MCLC: mega city (1,2)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: mega city (1)
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Here's a link to the promotional video for the "mega city" near Lanzhou. I
love the "epic" musical accompaniment:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/dec/06/china-mountain-moving-pro
ject-video

Kirk 

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From: Costas Kouremenos <enaskitis at gmail.com>
Subject: mega city (2)

Concerning the '700 mountains', I read the following comments at Beijing
Cream 
<http://beijingcream.com/2012/12/like-in-the-fable-of-yu-gong-developers-in
-lanzhou-moving-mountains-to-build-new-city/>:

Oh, the sensationalism! Although the 中国经济周刊 article linked from the
Guardian piece also frames this as a mountain-moving project, the quotes
it provides from the actual development plan imply something rather less
hubristic: the area is made up low hills and slopes, so a total of more
than 700 hillocks will be bulldozed (整体推移山丘700余座). The old men may
Be foolish, but they’re not really trying to move any mountains.

and:

Yeah 700 ‘mountains’ in 10 square miles is the tip off.

and:

My colleague in Lanzhou tells me there is a new city planned, but it will
be on the upland plain where the airport is now – 50-60km from Lanzhou
proper, where some small hills will be leveled. Remember that hill and
mountain in Chinese are the same word – “shan”.

Costas