Inside failed plans for £4.2bn mega city dubbed ‘Manhattan of Africa’ being developed by China
CHINA once revealed ambitious plans to build a £4.2billion modern “eco-smart city” in the heart of South Africa.
Dubbed the “New York of Africa”, Modderfontein near Johannesburg was supposed to be a home for the ultra-rich, but the city never saw the light of the day.
The project was designed by Shanghai-based Zendai Group, which bought the 1,600-hectare site in 2013.
They envisioned it as a smart and modern city that blended perfectly with nature.
The developers committed to providing 300,000 jobs, 50,000 homes, and modern amenities, including shopping centres, schools, and hospitals.
Luxury skyscrapers and lush green forest-like parks were also promised.
There were even plans to connect the futuristic city with a high-speed rail network that would take just seven minutes to reach Johannesburg, The Express reports.
Dai Zhikang, Zendai’s chairman, claimed it would become “the future capital of the whole of Africa.
“This will be on a par with cities like New York in America or Hong Kong in the Far East.”
Top international consulting firms like Atkins and Arup were hired to draw up a masterplan for the 1,600-hectare site.
But the ambitious project never came to life.
Local authorities demanded that Chinese developers should include thousands of affordable housing units for nearby residents to stay in the city.
However, the firm’s plan only included luxury homes for the ultra-rich people
The project was put on hold for two years before being finally scraped off.
Today, the site in Modderfontein has a small population living in scattered homes.
Meanwhile, a £1billion Chinese-made city sits empty in Malaysia after it was left to rot by the developers.
The Forest City looks like a lavish resort and is only a stone’s throw away from bustling and noisy Singapore.
At first glance, it appears to be a regular metropolis with hundreds of high-rise buildings, villas and paved roads.
But upon closer inspection, visitors can notice how eerily silent the “ghost city”.
Most of the opulent apartments and villas are left to rot in the estate built by Country Garden – China’s largest property developer – under Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The ambitious project was being built in 2016 during China‘s real-estate boom.
Forest City is now merely a deserted ghost town beside a river rife with crocodiles.
Only a few hundred people reside in the high-rise structures, and just 15% of the project has been completed.
FAKE PARIS
Meanwhile, China built its own rip-off “Paris of the East” – complete with a knock-off Eiffel Tower and French architecture.
Tianducheng even boasts Parisian walkways, cafes, parks and signage.
But for years the gaudy mimic was all but a ghost town, with just 2,000 residents calling it their mission.
The luxury real estate development opened in 2007 following a massive £1 billion construction project.
Its copy-cat Eiffel Tower is 729 feet shorter than the French original, standing just 107 metres tall.
While an imitation of the Champs-Élysées avenue was named Xiangxie Road before being switched back to the French name.
Developers even gave Tianducheng it’s own Palace of Versailles gardens with geometric planting and fountains.
And with streets upon streets of Parisian-style housing, you’d be forgiven if you confused the clone with the French capital.
But despite all of this, the mock City of Lovers failed to get anyone to fall head over heels for it.
This was partly due to its hard-to-reach location in rural Zhejiang province.
Incredibly, between 2007 and 2013, only around 2,000 people lived in a town built for 10,000.
But as the Haussmann-style homes remained vacant the eerie town attracted throngs of tourists.
These included newlyweds looking for a picture-perfect backdrop to their wedding pictures.
However, by 2017 word had got around about the European wannabe and it boasted 30,000 residents.
Incredibly, the Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng is not China’s only dupe on the famous French tower.
There’s also a 108-metre tall one in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
It is one of dozens of bizarre “fake” landmarks China has built during its “duplitecture” obsession.
Other weirdness includes a dupe of London’s Tower Bridge, Alpine villages and even the Sydney Opera House.