In the summer, my family and I went on a trip to China (Shanghai, Wuxi and some other cities i forgot) that was subsidized by the Chinese government. Cos of tht we only paid $99 for the one week tour. This including tour guides, all transportation, hotels and 3 meals in a day in local restaurants. On a whole I think there were about 300 people on the tour when we were there; all sitting in different buses. This is no surprise cos the cost was dirt cheap! However, there was a catch.. that is, all those who applied for the tour had to be overseas Chinese that is a foreign passport holder that’s from Chinese origin. So, basically all the buses were filled with Chinese-Australians, Chinese-Canadians, Chinese-Americans, etc. lol. pretty cool ehy?
Anyway, I was wondering why the chinese gov was giving us such a cheap trip.. and i think someone said it was to promote tourism in China. I guess that was right… partially right… it was only on the travelling between cities in China that I actually realized the real reason… that it was to try to get Chinese back into China. lol, sounds funny right? BUT, hear me out..!
I forgot which city it was, but we were heading into a new city and I noticed that the outskirts were filled with buildings that were 5 storeys high with tonnes of windows and pipes that hung outside their windows to dry clothes. The place was crammed with people, bicycles, steaming trays of food, brown mud, rusty pipes, pot holes, mirky coloured walkways and small alleys. I was wondering ‘why are these people so poor when they live next to a city?’ Shouldn’t everyone be in decent living standards cos they live next to a city?
After thinking about that.. a day later (maybe?), I don’t remember when but we were driving between cities (cos every day we moved to another city, from Nanjing to Wuxi or something like that) and we passed these HUUUUUUUUUGE suburbs with houses that had absolutely beautiful facades, walkways, picket fences, etc. it was AMAZING! i was like ‘daddy loook at all the houses.. how much do you think it costs?’ cos, they were obviously brand new and had stunning modern designs, like seriously there were even sleek bungalows overlooking the coast.. i thought ‘must cost loads…and whoever who owns a house like those must be super damn rich maybe someone from Hong Kong or something..’. Anyway, while admiring the huge houses I noticed that these locations look too clean like a ‘Truman Show’ house. Then I realized that most of the houses were unoccupied.. i think even some of the suburbs that we went pass were completely deserted. Im seriously not exaggerating. I tried hard to look for smoke coming out from their roofs (cos it was the winter, and we passed some farm houses/rutty suburbs with smoke sipping our from their chimneys) but it was completely cold..(lol, pun intended 
) Anyway, with thoughts from the previous view of shanty, buzzing outskirt villages..
the light bulb lighted! The answer finally dawned on me! The Chinese government want the overseas Chinese to invest in China, come back to China and live there! The local Chinese people cannot afford the homes, why not fill these homes with “rich” overseas Chinese cos they are rich and live overseas!! (lol such a generalisation, but.. it’s true that the families that were on the tour were carrying LV’se, Gucci and Patek Phillipe watches) Yeah! I’m also quite sure that overseas Chinese were educated OVERSEAS and would most probably hold an MBA or doctorate. (once again, another generalisation that I hope does not offend you) This was the reason why the Chinese gov have such cheap tours! I think they thought that ‘Even though some may not be rich, if we get enough overseas Chinese to visit China, I’m sure a percentage of them would see how great China is and invest in those houses. maybe move over!’ LOOOOL, ok maybe tht’s not what they ACTUALLY said, but don’t u reckon it’s close? 
Anyway, to further affirm my argument, I came across this video in Timothy Tiah’s blog (www.timothytiah.com). Watch it, it’s pretty amazing.. maybe some of you guys might have already watched it. If I’m not mistaken it might have been featured in ‘dateline’ by SBS Australia.
So, my conclusion is that the Chinese government has seen the problem and is hoping that Chinese from around the world (that is not from China) would go back to China, spend some CASHHH and possibly help solve the problem of Ghost Cities. That is of course, instead of subsidizing property costs or applying incentives for local Chinese people to start businesses.
