The place where we had the Peking Duck dinner at the end of our first day of touring Beijing is the oldest Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing, established in 1864. However, the street upon which it is located (photo above) is undergoing a total renovation.The renovation projects in China are nothing like those in the US. When China decides to renovate an area, they can (and do) go in and relocate all current inhabitants. They can completely demolish an entire area and rebuild totally modern.
We also saw this approach occur at the port where we docked in Shanghai. It had been surrounded by a slum area. It was being completely demolished and new, modern mid-rises and shopping areas built. Shanghai will host a world expo in 2010, so they are remodeling now like Beijing did a couple of years ago.
This approach takes eminent domain to a level far beyond what the US would tolerate, but the end effect is that China can demolish and rebuild a complete new complex on huge scale faster than the US could complete the environmental impact study and apply for permits.
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