China is urging towns to brand themselves. Some are getting carried away.
NUCLEAR is the future for the small coastal city of Haiyan. Not just as a source of power but, local officials think, as a magnet for businesses and tourists. Home to China’s first domestically developed commercial reactor, Haiyan recently started calling itself “nuclear-power town”. It has opened a nuclear museum (pictured), broken ground on a nuclear-related industrial park and drawn up blueprints for homes and hotels that play up the atomic theme. Signs above the main road declare it a “city of hope”.
For those not so enamoured of nuclear power, other newly emerging cities a short drive away might be more alluring. Gourmands can opt for “chocolate town” or“shiitake town”, whereas fashionistas have “leather-fashion town” and “cosmetics town”. Aspiring fund managers are also well looked after. They can choose between four different “financial” towns.
They are all part of China’s push to create tese xiaozhen, or “speciality towns”, a policy campaign that began in the wealthy eastern province of Zhejiang, where Haiyan is located, and that is now being rolled out nationwide. It is rooted in a long-standing effort to limit the size of big cities and keep the country’s population dispersed as it rapidly urbanises. Central planners view the speciality towns as a way to promote the growth of urban areas with populations of 500,000 or fewer (see chart).These are often far shabbier than the glitzy megacities.
This story is from the December 23rd 2017 - January 5th 2018 edition of The Economist.
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This story is from the December 23rd 2017 - January 5th 2018 edition of The Economist.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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