These crazy photos show how fast China is building megacities

chinese construction worker
Matt Ming/Flickr

If all goes to plan, in 11 years China will have 250 million people — equivalent to the entire population of Indonesia — into its burgeoning megacities.

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The move is massive, and so are the stakes involved.

China unveiled the plan in 2014 as the “National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)”. The goal was to make China even more urban, so that it could finally make and sell its own goods instead of relying on shipping clothes and electronics overseas to make money. 

But that kind of migration requires building highways, bridges, and rail lines — and destroying homes or entire neighborhoods. 

China has launched a project too big to turn its back on. The only direction is forward.

 

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Henan province, China, 1867. Already at 363 million people, the country was poised for a boom.

rural china mountain scene
Wikimedia Commons

Within a century, China started to export hundreds of billions worth of electronics goods and manufacturing equipment. Shanghai's budding financial district is seen below.

china in 1987
China Stringer Network/Reuters
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As early as 1991, however, the Chinese government began envisioning a cleaned-up urban environment. The demolition of the Walled City in Hong Kong displaced 30,000 people so the government could build a park.

china 1991
Bobby Yip/Reuters

In 1995, the limits of China's expanding infrastructure were revealed during a massive flood. Officials at the time said these simple flaws, like leaky pipes, could end up costing the country billions every year. The cause of the flood was traced back to a water main burst.

china 1994 flooding
Will Burgess/Reuters
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The world's largest McDonald's sat in central Beijing, looking over buildings that had just been demolished. Cranes in the background were now becoming common sights in big cities.

china mcdonalds 1994
Will Burgess/Reuters

As the 20th century neared its end, Western companies began to roll in to China. Communist leader Deng Xiaoping's mission to bring manufacturing to the country, adopting the capitalistic ideals of the West, accelerated the country's urban sprawl.

china nestle
STR New/Reuters
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By the turn of the century, new buildings were sprouting up all over China. But there were hiccups, like in 2000 when a public housing scandal resulted in the planned deconstruction of two major buildings. The demolition set China back 199 million Yuan, or $32 million US.

china construction workers
Bobby Yip/Reuters

Around that time, the country began construction of the colossal Three Gorges Dam. The dam traverses the Yangtze River and is now the single largest power station in the world. Even with China's preference for swiftness, construction took 18 years.

construction worker china
STR New/Reuters
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In less than a decade, China managed to grow out infrastructure around the dam and prevent the catastrophic floods that had once plagued the country. By 2006, the two-mile-long reservoir upstream from the dam had finally been filled.

three gorges dam
NASA.gov

This 1973 satellite photo shows how untouched the area was back then — vegetation is in red, and the whispy gray parts are urban areas.

china 1973
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr
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By 2003, industry had taken over. The plant-covered regions were shrinking by the year, getting pushed further inland from the river to make room for communities that relied on it for resources.

china 2003
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr

China's plan to merge big cities like Beijing and Hong Kong with smaller suburbs — creating megacities of 10 million-plus — is fully underway. Here the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, linking three cities and cutting commuting time in the Pearl River Delta, is seen under construction.

hong kong bridge
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), which will link the three cities in the Pearl River Delta, is seen under construction off Hong Kong's Lantau Island, China, June 12, 2015.
Bobby Yip/Reuters
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Buildings keep sprouting and cranes stay anchored in the cities. Meanwhile, a clear juxtaposition emerges in China as the industry edged out the rural regions. Below a man walks during low tide in front of the fast-developing city of Shenzen, part of the Pearl River Delta megacity.

china skyline
Bobby Yip/Reuters

Though industry is fast-growing, one question moving forward is funding. Chinese officials have expressed doubt whether the money being spent on infrastructure can keep pace with the urbanization plan.

chinese construction worker
Jianan Yu/Reuters
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Transportation will play a huge role in joining the megacities together. It's China's hope that more rail lines and highways will allow its workers, who mostly commute into cities, to shave hours off their travel time.

bullet train
Stringer/Reuters

Planned demolitions have become the norm in China. To make room for the hundreds of millions of people that will relocate to the megacities, China's government makes sacrifices. Here a residential high rise is razed to make room for a traffic hub.

china apartment demolition
China Daily/Reuters
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But there is devastation, too. Prioritizing speed over accuracy, the government in Guangzhou accidentally demolished one woman's home during a routine project. Here she tries to attack a worker with a brick.

demolition china woman
Stringer China/Reuters

Overwhelmed with the sense of loss, the woman, Huang Sufang, later leapt from a building to her death. Though a rare case, her suicide highlighted how profoundly the plan can affect China's residents.

woman china demolition
Stringer China/Reuters
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For the millions of farmers who live outside the cities, a sense of uncertainty lingers. Farmers have few property rights in China, and the Communist Party has repeatedly made claims to join urban and rural markets to improve conditions. But doubt remains.

chinese woman farmer
Jianan Yu/Reuters

With crane-topped residential buildings as his back drop, a man in Hefei, Anhui province, carries buckets of water through his vegetable field.

chinese farmer
Jianan Yu/Reuters
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Residential buildings scrape the sky, but many remain unsold. Vacant apartments may usher in the millions of people China hopes to migrate, but developers are wary to start new projects when current ones go nowhere.

man walking field buildings china
Wong Campion/Reuters

In many parts of the largest cities, migrant workers live in rundown buildings that sit squarely inside a perimeter of giant office buildings — making clear the income discrepancies found all throughout China.

china demolition buildings
Tyron Siu/Reuters
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Some of these houses are temporary, like this house built for migrant workers near a construction site in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

china house
Migrant workers chat at their temporary house near a construction site in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
Joe Tan/Reuters

Despite these hurdles, the plan is making strides. China has managed to build enormous highway systems and erect mammoth buildings that, someday, will challenge industrialized nations in their domestic output.

china bridge highways
Jason Lee/Reuters
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The China of 1867, with its rolling rocks and hand-made huts, has been transformed. The country's urban regions are humming with growth. Uniform buildings sit shoulder to shoulder.

beijing skyline
Jason Lee/Reuters

But for all its growth, the towers and cranes only show a fraction of what's in store.

beijing apartment buildings
Jason Lee/Reuters
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China is just getting started.

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Kevin Frayer / Stringer
China
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