4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In the span of five years, Chairman Huang turned farmland in China’s Sichuan province into Seaside City. The ocean-themed town, which Huang says was inspired by Dubai and Disneyland, is now home to more than 400,000 people. In the city centre, numerous maritime spectacles attract visitors from afar. The crown jewel is the world’s largest aquarium with several whale sharks and a community of sea turtles. But is Seaside City a forward-thinking economic experiment or the personal fiefdom of a megalomaniac? What do former peasants in the area think of the city?
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0:00.0 | Chairman Huang's dream was to build a city on the sea, |
0:04.1 | to be China's most daring real estate tycoon, |
0:07.6 | to turn a blank slate of countryside |
0:10.0 | into paradise, an entirely new type of Chinese city. |
0:14.6 | Here he is, taking me on a tour of his creation. |
0:18.1 | We're both speaking Chinese, so myself and a translator are overdubbing the conversation. |
0:23.3 | It took only four years of construction to go from countryside to city. |
0:31.3 | Now there's 1,000 companies here. 120,000 people. |
0:37.0 | I tell him that I just came in Denmark, that there aren't buildings this tall anywhere there. Danba, is that in Europe or somewhere else? |
0:47.0 | Northern Europe. |
0:48.0 | Northern Europe. |
0:50.0 | Okay, let me tell you about North Europe. |
0:53.0 | Also, the rest of Europe, in these places, cities usually |
0:56.9 | evolved over hundreds of years. |
0:59.2 | It's a slow process, am I right? But in China today there are people who can devote their life to making a city |
1:07.4 | all on their own. I want to make the most spectacular city in all of China. The most spectacular city in the whole world. |
1:15.0 | The most spectacular city in the whole world. |
1:16.0 | The only one is a chance. |
1:19.0 | You got two ichs in champs. This is the story of Chairman Huang and his seaside city. Inspired by his travels to Disney World and Dubai, |
1:36.0 | the chairman planned every detail of this place. |
1:39.0 | High fier now. |
1:40.0 | Did I do a good job? |
... |
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