Government efforts to urbanize China's population by building new towns are failing due to a lack of local jobs; one of the many newly constructed towns, Tieling, remains empty because residents cannot find employment:
Urban planners spent millions of yuan to clean up surrounding marshland that had become a dumping ground for the city's untreated sewage. A pristine environment, they hoped, would help attract the businesses that would raise incomes and swell the population.Four years later, Tieling New City is virtually a ghost town.Clean waterways weave among deserted residential and government buildings. Housing blocks that won recognition from the United Nations for providing good affordable homes are almost empty. The businesses that were supposed to create local employment haven't materialized. Without jobs, there is little incentive for anybody to move here.[Source]
Sky News reports that government efforts to model these towns after cities like Paris and Manhattan have also failed to draw new residents.
