After scuttling plans in 2010 to redevelop Beijing’s historic Bell and Drum Tower neighborhoods, demolition of a nearby square has now begun. The government has announced plans to restore the tangle of hutongs back to its...
The latest Sinica podcast, hosted by Kaiser Kuo, focuses on the transformation of Beijing through the eyes of several long-time residents: As housing prices and rents soar, hutongs get ripped down and “crazy bad” air...
Protests in Guangdong over land reclaimed for development that CDT covered two days ago are still ongoing, according to Reuters: Lufeng, a city of 1.7 million, saw violent clashes with authorities earlier in the week, when...
Shenzhen residents are accusing a local real estate company of releasing thousands of scorpions into their homes to clear the way for demolition and redevelopment. From Shanghai Daily: A man holding a bucket was seen walking out...
The New York Times reports from Wuhan on the extensive redevelopment plans for the city and the problem of local debt incurred by Chinese cities’ ambitious building projects: The plans for Wuhan, a provincial capital about...
In the New York Review of Books, Ian Johnson revisit the gritty industrial city of Datong for the first time in ten years and is shocked by what he finds: Over the past few decades, Chinese cities have seen their historic...
Time Magazine looks at the transient nature of China’s cities: The ever-changing urban landscape has become a common scene in many Chinese cities. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China is...
For Huffington Post, Danwei’s Alice Xin Liu writes about the commercialization of once-arty sections of Beijing: Nanluogu Xiang is located in one of the richest neighborhoods in the city — once in terms of its...
Shanghai Scrap has interviewed Amy L. Sommers, an American lawyer who tried to buy a pre-War home in Shanghai and became intimately familiar with the legal complexities of ownership claims on old buildings there. She later wrote...
The New York Times reports on the imminent destruction of the ancient Drum and Bell Tower neighborhood of Beijing: These days, those who reside in the neighborhood known as Gulou are anxiously counting the days until...
From Global Times: The 303-year-old Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, will have a new theme park and a culture square on its periphery, according to urban plan-ning authorities. “The adjacent neighborhoods around the...
Caixin reports on a new strategy for redevelopment being implemented in Beijing: The municipal government has decided to completely integrate into the urban landscape all of Beijing’s so-called villages – communities of...
The Telegraph reports on the pending demolition of Beijing’s historic Bell and Drum Tower neighborhood: Over the last 20 years mile after mile of Beijing’s “hutongs”, or alleyways, have been bulldozed to...
Open Democracy continues their reporting on the destruction of old Kashgar: The Chinese authorities in the far-west Xinjiang region of the people’s republic declared in early 2009 that 65,000 homes in Kashgar’s old city...
As part of a Forbes special on the billionaires of the world, Gady Epstein profiles real estate developer Zhang Xin, chief executive of Soho China: This is the Chinese economy in a nutshell–sellers selling a product for...
In the Guardian, Tania Branigan has more details about the recent protest by artists forced out of their studios in Beijing: The demolitions in Chaoyang district are only the latest of many. One person whose studio is threatened...
Voice of America has an update to this CDT post from December on live-in protester Lu Daren, who was hired by the managers of the “Fish Castle” restaurant to prevent its destruction by wrecking crews: Unidentified...
Disputes over forced evictions as land gets sold for redevelopment have resulted in violent protests in recent years throughout China. New rules may give homeowners more rights and help ease tensions, Reuters reports: With...
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