Scale: Part 1 - The Cities of China

No research, visual or statistical, prepares even an architect for the scale of China’s cities. Compared to the United States, China has nearly the same land mass (3.7 million square miles to 3.6), with similar latitudes. The great difference – and ultimately a key difference – is that 40 percent of the United States is cultivatable land compared to only 10 percent of China. Population statistics are also quite incomparable. As of the end of 2012, China had over 19 percent of the world’s population at 1.354 billion people; today, the US has less than a quarter of that at 4.46 percent at almost 316 million. The people of China are concentrated along the east coast and three major interior rivers, and seven cities have populations that exceed the largest city in the United States. Looking at the panoramic view from a hotel room in the center of any of these cities shows a surrounding skyline that is vast, continuous and overwhelming.

China’s economic policies of the past two decades have led to mass migration from rural villages to urban centers. Relocation programs, either due to building the Three Gorges Dam requiring the relocation of 1.3 million people or for personal advancement, has prompted massive construction projects. The national government has invested heavily in urban infrastructure with elevated highways and mass-transit systems to move people from the fringe housing developments to business and manufacturing centers. Unfortunately, the “magic mile” of walkable communities is interpreted as a crowded subway commute of a “magic hour.”

Developers have converted historic city courtyard housing and aging five-story apartment buildings constructed by the Soviets in the mid-twentieth century to 20 to 30 story concrete apartment buildings. Taking a single design, 10 or 20 buildings are erected simultaneously in clusters reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s Radiant City concept. Of course, he never imagined that the occupants would dry their laundry on the balconies and stick HVAC units on the wall outside their bedrooms. The flats are unfurnished and include no doors, finishes, cabinets, appliances or fixtures leaving that expense to the new occupants. Typically, even new developments look like vertical public housing slums. Scandals over bribery and the corruption of construction inspectors provide little confidence that structural designs for seismic activity were followed.  

Socialist policies mean that housing, education, medical and retirement needs are subsidized. Documented workers are entitled to these services; undocumented people, if unneeded for menial labor, are involuntarily shipped back to their villages. Car license plates are rationed, electricity is expensive, and the Chinese spend four times their annual per capita on food when compared to the United States. Advancing through the educational system depends on passing rigorous exams to enter middle, high school and the university. The country’s hope for an expanding middle class is based on graduating 6 million students annually of which 1 million enter the Communist Party and work as civil servants running the government. These exams test students on three critical areas of study: Chinese, mathematics and English. The taxicab drivers may be illiterate, but the professionals speak English.