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China’s $3.5 billion plan to flatten 700 mountains

By Sarah Korones | December 16, 2012, 3:14 PM PST

Developers in China will literally move mountains to ensure the construction of their next big project.

The China Pacific Construction Group plans to spend $3.5 billion to flatten 700 mountains, making room for a brand new city, the Guardian reports. The firm, which is one of the biggest in the country, will blow up a mountainous area spanning 500 square miles in order to construct the metropolis in the country’s northwestern Gansu province.

Called the Lanzhou New Area, the planned metropolis will sit 50 miles from the province’s capital city, Lanzhou. Filled with high-rises, parks and even beaches, the future urban center will take up approximately 10 square miles of land and will cost the developers another $11 billion to construct.

Although the project has been approved by China’s state council and will reportedly bump up the region’s gross domestic product to $43 billion by 2030, there are considerable concerns surrounding the Lanzhou New Area’s construction.

The city of Lanzhou already has the worst pollution in China, according to the World Health Organization, and water scarcity could become even more of an issue in the extremely arid region.

Nevertheless, executives from the China Pacific Construction Group remain unconcerned.

“Lanzhou’s environment is already really poor, it’s all desolate mountains which are extremely short of water,” a spokeswoman told the Guardian. “Our protective style of development will divert water to the area, achieve reforestation and make things better than before.”

Image: Sigismund von Dobschutz/Wikimedia Commons

[via The Guardian, TIME]

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About Sarah Korones

Sarah Korones was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2012 to 2013.

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WTF?

This does not seem like a good idea to me. Appears to be environmentally disastrous.

Posted by wutdafuhk

17th Dec

Just
In

Local climate issue.

So true.

Yet someone will blame the change in the weather on global warming.

Just as the panic crowd have blamed the shrinking glacier on Mount Kilimanjaro on global warming in spite of decades of deforestation that has led to a mirroring drop in regional rain/snow fall.

Posted by Hates Idiots

24th Dec

Show:

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+5 Votes

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WTF?

This does not seem like a good idea to me. Appears to be environmentally disastrous.

Posted by wutdafuhk

17th Dec

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Reminds me of what Tom Friedman said.

"...but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment."

Posted by JohnMcGrew@...

17th Dec

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Friedman meant to say: "dictate the right solutions",

and just used the word "authorize" so that it wouldn't sound so intrusive/negative/irrational/evil/dumb/idiotic/undemocratic/foolish/wasteful/unworkable/unjustified/forced.

Governments abuse the power of "authorization" when the public has no say in the decisions.

Posted by adornoe

17th Dec

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China Moving Mountains

Haven't we dealt with them enough to know the mind set there. " Wow, they look like they're coming around to our way of thinking", despite being a brutal totalitarian regime. We've got the same idiots here too. "Chance top make a buck, hell yeah, do it." Why aren't there any far reaching thinkers with money?

Posted by Jackoff johnson

17th Dec

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waste of money

Chinia has so much of our money they can waste it on such projects. Why don't they feed the worlds hungry.

Posted by jpwalkerjr

17th Dec

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doncha just love the sunny analyses by corporations?

It's what's made America great; since they know what's best for everyone.

Posted by affordablecomputerguy@...

17th Dec

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Worse than that, are the sunny analyses of government,

which wastes more money on projects than most corporations combined.

BTW, corporations are closest to the consumers, and the consumers are the decision-makers for an economy, and the corporations are only creating what the consumers wish to spend their money on. Government doesn't understand the consumer, and uses dictates and edicts to force things on people.

Posted by adornoe

17th Dec

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Can you prove that?

... which wastes more money on projects than most corporations combined.

And you know this how? The big difference between government and corporations is that governments have to openly admit their errors, corporations can sweep them under the rug most of the time. I've worked in a corporate environment for over 25 years and I can't say that I see less waste here than in government at different levels.

Posted by riverat1

18th Dec

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You obvioulsy live on a different planet,

where government can never do anything wrong, and businesses never get anything right.

Government spend more than 2 times the amount of money as it takes in. That leaves an annual deficit of more than a trillion dollars every year. The federal government has a national debt quickly approaching 17 trillion dollars, and will be way more than 20 trillion in about 3 years.

No business could ever get away with that kind of operation. Heck, they would have been out of business as soon as the first multi-billion debt was encountered. Government doesn't go out of business because, they are printing money, which is obscene and unsustainable. No business can print its own money, otherwise, if they could, they wouldn't have to produce anything. Government does NOT produce anything, except debt and economic disasters, and an economic disaster is where we're headed. Can't blame businesses for that coming disaster, and the blame for it rests solely on the government's wasteful spending.

The current government will never operate openly, and it will continue to hide the real problems and disasters that it's creating. Most people don't understand what a national debt means, and they don't understand that, an annual budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars is a disaster. Government counts on the ignorance of the majority in order to continue its wasteful ways. No business can be wasteful, because, they still have to answer to their owners, the investors/stockholders. Companies that are wasteful end up in bankruptcy and in liquidation. The federal government is, right now, bankrupt, but, nobody is doing anything about it. The federal government cannot liquidate in order to try to recover anything for "investors" or for the public.

Furthermore, no business can get away with spending what it doesn't have, and at best, it can only spend what it has budgeted for in a year. The current government has not had a budget plan for the last 4 years, and chances are that, they won't produce budget plans for the next 4 years. No corporation has ever done that, and they cannot be that wasteful and reckless.

When government gets out of control, like it is now, there is no way to recover from it, no matter what they try to come up with when it comes to budgets or "fiscal cliff" negotiations. When a business gets out of control, they are shut down. When the government gets out of control, they lie to the people and continue being in denial about the fiscal situation, and continue spending like crazy and taxing like the people won't mind forever.

Now, go back to common sense school and forget about talking about government vs business practices, because, you're as qualified as a newborn baby for that.

Posted by adornoe

20th Dec

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Dig a hole, fill it up

This just shows you the desperation of an economy that has to generate growth at all costs. It's the economic equivalent of "digging a hole and then filling it up" just to keep people employed.

China has a growing problem with "ghost cities" -- major developments designed to house tens of thousands or more that stand almost completely empty (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19049254 ). Because of its "one child per family" policy, China's population will peak in the next few years and then begin a very steep decline. Much of the economic activity of the past decade will be for nothing.

Posted by zackers

17th Dec

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Weather

That is really going to change the weather pattern for a big chunk of China. Mountains block and/or redirect winds and hold back cold or heat. Moving that much real estate is like dynamiting a big dam.

Posted by Tinman57

17th Dec

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Local climate issue.

Posted by Hates Idiots

24th Dec

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Where have all the mountains gone....

Actually folks, look at a map of China and you'll notice that they wouldn't generally miss a few mountains. We are lucky in the States to have lots of flat, easily usable land. I don't know why they want to build it there or even why pollution is so bad there, but maybe there is a compelling reason. The Chinese have shown themselves to be quite creative. They may show the world new urban solutions including water conservation.
I do offer a warning. Is this an earthquake zone? Building on chopped off mountains is OK, but building on fill can be disastrous in an earthquake region.

Posted by a1swdeveloper

17th Dec

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Mis-information by Guardian

Guardian article confused Lanzhou New Area and "700 mountain" project. They are totally different projects in different locations. The author of this article should visit the place he or she is describing because the project shown in Guardian video link is totally different from the "700 mountain" project. The project in the video link is called Lanzhou New Area, which is a China's national level zone (similar to Shanghai's Pudong) and is located about 50 kilometers from current Lanzhou City and traditionally called "Qing Prince Valley" (or QingWangChuan" in Chinese). The "Qing Prince Vally" is totally flat with ~500 square miles of land space for development. The Lanzhou airport is already in the new area and the transportation is very advanced (remember that Lanzhou is a key transportation hub in China). For "700 mountain" project, it's in a totally different location and the area is on the northside of yellow river banks of the current Lanzhou City. The project is intended to flatten some low lying hills (not big mountains) to make the area suitable for current Lanzhou City's expansion. It should be said here is that Lanzhou area's hills are all made only by dirt with no rocks. Environmental damages from this project may be very limited as flattened area has very little plantation in the first place and it actually will be much easier to introduce water to a flat area for vegetation growth. Considering that Lanzhou City has built very extensive watering systems for tree planting on the mountains, it will be a very easy extension from current water system to the new area.

Posted by thecupgr

18th Dec

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Lanzhou & Gansu's Nobel-Worthy Torres Fields & Sand Fixation

If someone has to give the benefits of the doubt for fighting environmental degradation and protection, it's people in Lanzhou and Gansu Province. The scale of sand fixation and barren landscape soil preservation in Gansu as well as in western China is unimaginable in western society or at least not aware of. The Lanzhou's current "700 mountains" project is really nothing compared to what local people have done for building layered torres fields in barren mountains or hills for stopping soil loss and growing crops. If following torres pictures will not change one's perspective, nothing else will:

http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&st=-1&fm=result&fr=&sf=1&fmq=1355437696131_R&pv=&ic=0&nc=1&z=&se=1&showtab=0&fb=0&width=&height=&face=0&istype=2&ie=utf-8&word=%E7%94%98%E8%82%83%E6%A2%AF%E7%94%B0

The flattening of barren hill tops in layered fashion has led to complete stoppage of soil loss and dramatically improved water retention by combining with polymer films. This practice/innovation has done so much for poverty reduction and also made Gansu the potato and corn production bases for China. Other parts of China (actually other countries too) is now following.

Posted by thecupgr

18th Dec

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What a lack of imagination!

Flat cities are so sad...
Couldn't they use that monstrous amount of money to improve the looks of those 700 mountains by bringing water to the site, planting trees, shrubs, flowers, lawn (that will attract birds and animals to the place) and then develop whatever city they want to develop, but within a gorgeous natural space!

Posted by David Traversa

20th Dec

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Not really

They never say that these 700 mountains or hills have to be all connected before flatening. The plan is just exactly what you described to build the place like the integration of "mountains, water, and towns". The Guandian journalist is terrible for not providing readers of even correct project location information.

Posted by thecupgr

21st Dec

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Misinformation by Guardian Follow Up

Guardian was so wrong to spread mis-information on Lanzhou New Area and "700 mountain project". Following are links for readers to see why:

"700 mountain" project real work location and how is being carried out (most recent pictures, its hard to build anything on top of these almost vegetation-free hills/ mountains or close to them because of constant landslide threats):

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2040727015

The Lanzhou New Area shown in Guardian video ink is totally different from 700 mountain project. See pictures of the Lanzhou New Area construction site and see how flat it is:

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1735187901
http://baike.baidu.com/albums/4575521/4575521/0/0.html#1602926$

Lanzhou City is one of the most beautiful cities in China and its skyline is more like any major US city:

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1924497673?pn=1 (aerial views of Lanzhou City)

Lanzhou was heavily bombed by Japanese during WWII, and its first iron bridge on the yellow river was built with the help of US and German engineers. See Lanzhou 100 years ago and compare it:

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1400738446

Posted by thecupgr

21st Dec

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