Going Underground

They have finally, totally taken leave of their senses.

In April or May of 2003, under the cloak of SARS when the entire population were hiding away at home for fear of passing sneezing strangers, the local mayor sent in the troops to destroy Liuzhou Square and most of the city centre. Here is what I wrote about six months later.

The city mayor delights in his nickname of “The Big Hammer”. A shorter than average man in a population not noted for their size, almost anything ‘big’ would have pleased him. He earned this soon after taking over the mayorship in 2002. Since his installation, the city has been ravaged by demolition crews. At first, the populace were happy with the promise of a “more beautiful” city, but the promises have been turning somewhat sour. The ‘hammer’ epithet is now more of a criticism than praise.

There are three main reasons for this.

First, much of the demolition has taken place during the driest spell in seventy years. As huge clouds of dust covered the city and people choked on the ground concrete, an initial feeling of excitement turned to one of downright annoyance. Fire hoses were brought in to dampen down the dust rising from the growing piles of rubble, but in a time when many homes are facing severe disruption to water supplies, the site of thousands of gallons of water being sprayed over favourite shops, restaurants and hotels as they were being razed was hardly ever likely to raise public morale.

Secondly comes the growing realization that the second phase of the beautification of the city doesn’t seem to be arriving. There is endless demolition, but all that has been built is a new public toilet. At least that is the common perception. The city is now full of vacant lots awaiting investment to build. The new pedestrian street which patriotically opened on May 1^st was long planned and not part of Mayor Chen’s scheme, but is anyway already being criticized as it is ‘just more of the same shops’

Finally, there is a growing resentment that the heart is being torn out of the city. Random regulations on minimum sizes for restaurants mean that almost all of the smaller, but highly popular noodle bars and restaurants have disappeared. Try finding somewhere to sit in the city centre and watch the world go by over a beer or a cup of tea. There is almost nowhere left.

At the same time the locals are being driven out of the city centre, not by force but by economics or sheer destruction. Whole estates of houses are being torn down and the residents moved to the suburbs. This is a classic recipe for inner city blight. Today, the major part of the population still living in the city centre are government employees who live in their compound near the government headquarters. This too is scheduled to move in the next few years, as is the People’s Hospital, another major employer.

Nor are the people on the outside too happy. The city recently saw its biggest civil disturbance in years when several hundred people picketed the government headquarters demanding compensation for their land that was compulsorily “purchased” to build the new high-tech industrial zone across the river from the city centre. They have never been paid in full for this land. The story is the talk of the city, but of course has never been reported in the local media. Has the land for the new government headquarters or the new People’s Hospital been paid for?

The previous mayor left under a cloud of suspicion after months of rumours about his imminent arrest on corruption charges. His brother was in the bridge construction business and after a couple of problems with bridges, including one bridge collapse which claimed several lives, too many questions were being asked. The half-joking question now is whether the current mayor has a brother in the demolition industry.

Well, here we are several years later. That mayor has long gone. The city centre has been transformed into a gaudy, neon-lit nightmare. The square has been transformed into a barren, windswept, soulless desert. The ever popular night markets have all been closed or moved indoors, there is nowhere to have a quick beer or a snack. The only shops are dozens of identical fashion shops and more mobile phone shops than there are people to buy them. There is still nothing truly new.

But one thing is spoiling the effect. Too many scruffy people messing up the streets. So they have come up with their master plan. For sheer lunacy it would be hard to beat.

They have announced that they are going to build an underground shopping city beneath the existing city centre. At the moment there is an underpass on the main road which is lined with tacky cheap shops. They are going to expand this the full length of the main road and then sideways in two directions making a T-shape. The existing footbridges will be demolished and the only way to cross the road will be via the underground area.

Somewhat spuriously, they claim that this is to alleviate traffic congestion. Rubbish! Putting the pedestrians underground will make no difference to traffic jams. All they will achieve is driving the scum populace away out of sight, leaving the pristine city for ??? Ooops.

Now, if they could just arrange the below, then that would be an underground project I could appreciate. I could nip home for a Guiness and a curry on a Friday night!

tags: china  liuzhou  underground  sars  demolition  

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