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There’s a town on the outskirts of Beijing that might just be the strangest you』ll ever see. The main street looks as if it was based on a child’s crayon drawing—a riotous palette of pinks, blues, and oranges—and the residents are frighteningly still. In fact, most aren’t even real. Instead, the town features such sights as a pair of petrified pigeons, yellow phone booths, and a statue of a sea dog gazing from a bridge.
Welcome to 「Spring Legend,」 a mock-Alpine town located in Huairou, a designated green-belt district about 35 miles from Beijing. The town has existed for about five years, but it lacks something fundamental: residents.
Spring Legend has the feel of a dream come true. Entering the town’s German restaurant—outside of which sits a statue of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill enjoying a bronze cigar—tables are set with fine china, wine goblets, silver cutlery, and linen, all neatly laid out for diners who never arrive. Then, a waitress dressed as a Bavarian fräulein appears and inquires how many there will be for lunch.
The town’s motto is 「The Beautiful Legend From the Alps」 and indeed, compared to the livability problems of Chinese cities, Spring Legend has a pleasant environment. Tables are set with fine china, wine goblets, silver cutlery, and linen, all neatly laid out for diners who never arrive.
「We named it Spring Legend because it’s close to the river and has a small creek running through it,」 explains Liu Xinhu, the chairman of Ding Xiu Zhi Ye (Spring Legend Properties). 「It’s extremely beautiful in the spring, too.」
The town was conceived back in 2007, towards the end of a period of rapid development in Beijing that led to an increase in pollution and, correspondingly, a renewed interest among city-dwellers in a serene environment.
Spring Legend is empty for one simple reason: During the week, hardly anyone lives there. An estimated 80 percent of the town’s homeowners also have apartments in Beijing, and, according to Liu, the general occupancy rate in Spring Legend is only about 60 to 70 percent. Multiple-home ownership among China’s rich is not uncommon; University at Albany professor Youqin Huang has estimated that 15 percent of urban households in the country own two or more houses.
The nature of property ownership has changed greatly in China. Fifteen years ago, state workers (who then comprised much of the population) were assigned basic accommodation. But today, home ownership has become so important that young men struggle to find a girlfriend if they do not own their own home. Buying a place, however, is difficult: Average salaries in Beijing top out at about 4,500 RMB per month (around $750), while the cost of an apartment in the city center is around 43,000 to 52,000 RMB per square meter.
Why has China gone mad for housing? With strict capital controls and a state-controlled stock exchange that is volatile and risky, the tangible reassurance of evergreen property has made it a 「fungible commodity,」 in the words of Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of Beijing-based equities analysis firm J Capital Research. She says that homes are usually left empty in order to avoid any depreciation in value.
「Renovation costs are very high, so it makes no sense to rent if you are seeking capital appreciation,」 she explains via e-mail. 「Remember that apartments here are sold bare, without flooring, ceilings, lighting fixtures or wall tiles. They all need to be installed, adding at least 20 percent to the cost [and] people expect to ... custom fit the unit.」
This means that even in successful towns like Spring Legend—where a unit costs an average of 16,000 RMB (about $2,500) per square meter, roughly a third the cost of a typical apartment in central Beijing—the streets and houses remain lifeless. The owners, says Bianca Bosker, author of Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China , are 「dreaming of what they』ll do with the riches they imagine they』ll get when they one day sell them.」 The likely answer? Buy more property. However, 「Given how many people have hatched the same 『get rich quick』 real-estate idea, and how many of China’s gated communities stand empty, betting on real estate looks increasingly risky.」
Spring Legend is hardly the only city of its kind. There's also Thames Town, outside Shanghai, which is a $300 million British-style residential complex developed by since-incarcerated Shanghai Communist Party boss Chen Liangyu. And north of Beijing in Hebei Province is Jackson Hole, a wind-swept Wild West replica featuring neighborhoods called Moose Creek, Route 66, and Aspen Land. When developers previewed Jackson Hole in 2003, buyer interest was intense. The homes 「sold out in record time,」 says Oregon-based designer Allison Smith, who helped create the settlement. Early investors who purchased an 「American villa」 for around a quarter-million dollars in 2006 have seen their dreams 「triple in value,」 she estimates.
Jackson Hole bucks the trend: It is a living community, a mix of older families and retirees drawn by what Smith agrees is a serendipitous confluence of factors—co-operative developers, clever marketing, and a great location. But Smith fears there’s a downside to the speculation. 「At this point, the Chinese are in such a rush to buy everything, it may not hold its value down the line,」 she says. 「Jackson Hole doesn’t have that problem; people want to stay there.People want to live there. We've done something positive—it’s not just for the money."
Not every fake European village is so successful. Luodian New Town , also known as North European New Town, is a development in Shanghai’s suburban Baoshan district supposedly based on the historic Swedish town of Sigtuna.According to Bosker, 「its foreign architects [Swedish firm Sweco] failed to take into account Chinese lifestyles or customs—specifically, the principles of feng shui.」 The developers at first banned any remodeling but, as homes failed to sell, they caved. On visiting, Bosker 「found the neighborhood to be a mess of construction, as homebuyers eagerly carved up the houses to fix their feng shui.」
Anting German Town, a failed experiment located about 20 miles outside Shanghai, is another example. 「The [Chinese wanted] half-timbered buildings and medieval romance,」 Der Spiegel explained in a 2011 postmortem. 「But the architecture firm Speer thought it knew better and built a modern German residential quarter [where] nobody wants to live.」 The truth, as the article admits, is more complicated than just aesthetics—the town lacked the life support of proper infrastructure.
「『Empty towns』 and 『ghost towns』 attract a lot of public attention, and that has a lot to do with the fact that these are local government initiatives and investments,」 says Pan Yingli, a professor of finance at the Research Center for Modern Finance at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
With taxes collected centrally and then redistributed to local governments, land has become the principle source of income for provincial officials, who normally can expect a redistribution of only 50 percent of fiscal revenue after paying 85 percent of the municipal purse, according to Pan. Grandiose land projects, thus, are a ripe moneymaking vehicle for officials. German houses are too dark-colored,」 Liu argues. 「They look depressing.」
「This creates bubbles, because the prosperity of properties and cities ultimately comes from the accumulation of people, but developing real estate alone doesn’t create jobs—so [these new towns] don’t attract laborers or their families. As a result, only the land per se is 『urbanized,』 and so become the 『ghost towns』 that we see.」
As with many real-estate projects, the key to avoiding disaster relies on several things all going the developers』 way: Connections must be well-maintained, oversight should ideally be avoided, local power structures must be preserved, and the infrastructure needed to breathe life into a remote, self-contained development has to be completed on time.
In the case of Anting, the problem seems to be more of an absence of the latter. A pleasant conurbation of ponds, green space, and wide boulevards, there is nothing about Anting that wouldn’t necessarily appeal to Chinese buyers—a Shanghai city planner praised the concept as aesthetic and 「well thought through」—but 「the project failed because … the district is cut off and surrounded by industrial districts and wasteland.」 It was like a 「foreign body,」 the city planner told Der Spiegel.
To China’s more bearish observers, vacant cities are prima facie evidence of the country’s overcapacity problem, with Ordos, a 「ghost town」 in Inner Mongolia, being the most famous example. But some economists reject this narrow interpretation.
「It’s possible the 『ghost town』 problem is exaggerated. China is a big country; different local governments have different governing styles and their leaders have different working abilities,」 says Pan Yingli. 「Local governments borrow a lot of money [to build these towns] but [these towns don’t create] the industries or population to produce enough fiscal income to pay them off.These debts become bad loans and add to the risks for the banks. And the banks』 solution to this is to extend maturities—in other words, to lend them more money to pay off their old debts.」
Stevenson-Yang attributes the faux-architecture phenomenon partly to 「a lack of commercial drivers behind development … planners just pluck ideas from magazines.」 It’s a description that Spring Legend’s Liu would probably dispute. The decision to build Spring Legend in its unique style was carefully considered, he says, rather than a knee-jerk instinct to copy other successful copycats.
The original concept aimed to imitate ancient Chinese village designs, but thefeng shui didn’t quite fit. 「[It] required too much space and needed to be built along a river,」 Liu says. 「We wanted to make use of the scenery and mountainous location and make the property blend in naturally.」 (「Bad feng shui can tank a neighborhood’s prospects,」 warns Bosker.)
Hence the Alpine approach. The mix of styles and scenery, Liu says, was intentional. In China, 「European architecture is largely symbolized,」 he observes. (This is especially true in historic cities like Tianjin, where Liu observed that 「you see a lot of carriages being pulled by horses [and] that sort of thing」).
The developers sent a team of around a dozen people to Europe, where they spent time in villages and towns. Their findings encouraged focus on 「lifestyle」 rather than authenticity, with Liu trumpeting 「a relaxed style of living environment … the idyllic, rather than the aristocratic side of Europe.」 One of the few genuine shops was a small supermarket, selling typical, low-end domestic fare—duck necks, vacuum-packed chicken feet.
In Spring Legend, for example, you』ll encounter plenty of benches—a piece of street furniture practically never encountered in Chinese cities—because 「We wanted to encourage people to go out more.… [In China], people tend to stay in; in Europe, it’s different,」 says Liu. But places to spend money are curiously absent—almost all the stores and bars are artificial. The Toy Shop, for example, has photographs of goodies plastered into its window, but peering through a broken pane reveals a concrete husk littered with debris—rubble, a bicycle, a workman’s leftover lunch.
Businesses take time to prosper, argues Liu: 「We didn’t sell the storefronts to anyone yet, because we’re afraid once we do so, it will be out of our control and low-end shops will pervade, which is not what we want.」 He may have a point.One of the few genuine shops was a small supermarket, selling typical, low-end domestic fare—duck necks, vacuum-packed chicken feet, potato chips, spicy tofu, beer, and frozen fish balls; items that probably don’t fit Liu’s 『brand.』
While the shops may not sell foie gras and fine Scotch yet, there are nods to different parts of high European culture all around, even though Europeans themselves are not permitted to purchase any of these properties. According to the town website, the large, swanky but deserted Elischer restaurant pays tribute to the Austrian town where Emperor Franz Joseph is supposed to have met Princess Sisi—in fact, the real town is called Bad Ischl . But that doesn’t matter: The Spring Legend Holiday Hotel finally opened its doors two months ago to an impatient public and purports to be the 「First Princess Sissy-themed [sic] hotel in Beijing」—an unproven (but perfectly credible) claim.
This unedited amalgam of different traditions and countries is deliberate, Liu explains: For mainlanders, at least, 「it’s enough to get their general approval of the style. They don’t need the absolutely authentic experience.」 Indeed, the European dwellings of Spring Legend may boast a range of primary colors, but something they don’t have is one that looks definitively European. That’s because the real thing can come with apparent drawbacks. 「Well, German houses are too dark-colored,」 Liu argues. 「They look depressing.」
Indeed, as China’s confidence grows, the country might sour on foreign styles altogether. 「Already, new developments are cropping up with traditional Chinese architecture as their theme,」 Bosker observes. 「We might have reason to worry when China stops copying our architecture altogether.」
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當你第一眼看到這個位於北京郊區的小鎮時，定會非常驚訝，一條條商業街宛若孩子的調色板，五彩斑斕，而街上的人們，卻舉止僵硬，如同孩子用蠟筆畫畫出來的一般。其實，你所看到的大部分都是假景。鴿子，黃色電話亭，站在橋上凝望的水手這些人造景觀形成了這個小鎮的獨特風格。
歡迎來到懷柔的「頂秀美泉小鎮」，這座離北京市區三十公裡左右的歐式小鎮，建成已經五年，卻缺少了一個商業住宅區最基本的構成要素：居民。
踏進頂秀美泉小鎮，讓人仿佛置身夢中，德式餐廳的門口，放置著一尊正在抽菸的英國首相邱吉爾的銅質雕像。餐廳裡的桌子上整齊的擺放著精美的瓷器和銀質餐具，似乎等待著那些永遠也不會光臨的客人。一位年輕的身穿巴伐利亞服裝的服務員走上前來詢問就餐的客人數。
頂秀美泉小鎮的口號是「來自阿爾卑斯的美麗傳說」。事實上，和中國很多城市的居住環境比，頂秀美泉小鎮的環境的確令人心曠神怡。
頂秀置業總經理劉新虎說，「我們叫它「頂秀美泉小鎮」是因為它緊鄰雁西河畔，內有小溪流水。春天的時候非常的美。「
小鎮是2007年開始建造的，那時北京剛剛經歷了一段迅速發展時期，人口猛增。從而使很多北京市民萌發了遠離喧囂的城市，尋求安靜居所的念頭。
在他看來，房子空置的主要原因是因為平時大家都上班，因此很少有人來居住，他估計說，頂秀美泉小鎮的80%的戶主在市區也有房。再加上小鎮的入住率總共也就百分之六七十。在中國，有錢人擁有多套房的現象並不少見。據奧爾巴尼大學教授黃友琴估計，中國有13%的城市家庭至少擁有兩套房。
中國的房地產本質已經發生了極大的變化。十五年前，城市人口主要由國企工人構成，住房由國家統一安排分配。現在的年輕人若沒有房子，連對象都難找，然而，買房卻並不容易，北京人均月工資不超過4500元(折合$750)。而北京市區房價均價卻在每平方43000元到52000元之間。
為什麼中國房地產如此火爆？用北京美奇金投資諮詢有限公司的合夥創始人楊思安話來說是因為在中國，政府對資金調控極其嚴格，而炒股又有很大的風險性。這樣一來，房子就成了具有保障性的投資商品。她認為房子空置的主要原因是為了避免貶值。
她在電子郵件中做了這樣的解釋，「重新裝修花費太大，所以你想要保值，外租就沒有什麼意義了。這裡出售的商品房都是沒有地板，天花板，燈具及牆磚的毛胚房，如果裝修，成本至少要增加20%.人們還是希望按照自己的意願裝修。」
這就意味著在像丁秀美泉這樣比較成功的樓盤，即使每套房的售價僅為市區房價的三分，既16000元每平方米，卻依然鮮有人住。《原味複製——當代中國的建築模仿》的作者比安斯·博斯克說，這些戶主們夢想著有天把手中的房子拋掉就可以發家致富。真的是這樣嗎？在中國，如果越來越多的人認為炒房可以快速致富。購買的房子越多，房子的空置率就越高。房地產投資的風險也會越來越大。
在中國，像頂秀美泉這樣空置的商業住宅區並非個例。與它類似的還有由現已身陷囹圄的前上海市委書記陳良宇花費3億美元打造的英式泰晤士小鎮住宅區，河北的傑克森莊園，原版複製的美式慕斯溪，66號公路，阿斯彭度假莊園等等。2003年，傑克森莊園一開盤，就吸引了眾多購房者。來自美國俄勒岡的艾莉森.史密斯是該樓盤的方案設計人，她說該樓盤的銷售「創造了歷史記錄」。據她估計，2006年以200萬人民幣購買的在這裡購買的「美式別墅」，現在其價值已經漲了三倍。
傑克森度假山是一個逆潮流增長的案例：它是一個充滿生機的社區，史密斯認為它的成功是由幾個因素綜合構成的。如開發商鼎的力合作，獨特場營銷手段及優越的地理位置等，從而能夠吸引眾多的老年家庭及退休家庭。但史密斯也擔心這種投資方式已經在走下坡路了。「這時候中國人還熱衷於到處買房，最後也許就沒辦法保值了。傑克森莊園不用擔心出現什麼問題，因為人們都願意住在那裡。我們為此也做了諸多努力——不僅僅是為了賺錢。"
不是每個仿歐式商業住宅區都如此幸運。位於上海寶山區的羅店新鎮，（亦被稱作北歐新鎮），據說是仿照瑞典的歷史古鎮錫格蒂娜建造的。博斯克說「瑞典建築設計公司Sweco的建築師在設計時沒有考慮到中國人生活習性，尤其是中國的風水問題。」開發商當時不贊同重新改造，但是當房子銷售不景氣的時候，他們又進行改建。博斯克去參觀該樓盤的時候看到「購房者為了讓房子符合風水，對房子進行重新改造，社區裡因為基建搞得一團糟。」
距離上海市區20英裡的安亭德式小鎮，也是一個失敗的案例。2011年德國《明鏡》雜誌對此案例的失敗原因的解釋是「中國人想要的是那種半木質的，具有中世紀的浪漫色彩的建築風格。而Speer建築設計公司自認為他們更懂得設計，於是就設計了一座現代的德式住宅區（卻根本沒人願意住）。文章認為該案例失敗，並不僅僅只是審美角度不同的原因，真正的原因在於這個小區缺乏合理的基礎生活設施。
上海交大當代金融研究中心的金融學教授潘英麗說，「『空城』『鬼城』引起了人們的廣泛關注。其主要原因還是跟地方政府的決策和投資有關。」
潘英麗說財政稅收統一上交國家後，國家再重新將稅收分配至各地方政府，分配的資金其中85%要用於政府日常採購，地方政府可以支配的僅是剩餘部分中的50%，因此土地就成了各地政府基本的財政收入來源。這樣一來，大型的土地開發項目就成了政府的搖錢樹。
頂秀置業總經理劉新虎說，「德式的房子顏色太暗沉，給人一種壓抑的感覺。房地產產生泡沫的原因是因為房地產和城市的興盛最終是由人口積累推動的，而單獨的發房地產，就無法產生就業機會，因此上就無法吸引就業者及其家庭。最終的結果就是，只有土地本身被『都市化』。也就成了現在的『空城』，『鬼城』。」
對於房產開發商來說，避開災難的重要因素包括以下幾點：保持交通暢通，管理到位，供電設施齊全，偏遠樓盤基本生活設施要完備。及時完善社區自給設施。
從「安亭」案例來看，其失敗的主要原因並不在於該社區的設施問題。這個大型的社區裡小橋流水，綠樹成蔭，到處都令人賞心悅目，對於中國的購房者來說，安亭小鎮具有絕對的吸引力。一位上海城市規劃人員對《明鏡》記者說安亭就像一幅絕美的風景畫。其設計「是經過深思熟慮的」，——但是「該項目卻是失敗的，原因在於，它孤立於市區之外，周圍都是工業區和荒地。」 看上去就像一個格格不入的「異物」。
中國一些業內人士分析認為，城市房產空置基本反映出中國房產過剩。在這點上，鄂爾多斯」鬼城「就是一個典型。但是，有些經濟學家認為這種看法過於狹隘。
潘英麗說，「人們對於『鬼城』的說法有些誇大，中國是個大國，各地方政府的管理方式皆不相同，領導的工作能力也有高低差異。地方政府舉債造城，但是並沒有製造相應的就業機會來增加人口。從而無法獲得相應的投資回報來償還債務，而銀行採用延期還貸的方法——換句話說，就是地方政府借新債還舊債。"
楊思安認為這種全盤複製西方建築的現象的部分原因在於房產開發缺乏商業動力……規劃者只是對雜誌上的一些理念斷章取義。" 頂秀置業的劉新虎卻並不同意這個說法。丁秀美泉獨特設計風格是經過深思慮的。絕不是草率的盲目仿製品。
劉新虎說，最初他們是想設計一種古代的中式村落，但是這個地方的風水不適合。」中國傳統風水對於空間位置都非常講究，一般都要依水而建。我們想充分利用周邊地貌和景致。使居所更好的融入自然。
（博斯克提醒說「 風水不好，社區的前途就不會興旺。」）
劉新虎說這種將習俗與風景結合的阿爾比斯風格，是有意設計的。在中國，「歐式建築是有極大象徵意義的，」（對於一些歷史古城的確如此，比如在天津你就能看見象徵著天津古老歷史的馬拉車銅像之類的東西。)
劉新虎說丁秀美泉的開發商曾經派了一個十多個人的設計組到歐洲各國考察，去過很多鄉村小鎮後，他們認為與「原汁原味的複製」相比，「適應生活習俗」更為重要，人們想要的是悠閒的田園式的生活，而不是那種歐洲式的貴族風範。"
頂秀美泉小鎮，真正的店鋪寥寥無幾，有一家小超市，出售一些常見的生活品——如鴨脖，真空包裝的雞腿等。
你可以看見街道上擺放著很多裝飾用的長凳。在中國別的城市是少見的。劉新虎說，「我們這樣做，是希望人們多出來走走……在中國，人們都愛呆在家裡，而在歐洲，情況就不一樣了。」 但是，這裡連個想花錢的地方都沒有——幾乎所有的商店和酒吧都是人造假景。玩具店裡面的櫥窗上貼著商品畫冊，但透過破了的窗戶向裡看，卻只有灰塵覆蓋的水泥地上，堆積著沙子，還有一輛自行車和工人吃剩的午餐。
對此劉新華解釋說，「生意總是要隨著時間才能慢慢好起來的。我們前面的一排店鋪一間都沒有對外銷售，是因為我們擔心店鋪銷售出去，我們就無法控制，從而造成到處都是銷售低檔次貨品的商鋪。這是我們不希望出現的狀況。」他的說法也是有道理的。為數不多的幾家店，其中就有一家小超市賣一些鴨脖，正空包裝雞腿，薯片，辣豆腐，啤酒，冰凍魚丸之類的低檔次的日用飲食。這些都不大符合他的「品牌理念」。
即使頂秀美泉的房子沒有一間是賣給歐洲人的，也沒有一家商鋪賣鵝肝或鮮美的威士忌酒之類的東西，但是這裡的確到處體現了各種歐洲優雅的文化風情。頂秀美泉的伊舍爾酒店寬敞豪華，卻生意慘澹。據其網頁介紹說，該酒店原型位於一個於奧地利小鎮，據說是奧地利王子佛蘭茨.約瑟夫邂逅茜茜公主的地方。事實上他們真正邂逅的地方是一個叫Bad Ischi的小鎮。但這點無關緊要。兩個月前，公眾期盼已久的「首家茜茜公主主題度假酒店」在頂秀美泉歐式風情商業街區正式開門迎客。（這一冠名雖然無法證實其真實性，但還是有些名至實歸的感覺）
劉新虎說，他們特意設計了這種融各種國家傳統風情於一體的建築風格，是因為它至少在中國大陸得到了普遍認可。在丁秀美泉，戶主們需要的不是體會原汁原味的歐式生活，而是感受這種歐式居所的原有色彩。但不能接受完全歐式化的東西，因為完全真實的建築到了中國顯而易見是有缺陷的。「就像德式的房子，顏色太暗，會產生一種壓抑的感覺。"
的確，對于越來越自信的中國人來說，也許會逐漸厭倦這些完全複製的歐式風格。博斯克說，「現在一些新開發的樓盤的設計都反映出傳統的中國風格。所以擔心中國人終有一天完全停止複製我們的建築，也是不無道理的。」
（翻譯：Jennifer1974 編輯：丹妮）