On holidays, Hong Kong shoppers account for as much as half of all customers at Link CentralWalk, a stylish mall next to Shenzhen’s high-speed railway station that’s a 20-minute ride from Hong Kong, said a company spokesperson.

Wow that’s impressive! Only 20min?

Shenzhen is a special economic zone right? This means that the government is giving special economic benefits (e.g tax cuts) (can’t give more info I’m not too sure about the details). They created several ones on the coast and this created a disparity in development where the coast line is much more developed that the inland desert lol. It kinda sounds like the disparaît between the sun belt and the agricultural center or the US.

There’s a guy at the end that says that opposing the authoritarian government has no use because political freedom has no influence on your life. However this article makes it sounds like life is all about shopping and consuming, the only benefit of Shenzhen is shopping, buying stuff.

I don’t live in the US but this is the same there right? Authoritarian government… only consuming stuff, etc…

China and the US are kinda the same, the only difference is that it’s going well for the buying power of the Chinese people who can afford a rent on the coastline.

[–] nekandro@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 months ago

Take a look at a map of China's HSR network. Most of that network isn't profitable off of fares: instead, the coastal infrastructure is used to subsidize less profitable lines in the interior (that undoubtedly provide benefits, but not necessarily enough to directly offset the costs with fares).

It's a given that coastal cities will become more prosperous. China is using the prosperity of coastal cities to improve living conditions in the rest of the country.