The "B side" of China

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Move more than 100 million people from east to west, from the coast to the hinterland, in less than a decade. This is the Chinese plan for urbanization in the country, which serves a profound change: that of an overseas economy that now wants to fuel the growing domestic market. The phenomenon is creating deep changes in the country.

One of them is the ghost towns that have filled headlines in much of the international press and which serve to illustrate the failed megalomania of the Beijing project. Images of replicas of cities, such as New York and Paris, completely empty have been widely documented as a symbol of dystopia.

Led by President Xi Jinping, who visited Portugal, the Chinese government says it is ridiculous to think that an idea of this dimension takes place in less than six years and claims that this gigantic process is still halfway through.

The Chinese urban development model was not based on demand but on the future projection of the needs that the exodus from the countryside to the city will create. There are impressive numbers that demonstrate this Chinese obsession. One of them? Between 2011 and 2013, the country spent more cement than the US throughout the twentieth century.

However, the reverse of the medal of all this euphoria is that several studies have pointed out that more than 20% of apartments across China are empty. One such study is signed by Gan Li, a professor at the Chengdu University of Finance and Economics, who accounts for more than 50 million uninhabited homes.

Most unoccupied homes were purchased by homeowners who make a new investment. They are real estate investors or just speculators waiting to make lots of money.