THE $85 billion “model” city trumpeted by China as a pioneering solution to overcrowding has fallen flat as a “boring” and deserted “ghost town”.
Xiong’an – a “Covid-proof” smart development – was touted as a “model city in the history of human development”.
The development is certainly there – it’s just the human aspect missing.
Most of the people who do live there have been dragged over by their employers – themselves ordered to relocate to Xiong’an by the government.
Schools, hospitals and universities are also being ordered in to populate the empty urban landscape.
One female resident rolling around the empty streets, Max Wang, summed the place up in one word to The Times: “Boring”.
After being sent to the city by her employer, she told the paper: “There isn’t much social life.
“Young people all work overtime, and there aren’t many opportunities for leisure or socialising.
“As for finding a boyfriend, you’ll just have to make do with hoping your friends provide.”
The shiny new mega-city was the pet project of Chinese president Xi Jingping.
He ordered it to pristine specs: lightning-fast fibro optic connections; facial recognition systems; accommodation for self-driving cars.
But resulting “oversized Milton Keynes” is testament to the fact that a city is more than bricks, mortar and glass.
The government is trying all sorts of methods to drag up the population.
For example, no one is allowed to buy a property and not live in it.
The walls are plastered with motivational slogans which brand the city “a thousand-year plan of national significance”.
And they are trying to lure businesses over with rent subsidies.
A small business owner, Zhang Cheng, told The Times that the offer was tempting but he had to consider the quality of life of his employees.
He said: “Will they want to work here?”
“Many of them enjoy social activities — dating, eating out and so on.
“Investors and partners also expect to meet over dinner, drinks or karaoke.
Xiong’an doesn’t offer any of that at the moment.
“Even with the hiring subsidies, if I asked my staff to relocate here, even at their current salaries, many probably wouldn’t agree.”
The new development was supposed to deal with China’s acute overcrowding problem, and in particular act as an overflow for the sprawling capital Beijing, which sits 70 miles to the north.
Xi was also hoping it would bear out his theory that a “third way” of living, somewhere between outdated communist models and the rampant capitalism of the west, could be carved out with scientific and technological innovation.
Residents there are evidently unconvinced.
Now, Xi is scrabbling to convince the raft of investors that the city was a worthwhile project and will not be left behind as a “white elephant in a flood plain”, as some have described it.
The authorities announced a new painstaking city management system involving four district committees and 21 municipal departments overseen by 25 government agencies, at a Xiong’an summit at the end of last year.
The dreary statement said: “A city management system that matches high-quality construction, high-level management, and high-quality relocation and development has been essentially established.”
If that doesn’t excite the youngsters, what will?
The city currently has a population of 1.2 million, according to state media, but is being built to house 5 million.
Even then, the population figure is thought to rope in all the existing residents of the three counties it is merging.
In order to bolster the numbers, Xi is expecting major government departments to move to the city when it is complete in 2035.
Some state enterprises, including the China Satellite Network Corporation and the China National Chemical Corporation have moved their headquarters, or are in the process of doing so.
Nine universities have also been ordered to put up shop in the vacant city including Beijing’s University of Science and Technology, the China University of Geosciences, and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
