetime.
So people will move into one of the many apartment complex is being hastily built.
Hopefully not hastily built as this one in Shanghai.
And even if the buildings do manage to stay up,
these distance cities have their own set of problems.
Schools are overcrowded, sometimes 65 kids to a class.
Hospitals offer only basic services.
Streets flood in the rain.
One city in Hubei has grown so quickly
that it has 700,000 people
but no bus terminals, no movie theaters and only two tiny parks.
The next problem, transportation.
If Jingjinji is part of Xi's Chinese dream,
getting around it will be the nightmare.
In 2010, there was a traffic jam... 62 miles long that lasted... eleven days.
Highways are haphazard and unconnected.
Then there's public transit.
"The line for the bus can go on for blocks.
Although from here to Beijing is only 20 miles away,
it will take two hours each way".
By 2020, the government hopes to complete new highway, subway lines and high-speed rails.
But that's year's away and new housing is being built much faster than infrastructure.
And here's... the fatal problem facing Jingjinji.
For this mega city to work,
the government of China would have to fundamentally change its tax laws
as it is cities aren't allowed to have property tax.
This means, no money for new schools, roads, hospitals or the buses to get people to their jobs.
You might think "Okay, then they'll just change the tax laws."
But that's not going to happen
because the central government wants local government to depend on it,
not the other way around.
The Communist Party is like Bowser, king of the Koopas.
Sure it likes embarking on large-scale construction projects,
astronomical military spending,
and new innovative transportation schemes.
But at the end of the day,
how much does it really care about the well-being of the individual good?
So, what do you think about China's plans to build the biggest city in human history?
Leave your comments below and subscribe for more episodes.
Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.
See you next time.