# SimFox' China



## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

I'll be posting here some of my own shots of various locations in China.
Hope you'll enjoy them. If you have any questions/comments go ahead!

I'll start with Tianjin which is my sort of base in a country.


«Tianjin | Tianjin Centre (Raffles Tianjin)» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Nanjing Lu, Emperor Place & 5th Ave Apartments» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Nanjing Lu, Stock Exchange Plaza & Mall» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Tianjin*


«Tianjing | Little Mosque in a Big City» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Church View» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Old-ish & New» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## kingsway (Dec 15, 2009)

wow nice city.
more photos?


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

So far amazing photos; please post more


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Tianjin*


«Tianjin | 1902 street» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Nanjing Lu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Concert Hall» на Яндекс.Фотках

________________________________
replies:
*Kingsway:*
plenty

*Christos-greece:*
I, most definitely will!


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*ChongQing*

may be it's time to jump... You know, to keep things interesting.

Chongqing is a biggest municipality on Earth, both in territory and population rivaling most European nations. And it is one of the most incredible cities of this world.


«chongqing | come all ye faithful» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Chongqing | Jialing River» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Chongqing | Jialing River side of Yuzhong» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Chongqing | Jialing River» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## FQL (Dec 29, 2010)

I'm surprised of how much has been changed in Chinese cities.


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## fragel (Jun 16, 2010)

nice! this one is surely added to my subscription.


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## NCT (Aug 14, 2009)

Tianjin and Chongqing are two cities in China I'd quite like to visit. Both are very vibrant cities with unique geographies.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Very interesting photos, albeit very few. I'll be following this thread to see more.

Can we expect Shenzhen and Guangzhou in this thread?


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## dimitrizacarii (Dec 27, 2010)

Man, China is really AWESOME!!!!!


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*ChongQing*

Few more shots of the Foggy City. This time a stress on it's fab monorail service:


«Zipping along the Jialing River | Chongqing monorail» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing monorail | train approaching station» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Nail House Neighborhood» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Nail House Neighborhood» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing monorail | train pulling up to elevated station» на Яндекс.Фотках



NCT said:


> Tianjin and Chongqing are two cities in China I'd quite like to visit. Both are very vibrant cities with unique geographies.


Yep both are just about as vibrant as it gets growing at 16-16,5% per year(Tianjin) and 14% (Chongqing). But as far as georraphy (like in lanscape) goes these are in very unequal position. Chongqing has fantasitc one - great rivers high and steep hills and even mountains right in teh middle of the city. Plus these foogs and even rains make it look and feel very special, although wrecking total havoc with traffic in Yuzhou - ChongQing downtown located on a hilly peninsulla formed by cofluence of Yngtze and Jialing rivers.

Tianjing (the urban area proper), on the other hand, is located on a totally table flat and dull plane. It is near the sea, but traditionally Chinese shy away from it. It was historically seen only as a source of troubles in a form or Japanese and other pirates. To avoid all that mess, but still be able to transport vast quantities of goods, which before the invention of railroads was possible only by water, Chinese had built incredible chain of canals. World longest known as The Grand Canal stretching 1706 km from HangZhou in Yangtze delta all the way to Beijing in the north (and passing through Tianjin) is 1400 years old! And it is still busy!









source

Here is couple shot of the this marvel of engineering near it's source in Hangzhou:


«Hangzhou | The Grand Canal» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | The Grand Canal» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | The Grand Canal» на Яндекс.Фотках



Pansori said:


> Very interesting photos, albeit very few. I'll be following this thread to see more.
> 
> Can we expect Shenzhen and Guangzhou in this thread?


Well at some point, but not very soon. First of all my pictures of Guangzhou and much of Shenzhen had died in HDD crash in my MacBook Pro... I'll be visiting cities again though... Just can't say right now exactly when


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## fragel (Jun 16, 2010)

SimFox said:


> But as far as georraphy (like in lanscape) goes these are in very unequal position. Chongqing has fantasitc one - great rivers high and steep hills and even mountains right in teh middle of the city. Plus these foogs and even rains make it look and feel very special, although wrecking total havoc with traffic in Yuzhou - ChongQing downtown located on a hilly peninsulla formed by cofluence of Yngtze and Jialing rivers.


Chongqing indeed has some great combination of geographical features that can make its skyline (as well as the whole downtown area) very special. The problem is that a large proportion of its high-rises are residential and they tend to lack proper maintenance (at least for the exterior). It surely has a large space for improvement(literally this is valid too lol).

very nice pics of the monorail. Chongqing metro is to open soon, so public transport is going to be more convenient. it has so many interesting transportation modes to cope with the mountainous area and the rivers, such as the funicular, the cable car and the elevator that charges ￥1 per head.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

SimFox said:


> Well at some point, but not very soon. First of all my pictures of Guangzhou and much of Shenzhen had died in HDD crash in my MacBook Pro... I'll be visiting cities again though... Just can't say right now exactly when


Oh well, thanks anyway. I am about to visit SZ and GZ in about two months time and thought I would be good to see some photo references of what I'm about to see. But this thread is extremely interesting even without these cities nonetheless. kay:


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*ChongQing*



fragel said:


> Chongqing indeed has some great combination of geographical features that can make its skyline (as well as the whole downtown area) very special. The problem is that a large proportion of its high-rises are residential and they tend to lack proper maintenance (at least for the exterior). It surely has a large space for improvement(literally this is valid too lol).
> 
> very nice pics of the monorail. Chongqing metro is to open soon, so public transport is going to be more convenient. it has so many interesting transportation modes to cope with the mountainous area and the rivers, such as the funicular, the cable car and the elevator that charges ￥1 per head.


1RMB? Are you local/have CQ hukou?
I've been on one cable car in CQ - the one over the Yangtze going from Yuzhou to New Opera. but the fair is 5 rmb for non-locals. and even for locals if I remember correctly it was 3 rmb. They gonna take down that particular cable car, though. Here is a shot of it approaching bank opposite of Yuzhou:


«ChongQing | Cable Car over Jialing River» на Яндекс.Фотках

As for the "lacking maintenance residentials" I guess you mean something like these:


«ChongQing | Yuzhong, Yangtze side» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Yuzhong, Yangtze side» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Yuzhong, Yangtze side» на Яндекс.Фотках

Actually this is location of the Cable car over Ynagtse...

I think this is quite localized Yuzhong problem. I haven't seen so many so big buildings in such state outside of that area.

PS Sorry I've messed Yangtze and Jialing... mistake's corrected.


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## Frieden (Aug 15, 2008)

Keep on posting pictures, they are really great and fascinating. I visited Tianjin last October for just one day. But the mixture of classical European and modern Chinese architecture made it one of my best times (for taking nice pictures). I liked the atmosphere and locals were friendly and not in a big rush like in Beijing or Shanghai.
I was really impressed by new historical look alikes in Tianjin. In my home town Berlin there are several discussions to rebuilt in historical designs, but what I saw in Tianjin - incredible. 

I wanna visit China this year again. And CQ is on my list. How many day should someone spend to get a first impression of this city? And do you think August - September is a good time to visit CQ?

more pictures pls :cheers:


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## fragel (Jun 16, 2010)

SimFox said:


> 1RMB?


I was referring to the long escalator located at Kaixuan Rd, which charges 1 RMB per person now. It belongs to the public transportation system. it must be one of the few escalators in the world that ain't free to use.

source











> Are you local/have CQ hukou?
> I've been on one cable car in CQ - the one over the Yangtze going from Yuzhou to New Opera. but the fair is 5 rmb for non-locals. and even for locals if I remember correctly it was 3 rmb. They gonna take down that particular cable car, though.


quite interesting they charge different fares for cable cars, and it seems to be an unwise alternative to a public transportation card. But they do have a PTC that can give you discount, so it might be better to charge 1.8 RMB if you use a PTC and 5RMB if you pay cash--and I think this is what they are doing for cable cars over Jialing River.



> As for the "lacking maintenance residentials" I guess you mean something like these:


and these residential buildings make that area look very dated. This is a general problem for many Chinese cities though. Good thing is that buildings built in the last few years have already been improved a lot compared to those in the late 90's and early 00's.


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Tianjin, mostly*



Frieden said:


> ...my home town Berlin


Love that city! 



Frieden said:


> I wanna visit China this year again. And CQ is on my list. How many day should someone spend to get a first impression of this city? And do you think August - September is a good time to visit CQ?


Depends on How heat resistant you are... I personally wouldn't really venture there then. CQ is know as one of "tree furnaces of China". The heat combined with high humidity is too muc even for most chinese, even locals. A friend of mine, (Tianjinian himself) who's wife is from CQ Told me that when he went there last august streets were empty people try to avoid leaving house, particularly during day when temperature soars to +37C. So people sit ho,me with ACs on and blinds down.


Frieden said:


> more pictures pls :cheers:


Sure!




fragel said:


> I was referring to the long escalator located at Kaixuan Rd, which charges 1 RMB per person now. It belongs to the public transportation system. it must be one of the few escalators in the world that ain't free to use.
> 
> source


Pity I've missed it...



fragel said:


> quite interesting they charge different fares for cable cars, and it seems to be an unwise alternative to a public transportation card. But they do have a PTC that can give you discount, so it might be better to charge 1.8 RMB if you use a PTC and 5RMB if you pay cash--and I think this is what they are doing for cable cars over Jialing River.


well, this particular one is about to be closed for good. So, may be they've decided not to bother with it anymore.




fragel said:


> and these residential buildings make that area look very dated. This is a general problem for many Chinese cities though. Good thing is that buildings built in the last few years have already been improved a lot compared to those in the late 90's and early 00's.


this is, actually, very interesting topic! I would be very grateful for your insight. My interest was initially sparked when I first time came to Hong Kong. I was, to be honest, shocked by the state of huge areas of the city. Shocked comparing them (particularly, but not only, Kowloon) to what I've already knew in big cities on the east coast of mainland - Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou... I got an impression that state of both infrastructure and simply facades in Mainland was much better than that in Hong Kong. Sure, there are some run down building, but not to that degree, not in these numbers. And that include urban villages in Guangzhou which I was wondering through just before arriving to Hong Kong. It also appeared to be much dirtier too. It felt like in HK people often would build a building and forget about it. 
For instance in Tianjin, which admittedly looked rather horrid some 7 years ago, massive program of renovation and restoration had been going on for last couple of years. Today practically all facades facing streets had been fixed or upgraded. 


«Tianjin | Nankai» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Nankai» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Nankai» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | Nankai» на Яндекс.Фотках

even condemned buildings, like one here on the right:


«Tianjin | Nankai» на Яндекс.Фотках

Tianjin was also one of the first to start mass AC "decoration/hiding" program. And today almost all AC on the street facing facades had been "dealt" with. Dealt, to varying degree of success, though... Some very good:


«Tianjin | AC deco» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | AC deco» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Tianjin | AC deco» на Яндекс.Фотках

some "miss the point" a bit:


«Tianjin | AC deco» на Яндекс.Фотках

other missing it altogether:


«Tianjin | AC deco» на Яндекс.Фотках

but the drive was sweeping! Vast majority of buildings facing city streets affected! Of course some people will find a way to screw things up no matter what you do, like on this buildings in Hangzhou, including government office (family planning unit):


«Hangzhou | AC deco» на Яндекс.Фотках

I mean how difficult is to hang AC behind he decorative grill? In China sometimes I get completely stunt by the way some things done. There appear to be no logic at all! Notice also how the grills on the office just happens to be on the opposite side of the holes for the AC cables!


But still. There is clear concern about how city looks. Yet mere 7 years ago it didn't seem to bother people. 

And that on top of the fact that most of it's 30 or so old buildings are brick, rather than concrete ones. So they don't crumble that bad, that fast...

Same could be said about other major city. At least those I'm familiar with... Am I biased? Or miss something?

The only place that did remind me of HK was CQ. And even here it is different. Most places in the similar state of disrepair like you would see in Hong Kong are those that are either already abandoned, or in the process of being so. And that is a noticeable "problem in the very tip of Yuzhong. There are numerous 20-30 stories hight building (often office one) that tare abounded. with broken windows etc. And that had been in this state at least for 2 years now. Like this one, I see from the window of my hotel:


«Chonqing | Yuzhong» на Яндекс.Фотках

the building right at the left edge of the shot - it's empty and had been so two years ago! Some windows are broken and so on... And there are few buildings like that in that neighborhood.
Although, call me crazy, I sort of think this , in a bizarre way adds to the "charm" the the city... In many places Shanghai, Beijing become so manicured, that the start to look too sterile. More like labs rather then living breathing cities.


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

hangzhou is really classic!!!!


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## karlvan (Jan 31, 2011)

wow.... mega cities.
it's astonishingly incredible that china has grown this fast.


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*ChongQing*

Some more of the cities river views:


«Chongqing | Yangtze» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Chongqing | Yangtze» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Chongqing | Jialing river» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*ChongQing*


«ChongQing | Yuzhong skyline from the Science and Technology museum park in JaingBei» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | JiangBei» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Yuzhong» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hangzhou*

OK, let's for the next few posts go somewhere else, to provide a little contrast to foggy Chongqing let's jump to sunny Hangzhou all the way back in the east.


«Hangzhou | Tower» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Exhibition_new» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Chanel @ Wulin» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Wulin Square» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hangzhou*


«Hangzhou | Canal side» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Wulin» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Being decent on a bus» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Morning Run» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

i want to see more hangzhou pics,thanks.


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hagzhou*

and here they come. These photos are a bit older - from later autumn early winter of 2008


«Hangzhou | along Qiantang River (Liuhe Ta)» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | gold» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | drive» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | calm» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

i really love your pics, what camera do you use? hangzhou is truely amazing.


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

I'm a "nikonian" so Nikon SLRs D70 / D200 / D300 the trick is to shot always in RAW (NEF, preferably lossless and as high bit as possible).

Some more of Hangzhou:


«Hangzhou | behind the screen» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | hz life» на Яндекс.Фотках

and slightly different settings...


«Hangzhou | big brother» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | in the shadow of...» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | flying XiHu fish» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates SimFox


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## fragel (Jun 16, 2010)

SimFox said:


> well, this particular one is about to be closed for good. So, may be they've decided not to bother with it anymore.


yesterday was its last operational day. about 120 thousand people went to take the last cable car just for memorial purpose, and they had to extend the closing time. I don't understand why the city planners decided to abandon such a fun way of transportation. Maybe it is because the traffic volume declined to 1000 passengers a day due to several recently built bridges, but it could be turned into a tourist site. The popular Chinese movie"Crazy stone" started with the cable car. Anyway, I hope they won't touch the Yangtze River cable car.



And the Hangzhou pics are nice too. just one West Lake is enough to make it my favorite city in China. Good thing that they put the skyscrapers a little far away from the lake.


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*ChongQing*



fragel said:


> yesterday was its last operational day. about 120 thousand people went to take the last cable car just for memorial purpose, and they had to extend the closing time. I don't understand why the city planners decided to abandon such a fun way of transportation. Maybe it is because the traffic volume declined to 1000 passengers a day due to several recently built bridges, but it could be turned into a tourist site. The popular Chinese movie"Crazy stone" started with the cable car. Anyway, I hope they won't touch the Yangtze River cable car.


I know I saw the news...
But reality is that tall those people turned up only because they're closing it. When I was there last October there hasn't really been anyone. we had to wait for about 30 min till a group of pensioners from Guangzhou had showed up so the operators actually started the darn thing... So apart from occasional tourists nobody had been taking the ride. It was too expensive and to nowhere... Cause here is what on the other side of Yuzhong in JiangBei:


«ChongQing | Yuzhong cablecar station in JiangBei» на Яндекс.Фотках 

it's literally nothing but great new Grand Opera theater:


«ChongQing | Yuzhong - JiangBei cable car» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Grand Opera in JiangBei» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Opera» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Yuzhong & Opera» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Grand Opera Theater in JiangBei» на Яндекс.Фотках

and Chongqing Science and technology museum:


«ChongQing | Science and Technology Museum in JinagBei» на Яндекс.Фотках


«ChongQing | Science and Technology museum park» на Яндекс.Фотках

Besides, they are building metro/monorail bridge bridge right next to it...



fragel said:


> And the Hangzhou pics are nice too. just one West Lake is enough to make it my favorite city in China. Good thing that they put the skyscrapers a little far away from the lake.


Yeah, XiHu - Western Lake - is great, but Hangzhou is so much more. It has this incredible style and sense of refinement to it that is very difficult to put in words - splendor and decadence of Song?


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hangzhou*


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hangzhou*

Not a Xihu facade of Hangzhou. Also these are from 2007, so some of it may already be gone. New developments had been already pushing into some of these areas then...


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Splash of Color» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hangzhou*

and, naturally when I says Hangzhou one almost always means Xihu - Western Lake focal point of city's self awareness it's cultural as well as a geographical feature.


«Hangzhou | XiHu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Xihu picnic» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Xihu» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | republican defenders of Hangzhou » на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | Xihu shore» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu shore» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

*Hangzhou*


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu rockabilly chicks» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou |» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | XiHu shore promenade» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Hangzhou | winter afternoon» на Яндекс.Фотках


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## lezgotolondon (Aug 31, 2010)

tianjin and hangzhou looks great.

but ChongQing looks horrible from these photos


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

^^
very interesting statement, would you care to elaborate/say more on the subject. I do understand that much of it is, inevitably, subjective. None the less, the sum of subjectives, in a way, may create if not true objective, but, in a manner of speaking, the public perception of it. And as such is valuable and enlightening...


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## lezgotolondon (Aug 31, 2010)

Ok

these are the reasons:

-a lot of ugly(imho) residential higrises along the river
-an highway along the river, no waterfront
-an huge concentration of ugly higrises.
-No beautiful spots.

everything is imho and comes from these photos perception.

when I see a new city in china rising and I don't like it I'm sad, because you have the power to build awesome cities.

this is what I don't like in a modern city:

-Sprawl Skyline: Imho residential highrises are horrible, and if they were build sprawled around the city with an huge concentration is a problem. I prefer medium-high density residential buildings near the centre and then lowest capacity buildings.
I'd rathert to see a city with skyscrapers in the centre and in satellites cities.

-Ugly skyscrapers: I don't like all the design, but there are few skyscrapers I don't like at all.

-Parcs and nature: I want to see big parks and trees in the largest roads.

So judging from yhese criteria I like some china cities and I don't like others china cities (and other modern cities around the globe too)

Judgin from what I've seen in the photos:

The good:
-tianjin
-beijing
-dalian



the bad:
-congqing
-shenzen
-shangai
-naninjing
-guanngzhou


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