Why is Zhuhai called a ghost town?

Zhuhai is called a ghost town because there are too many buildings, the occupancy rate is not high, and the night is dark, so it is vividly called a "ghost town".

Ghost town refers to a city whose resources are exhausted and abandoned, which belongs to geographical terms. With the advancement of urbanization, more and more high-standard new urban areas appear. Due to the high vacancy rate, few people live in these new urban areas, and it is dark at night, so they are vividly called "ghost towns".

With the crazy investment and rapid development of real estate in China, 12 new ghost towns have been born in China. These cities are empty and uninhabited, mostly second-and third-tier cities. In addition to Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei and Liaoning are also listed. Now Huizhou Zhuhai has also become a ghost town!

Root of the problem

The spread of ghost towns and empty cities in China stems from the local government's dependence on land finance, but the root lies in the central government's performance evaluation model for local governments. For example, the higher-level government gives the lower-level government the assessment target of fixed assets investment every year, which makes many places try their best to engage in large projects and large investments for repeated construction. Empty cities and ghost towns are extreme manifestations of investment-driven economy.

The domestic economy is transforming and the structure is adjusting, but the performance evaluation mechanism from the higher level has not changed synchronously. The evaluation of GDP, fixed assets investment, investment attraction and other indicators still dominates the behavior of local governments. If the assessment mechanism cannot be substantially changed, it will inevitably lead local officials to put on old wine in new bottles and put on the vest of land finance. Empty cities and ghost towns are popular, and the board should not only hit local governments, but also reform the performance appraisal mechanism.