Notes on the Geography of China: TaiyuanTaiyuan is another of those second-tier Chinese cities that are hardly known outside China despite having populations approaching or in excess of three million. What to expect? The best short answer is: the unexpected. Make default image size larger ![]() Aerial approach. Looks like a City of the Future, as envisioned early in the 20th century. Except that this is no artist's conception. That's the Fenhe flowing south toward its confluence, a couple of hundred miles downstream, with the Yellow River. ![]() Not only is this a place of high-rises, it's a place where high-rises grow in thickets or, in that ugly word, complexes. Is the street-plan gridded? Yes, the street plan is gridded. ![]() The housing stock is distinctly generational, with older neighborhoods indicative of poorer times. ![]() A bit of both eras appear here, with the Longtan Park in the upper left. ![]() The 100% corner, Fu Xi Street and Xin Jian Road, the city's aspirational focus. We'll look more closely. ![]() The Chinese love prestigious foreign brands. ![]() The models here are all Western. ![]() If the object of models is to invite emulation, then the Chinese are doomed to frustration. ![]() Taiyuan is sometimes called a rust-belt city, and when it appears in Western news stories, the topic is generally coal or something related to coal. You'd never know it. ![]() What was it that Deng said about wealth and glory? ![]() For a nation that toils single-mindedly, nothing can be as alluring as time-wasting. |
* Argentina * Australia * Austria * Bangladesh * Belgium * Botswana * Brazil * Burma / Myanmar * Cambodia (Angkor) * Canada (B.C.) * China * The Czech Republic * Egypt * Fiji * France * Germany * Ghana * Greece * Hungary * India: Themes * Northern India * Peninsular India * Indonesia * Israel * Italy * Japan * Jerusalem * Jordan * Kenya * Laos * Kosovo * Malawi * Malaysia * Mauritius * Mexico * Micronesia (Pohnpei) * Morocco * Mozambique * Namibia * The Netherlands * New Zealand * Nigeria * Norway * Oman * Pakistan * Peru * The Philippines * Poland * Portugal * Senegal * Singapore * South Africa * South Korea * Spain * Sri Lanka * Sudan * Syria (Aleppo) * Tanzania * Thailand * Trinidad * Turkey (Istanbul) * Uganda * The U.A.E. (Dubai) * The United Kingdom * The Eastern United States * The Western United States * Oklahoma * Uzbekistan * Vietnam * The West Bank * Yemen * Zambia * Zimbabwe *