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China's fastest-changing cities Hong Kong Skyline MATT WOOLSEY Forbes.com November 5, 2008 at 2:09 PM EST Ten years ago, the Minnan Hotel dominated the skyline in Xiamen, a special economic zone on the Taiwan Strait. At 168 metres tall – about the size of the skyscrapers that abut New York's Central Park – it was a conspicuous outlier in a developing city. Now, it's beginning to look like a tree in a forest, as buildings just as tall have popped up across the waterfront and in the city centre. But development in Xiamen hasn't been nearly as rapid as in Shenzhen or Guangzhou, two cities on the Pearl River Delta. With dynamic economies based on industry, service, shipping and logistics, they are China's fastest-changing cities by our measures. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing round out the top five. They're followed by Dalian and Nanjing, two cities that have emerged as factory-based growth centres, but are also turning into vibrant markets for consumer goods. Behind the numbers These rankings are based on three measures of China's 20 most populous cities. To gauge recent change, we looked at economic growth using indexed data from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a state research agency. Smaller industrial boomtowns like Hefei and Suzhou scored particularly well by this measure. We also examined the growth of each city as a market, which symbolizes the changing of cities from industrial centres to service-driven economies. For this measure, we looked at data from CASS as an indicator of where growth and change would continue. With global growth slowing, Chinese cities are going to become more reliant on domestic spending. “In the global slowdown, China's domestic market is the key linchpin,” says Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic adviser for MasterCard Worldwide. “There's a lot of government spending right now on social welfare programs to try and unlock households' savings.” Finally, we looked at the most obvious and aesthetic indicator of change in China: the cities' skylines. The government that didn't officially use the word “urbanization” until the late ‘90s and that was founded on Mao Zedong's agrarian principles now rules a country more than 50 per cent urban in its population distribution. Skyscrapers and cranes may be the best marker of globalization's effect on China. Using data from Emporis, a global builder based in Germany, we ranked each city by the aggregate height of its skyline. What the future holds If industrialized expansion was the tale of the last 10 years, consolidation will be the story of the next decade. Shenzhen, once a fishing village, has been competing for logistics, financial and technology services with Hong Kong ever since the 1997 changeover. Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong to its north, has grown at an annual clip of 18 per cent since the 1997 changeover, according to the Asia Development Bank. Shenzhen was the mainland Chinese rival to Hong Kong before that city became part of China, but has only recently decided to move toward economic co-operation, instead of competition, with the special administrative region. That means ceding financial services to Hong Kong and enhancing logistical and shipping services in Shenzhen, says Yan Xiopei, vice-mayor of Shenzhen. “We want to connect Shenzhen and Hong Kong,” says Xiaopei. “We will make endeavours for building Shenzhen and Hong Kong into a world-class metropolis.” Not far from Shenzhen, a massive railway and port expansion development across the Pearl River Delta, slated for completion in 2010, will connect the east- and west-bank factory facilities, which manufacture everything from Apple electronics to Wal-Mart products, to the deep-water shipping ports on the east bank. “Factories on the western bank have always been at a disadvantage, because they don't have access to the deep-water ports on the east bank,” says Andrew Ness, executive director of C.B. Richard Ellis, an international commercial real estate firm. “The railway will change that.” Even more obvious in the next decade will be the economic integration of small villages and cities into major metropolises in parts of the Yangtze River Delta outside of Shanghai and in the periphery of the Beijing-Tianjin corridor in the north. Of course, keep in mind that China's idea of a small village can have a population close to one million. “Five-hundred thousand to 800,000 [resident] towns aren't even considered cities, but small townships,” says Fan Gong, director of the National Economic Research Institute in China. “We will see several regions grab together on the river areas and form large metropolitan areas.” According to Mr. Gong, the government is abandoning past policies like the urban registration system, which kept farmers in the country, and is instead encouraging urbanization. Mr. Gong estimates that by 2050, 75 per cent of China's population will live in cities. The rapidly changing nation may no longer be recognizable to Mao, though reformer Deng Xiaoping might enjoy the 92 cities with one-million-plus people.

Vols directs: Montréal en pourparlers avec trois villes chinoises MAXIME BERGERON Montréal a entrepris des pourparlers formels avec trois villes chinoises - Shanghai, Shenzhen et Guangzhou - en vue d'implanter à court terme des liaisons aériennes directes. Le maire de Montréal, Denis Coderre, indique avoir eu des discussions de haut niveau avec les maires de ces trois mégalopoles, ainsi que les représentants de transporteurs aériens chinois, pendant sa mission économique en Chine cette semaine. Joint vendredi matin à Hong Kong, M. Coderre soutient que ces pourparlers n'ont rien d'un «voeu pieux», et qu'un «calendrier précis» sera établi dès son retour à Montréal pour la suite des négociations. «On va y aller de façon intensive, a-t-il indiqué. Il y a vraiment un travail qui se fait et il va y avoir un processus formel qui va se faire.» Montréal a obtenu sa première liaison directe avec la Chine à la fin septembre, quand Air China a commencé à offrir trois vols hebdomadaires vers Beijing. Denis Coderre et les participants de sa mission ont d'ailleurs utilisé ce vol pour se rendre dans l'Empire du Milieu, vendredi dernier. Le maire Coderre considère toutefois comme prioritaire l'implantation de nouvelles liaisons vers les énormes marchés de Shanghai (23 millions d'habitants), Guangzhou (13 millions d'habitants) et Shenzhen (11 millions d'habitants). «C'est important la question de la volonté politique, et j'ai senti beaucoup beaucoup d'intérêt de la part des maires», a fait valoir Denis Coderre. Grosse délégation Des représentants du Cirque du Soleil, de Desjardins, de la RBC et de SNC-Lavalin figurent parmi les 70 participants à cette mission économique, la plus importante dans l'histoire de la métropole. Une série d'ententes ont été signées au courant de la semaine, notamment avec l'UQAM et Montréal International. Game Hollywood, un producteur chinois de jeux vidéo, a aussi annoncé l'implantation d'une filiale à Montréal. Denis Coderre affirme par ailleurs que les dirigeants de Fosun, le conglomérat chinois qui a racheté 20 % du Cirque du Soleil, se sont engagés à faire des «investissements importants» à Montréal.

Un méga projet proposé pour Shenzhen en Chine. La tour pricipale ferait 595 mètres avec 124 étages. La "petite" tour quand à elle ne ferait que 347 mètres! http://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/10/plp-architecture-masterplan-mixed-use-tower-china-supertall-nexus-skyscraper/

20. Montreal, Canada 19. London, England 18. Chicago, U.S. 17. Stockholm, Sweden 16. Toronto, Canada 14. New York City, U.S. (tie) 14. Madrid, Spain (tie) 13. Paris, France 12. Los Angeles, U.S. 11. Buenos Aires, Argentina 10. Singapore, Singapore 9. Milan, Italy 8. Moscow, Russia 7. New Delhi, India 6. Bangalore, India 5. Johannesburg, South Africa 4. Nairobi, Kenya 2. Beijing, China (tie) 2. Shenzhen, China (tie) 1. Mexico City, Mexico http://autos.ca.msn.com/editors-picks/worlds-20-most-painful-cities-to-drive?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Jury for the “Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1” choose Coop Himmelb(l)au design The jury for the “Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1” Competition chaired by Mr. Arata Isozaki, selected Coop Himmelb(l)au's design for Tower C, the new “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” as the winning scheme. Other participants include Morphosis, Steven Holl Architects, Hans Hollein, MVRDV and FCJZ Atelier. The new “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” will be part of a lively business quarter in the heart of the Central District of Shenzhen made up of a carefully composed ensemble of unique, individual towers creating a landmark silhouette. The project is a high-rise structure with a height of approximately 200 m with 49 storeys. The footprint area has the size of 40 by 40 m. The required program is distributed vertically. A clear separation of public and private functions is given. All public functions are organized in the base building while the office program is situated in the tower. Semi public program like meeting rooms, conference center, recreation areas and gardens are concentrated in the middle of the building. This zone is designed to create a pattern of meeting facilities, gardens and recreation areas for all employees and become spaces for an exchange of knowledge and creativity and a synergy of form and function. The “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” is not only recognizable by its significant form but also by its façade. The design of the façade is driven by generation of energy. The second skin of the façade is shaped by climate conditions and inner functions. This skin includes photovoltaic cells to generate electricity and also cells to reduce excessive wind pressure, shade the sun and create multi media displays. Strategies employing the form of the building to assist natural ventilation together with the use of renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) assure an energy efficient design and reduce energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuel energy sources. http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=11098

University draws inspiration from Chinese cultural heritage Following the concept of “Unity & Modernity”, the University Town Library and Administrative Centre in Shenzhen is the result of a winning design in an international limited competition. The facility was to become a "gateway icon" for the new campus shared by three graduate schools of renowned universities in China. The challenge involved putting three different banks of data under one roof as well as developing a unique approach to library design and knowledge sharing. The project was completed early 2007 and is open to the community, acting both as a public and academic library. Its mission aims to serve the local students, faculty members, corporate researchers and Shenzhen residents. With its long undulating form, the University Town Library meets all requirements needed for the administration centre, culturally symbolic of a "dragon's head", with the library tailing off as its body and the bridge undulating like a "rising dragon". Both library and administrative centre have a double function as pedestrian link and "intellectual bridge" between campuses, the whole set in a green valley-like landscape. Responding to the design brief became an exercise that went beyond the regular scope of programme response. The successful design of such a facility, acknowledged by three awards, reflects a new and innovative way to approach the storage, archiving and transfer of knowledge. RMJM believes the design process grew from the wealth of cultures shared by the talented multicultural and international professionals, their exposure to different cultures yet also the understanding of local demands. http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=11226