Title: Ghost city phenomenon along China's high-speed railway grid

Authors: Shenghuan Zhao; Dongqing Ma

Addresses: Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via G. Ponzio 31, 20133 Milano, Italy ' School of Architecture Design and Art, Dalian University of Technology, Linggong Road 2, Ganjingzi District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China

Abstract: A fresh urbanism era appears in China with the development of high-speed railway (HSR). Voluminous numbers of local governments are designing and erecting novel cities oriented to the HSR stations with the objective of gaining benefits from the HSR system. Nevertheless, a huge number of these freshly erected districts or cities entail a tremendously high vacancy rate, thereby resulting in 'ghost cities'. The present paper commences with an outline of the China's urban HSR growth and the phenomena of ghost cities. After a literature review on worldwide urban HSR development, the reasons behind the 'ghost city phenomenon' in China are analysed. In the end, the study is concluded by proposing several suggestions for HSR development.

Keywords: land use; urban planning; city planning; regional planning; siphon effect; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSOC.2017.088307

International Journal of Sustainable Society, 2017 Vol.9 No.3, pp.210 - 225

Received: 25 Jan 2017
Accepted: 06 Sep 2017
Published online: 01 Dec 2017 *

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