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: more than you expect. 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. You can see at least three generations of housing here: pre-Revolutionary, Maoist, and recent. ![]() The older areas are a reminder of the poverty from which China is emerging. ![]() Another view, with the Longtan Park in the upper left. ![]() Fu Xi Street and Xin Jian Road. This corner is the city's aspirational focus. ![]() The magnetic attraction of luxury brands, for the moment at least foreign. ![]() The models are White. ![]() Surely the Chinese do not wish to be rich Whites, but the ad agency seems to have thought otherwise. ![]() Taiyuan is sometimes called a rust-belt city, and when it appears in Western news stories, the topic is usually related to coal. You'd never know it. ![]() Wealth, respect, and fun? Is that it, folks? ![]() For people who work themselves as hard as the Chinese, perhaps nothing is as alluring as time-wasting. |
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