Bit bored and ended up Googling this…China has roughly 80 cities with a population of 1 million plus, loads most of us will never have even heard of. It’s not a scientifc comparison but the USA has roughly….9.
The mind boggles.

Well, you are the minority in this world no surprise there. 😆

True fact. If all the chinamen in the world were stood one on top of the other, the one at the bottom would be squashed flat.

Cougar – Moderator

True fact. If all the chinamen in the world were stood one on top of the other, the one at the bottom would be squashed flat.

Or as Chinamen/women once said … “if you can see chimney smoke you will see Chinamen/women …”

It’s quite big and quite full. No mistake.

And they’re all busy making buckets, red ones…

There are five cities of over 1m in Australia. It’s not that strange…

Why do you think the Russians are so worried . Russia lots of land and natural resources and only 130mn people and China 1200mn people and resource hungry. – the real question is now how many cities in the eastern part of Russia have more than a million Chinese living there

red, going to hell in buckets? 😆

I think Shanghai is now the most populated city in the world with even more people than Tokyo.
The question would be of all of the 80 cities, how many have terrible pollution?

To quote a friend who has to occasionally visit for work “they breed and live like rats” “it’s most western people’s idea of hell”.

The government have been actively developing these cities and each one is a centre of production of one type of product.

One city is specialised in consumer electronics, another in rubber products, another steel working etc. Seems a good idea – reduces material movements in manufacturing process and concentrates expertise in a certain field.

The government also pay huge bonuses to companies who export. It means that companies can export at a loss (like the cheapo lights on Ebay etc) as they get a lump sum bonus based on the amount they exported which then gives them a profit.

I fear the Chinese will have total domination of pretty much every industry soon.

My old boss used to go buying Xmas decorations in a town that produces practically nothing except Xmas decorations. 😯

It’s a good idea…until the market you’re in doesn’t do so well, and then all the pain is concentrated!

One city is specialised in consumer electronics, another in rubber products, another steel working etc. Seems a good idea – reduces material movements in manufacturing process and concentrates expertise in a certain field.

Until demand for that item disappears…, think about areas of the UK where industry vanished (overnight)? Welsh valleys, NW big towns etc

In the future that may happen but the Chinese government don’t care. They’d simply assign another industry to that city.

In the meantime it means that the Chinese can dominate and pretty much make everyone else uncompetitive.

In order to build some of these cities they’ve simply bulldozed entire towns and villages. Some have been re-homed, others who knows.

Look at Foxconn, single factories with tens of thousands of workers, making just about every major electronic device you’ve ever seen in Curry’s/PCWorld.

If they totally dominate eveyrthing, how are we going to get the money to buy their stuff?

If they totally dominate eveyrthing, how are we going to get the money to buy their stuff?

We’ll have to work for them.

China is proving that it’s better to achieve domination through monopoly of manufacture of consumer products, than by attempting to bomb those nations you wish to dominate into submission.

It’s quite big and quite full. No mistake.

Africa is so much bigger but a lot less densely populated. Probably all the disease, poverty etc.

Africa is a Continent not a country. Just in case you didn’t know.

How many London boroughs have a population of over 1m?

errm… none, Croydon is the biggest at 363,378

Plus watch for the million cities emerging in Africa and the growing consumerisation.

MSP thanks. I didn’t know. You truly have the intellect to join Mensa; or a pub quiz team. I can’t work out which.

“If they totally dominate eveyrthing, how are we going to get the money to buy their stuff?”

Thats an easy one

We just print more money and get them to buy up more of our debt.

It’s all a game… enjoy the ride.

Africa is so much bigger but a lot less densely populated.

The deserts don’t help.

I saw the future and married a Chinese girl whose family own factories. Having visited various parts of China I saw an incredible variety of places. The cities are densely populated with people caring little about each other – barging about ignoring each other. But there are huge amounts of unspoilt countryside too with subsistence farming, those people are so different than the Chinese we saw during their Olympics. In Shanghai they’ve (often forcibly) moved people from the poor, central areas to new accommodation on the outskirts and to help developed their cities.

This is a photo I took in a market showing how parts of central Shanghai used to look with Pudong in the background – I guess that market might not be there now

There are more English speakers in China than the USA.

My fact for the day 🙂

My fact for the day

Unrelated but a fact none the less. There are 80 million Irish passports in use today; only 8 million in Ireland. This may or may not be a true fact as a drunk Irish man told me but I like using this sot of none confirmed unfact.

alex222 – Member

My fact for the day

Unrelated but a fact none the less. There are 80 million Irish passports in use today; only 8 million in Ireland. This may or may not be a true fact as a drunk Irish man told me but I like using this sot of none confirmed unfact.

You might want to stop quoting that 😀

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_Irish_passports_exist_in_the_world

I like my unfacts so until someone challenges me on it face to face I will continue using it; just not on STW mind.

1. how many have terrible pollution?
2. “they breed and live like rats” “it’s most western people’s idea of hell”.
3. In order to build some of these cities they’ve simply bulldozed entire towns and villages
4. In Shanghai they’ve (often forcibly) moved people from the poor, central areas to new accommodation on the outskirts and to help developed their cities.

I’ve been working and travelling in China since the late 1980’s. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the average guy in the street in Mainland China is way better off now than he was when I first went there. Also that there is an unbelievable bias in reporting here.
If you were to have this conversation with most Chinese living in cities they would be in full agreement regarding pollution, but would at some point would start asking about the industrial revolution in the UK and how come it was OK for us to rape the worlds resources but not them.

…and of course theres never been any sort of compulsary purchase orders in the UK and never will be again…

Berm_Bandit, was in Beijing last October and could not believe how bad the pollution was, it even got to the stage of being able to see it at night. But like you mentioned I am sure that our early industrilised cities where just as bad and I seem to remember old pathe news reels of London suffering from really bad smog in the 50’s?
Here in HK the pollution is bad but it hasnt got to Beijing standard yet, hopefully it never will.

^^ the smog was caused by the number of coal fires in london, wasn’t it?

i used to have a chinese housemate, Hong. he came from a town called Chengdu.

“where?” we would ask. south-west china…. population 14 million in total.

from wiki:

The urban area houses 14,047,625 inhabitants: 7,123,697 within the municipality’s nine districts[2] and 6,730,749 in the surrounding region.

we’ve never heard of places like this yet we are all aware of Alice Springs (pop 25k) or Copenhagen (1m).

don’t know what my point is exactly. i was just somewhat blown away by the sheer number of people there.

Beijing last October and could not believe how bad the pollution was

You’re not kidding, although a lot has to do with the prevailing winds, and sometimes for pollution you can read sand/dust storm.

This is a photo I took in a market showing how parts of central Shanghai used to look with Pudong

Thats the Dongtai Road antiques market just off Xintiandi (Smart shopping area): Its there for tourists. In the pre boom era a good deal of this area was a rat infested crap hole. I well remember sitting in a busy up market restaurant near here, hearing a scuffling noise in the suspended ceiling and looking up only to see a rat the size of a cat running about in the ceiling void. No one else batted an eyelid. Its loads better now!

A good one for you is Tangshan, near Beijing 7.5 million souls and i nthe Guiness book of records but no one here has ever heard of it.

The government have been actively developing these cities and each one is a centre of production of one type of product.

One city is specialised in consumer electronics, another in rubber products, another steel working etc. Seems a good idea – reduces material movements in manufacturing process and concentrates expertise in a certain field.

The government also pay huge bonuses to companies who export. It means that companies can export at a loss (like the cheapo lights on Ebay etc) as they get a lump sum bonus based on the amount they exported which then gives them a profit.

I fear the Chinese will have total domination of pretty much every industry soon.

No problem, we just need to invent something to make that includes parts from two or three different Chinese Cities. That will mess with their heads. Rubber Coated, Springs anyone? 😉

“they breed and live like rats”

Really? What about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

zokes – Member

There are five cities of over 1m in Australia.

and not much else…

One of my customers is in Xi’an, when I went there last September the smog was incredible, you knew you were in a large city but could only ever see about half a km before everything disappeared in to the smog.

I asked my contact how often they get a blue sky and she replied it was a maximum 1 week every 6 months! They did have a ski resort 2 hrs drive away though and that had fresh air.

Really? What about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

Funnily enough my (Chinese) wife has a sister and a brother, her sister’s a twin so guess that’s OK(!) but the brother was sent to live with a relative for years to avoid and troubles.

Radio four cited that there are more English Speakers in China than in the USA :-/

On side note, I was daddy day care today and bought a book to sit in Carluccios and get some lunch whilst child was sleeping….”Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: The Amazing Adventure of Translation” seems quite an interesting read.