China's astounding urbanization (plus photos of megacities)

[Leto]

It is hard to say how things will turn out, but unfortunately or not, I think Uighurs are facing no choice but to assimilate into the larger mainstream society if they are to succeed. There are already a lot of young professional Uighurs working in Urumqi.

I think they still can retain their language and have some autonomy within China.

[zhaoyun]

I think they still can retain their language and have some autonomy within China.

That's the current situation, I hope they can because they have a beautiful culture, and it would be a shame if they are totally assimilated.

[Anthony PV]

Well, the consequences are already here. Massive pollution and environmental degradation. It's all in the process of industrialization but given China's huge size, the scale is far bigger than what has been experienced in smaller Western countries during their period of industrialization. However, the fact is that China does not have much choices, either, it industrializes and urbanizes rapidly to become a modern country, or stay a dirt poor largely agrarian country.

Anyways, China is still going through a huge transformation. I think in the next 1 to 2 generations, it will move up the economic and wealth ladder, start to clean up it's environment and probably create smarter and higher quality cities and urban environments.

Meh, what's wrong with dirt poor agrarian countries, anyway? Big city dwellers may be more formally educated and more sophisticated than farmers... But farmers who live in harsher and more demanding conditions (like those of dirt poor agrarian countries) tend to be tougher, more self-reliant and more resourceful than your typical yuppie...

And, once again, just because Westerners undertook the road of industrialization and urbanization doesn't mean Chinese have to follow the same road... Throughout history, empires rose and fell, big cities appeared and disappeared but peasants who knew how to live off the land lasted and continued to survive... After the fall of Rome, it was the plebeian hardened by farmwork who survived the barbarian invasions... Not the decadent patrician living in the big city who wasted his time in orgies...

[zhaoyun]

Meh, what's wrong with dirt poor agrarian countries, anyway? Big city dwellers may be more formally educated and more sophisticated than farmers... But farmers who live in harsher and more demanding conditions (like those of dirt poor agrarian countries) tend to be tougher, more self-reliant and more resourceful than your typical yuppie...

And, once again, just because Westerners undertook the road of industrialization and urbanization doesn't mean Chinese have to follow the same road... Throughout history, empires rose and fell, big cities appeared and disappeared but peasants who knew how to live off the land lasted and continued to survive... After the fall of Rome, it was the plebeian hardened by farmwork who survived the barbarian invasions... Not the decadent patrician living in the big city who wasted his time in orgies...

My comment was not intended to insult farmers. I am in favor of more salt of the earth types myself, than urbanites who may be pretentious and materialistic. However, the fact is that if a country is not competitive with others (being an industrial and economic power), it will likely end up being devoured and preyed upon by more powerful players. Frankly, that was China's experience in it's introduction to the modern age as it was often the victim of Western countries and Japan because it was backward and weak.

[SupaThug]

I am a member of skyscrapercity(a skyscraper,city stuff forum) and people there always post photos of those stunning chinese cities,it's incredible,I like urban masses The most impressing one IMO is Chongqing because this city is not very know outside China but it has an awsome skyline.Pudong in Shanghai is quite impressing too.

[Anthony PV]

My comment was not intended to insult farmers. I am in favor of more salt of the earth types myself, than urbanites who may be pretentious and materialistic. However, the fact is that if a country is not competitive with others (being an industrial and economic power), it will likely end up being devoured and preyed upon by more powerful players. Frankly, that was China's experience in it's introduction to the modern age as it was often the victim of Western countries and Japan because it was backward and weak.

I didn't think you meant to insult farmers, I'm just saying that China should study the side effects industrialization and urbanization brought to Westerners instead of automatically undergoing the same path. I think the appearance and the rise in popularity of 'Marxism', 'communism', 'socialism', etc. was not caused by 'capitalism' but rather by all the social upheavals the Industrial Revolution and the urbanization that followed brought to Westerners. When people became anonymous and disposable factory workers in the emerging big cities, they left behind not only their homes, their farms, their lands, their villages, etc.; they also left behind their families, their friends, their clans, their tribes, etc. The only 'social glue' that binded people who are now complete strangers to one another became 'money'...

Sure, industrialization and urbanization made Westerners powerful... But, in a way, it also destroyed the fabric of their societies... As for China being victim of Western countries and Japan because of its lack of modernization, I think the story is more complicated than that...