The Endless City

A new series on BBC 1 begins this week, entitled 'Andrew Marr's Mega Cities' in which the presenter will look at 5 of the worlds largest and most intense urban environments.  The series will explore Dhaka, London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Mexico City. With more people now living in Cities and predictions that if present trends continue 75% of the planet will be urbanised by the end of the century, this should be a really interesting program.


On a personal note I am fascinated by the Mega-City, especially at the speed at which many in the Eastern hemisphere are growing almost undetected by the West. In a previous article I explored Chongqing in China, a City of 31 Million people and one of the fastest growing places in the world.


The Pearl River Delta in China's Southern Guangdong province is another such Mega-City region, comprising a area about twice the size of Wales this is one of the most populated places on Earth, with 10 Cities with populations of over 1.5 million,  of which two Shenzhen and Guangzhou have populations of around 10 million. The total population of the region is estimated to be around 100 million .


The main areas of concern are undoubtably the pollution and landscape and ecosystem damage that such dense urban sprawl will produce, and the impact that this will have on the its residents.  The Pearl delta is one of the most polluted water systems on earth, according to a 2009 Green-peace report which attributes it on increased indultrialisation within the region and the pumping of toxic waste into the delta. While increasing car ownership and relaxation of the Hukou registration system which can limit movement within the region, especially for rural migrants, will all bring further pressure.


 On a footnote the drive for growth has brought some bizarre developments notably the New South China Mall, the worlds largest Shopping Mall with 2350 units of which 6 years since it fully opened only 47 are occupied, a result perhaps of a misunderstanding of Chinese demographics on the developers behalf, its location in a peripheral area of Dongguan alongside a toll road, a highly industrialized and one of the least wealthy cities within the region.

The South China Mall: Build it and they will come.. maybe not (google)

Whether the South China Mall will prosper over time remains to be seen, but it certainly could be argued it was simply ahead of its time, increased economic development and movement within the region will certainly not harm its chances, especially as the region looks towards encouraging less polluting and better paid high-tech industries.

Chongqing: The New Chinese Super-City

Question;

Which city in China, could be described as the worlds largest municipality by population (over 32 million) and area (over 31,000,0 sq mi) as well as the worlds fastest growing city?

Shanghai, Beijing? 

The answer Chongqing, a city which more than any other represents the efforts of China to try and open up its once rural centre.

There are two main reasons why the last 10 years have resulted in the creation of the worlds newest and least well known super-city.

The first is the cities location on the Yangtze River, one of the worlds greatest and one that has seen major changes with the creation of the 3 gorges dam. The dam is another Chinese super project and is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. 


The 3 gorges dam as well as providing the city with the power it needs has also opened up the Yangtze  to larger ships, making Chongqing much more more accessible to Shanghai and the rich east coast. Huge swathes of land were flooded as a result of the construction of  its construction, including the 3 gorges themselves and a number of settlements resulting in  the forced re-housing of around 60 million people;  Chongqing has played a major role in this re-accommodation process. 

The second reason for the cities staggering growth, happened in 1997 when the Chinese government handed the city direct control over the surrounding area, and making the area one of only 4 municipalities in the country, the other 3 are Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin. 

The big question of course is one of sustainability, Chongqing already has massive air pollution problems, a massive amount of new rail lines have being completed but in a nation where car ownership is growing like no other, huge questions remain as to the negative environmental effects that such growth in a previously remote area can have. 


Despite  this a sense of perspective is also called for, China it could be argued is experiencing its industrial revolution and the first stages of urbanisation, much like the UK and United States did in the victorian era; a time which saw the formation of our own metropolitan regions. What we are seeing isn't pretty, but perhaps a new super city is better than unplanned expansion of the existing already crowded urban areas, such as is happening in many developing nations.

I suggest going on google earth and using the time slider bar to see for yourself the creation of the worlds largest and newest super-city, below is a taster of some before and after shots of the same area within a short period of time, while this article is also quite interesting http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/15/china.china

2002 >2009: A Rural landscape to an Urban one  (Google earth)

2002 > 2009: Traditional low rise housing to commercial centre (Google earth)

2005 >2009: Construction Site to Le-Corbusier's Dream (Google earth)