Ces Villes Immenses Bâties Sans Que Personne N’Y Vive

Sympa

Imaginez-vous déambulant dans une ville aux gratte-ciel gigantesques, aux maisons élégantes, et aux rues désertes—bienvenue dans le monde des villes fantômes ! Ces villes immenses ont été construites pour loger des millions de personnes, mais pour diverses raisons, presque personne ne s'y est installé. L'un des exemples les plus célèbres est la ville d'Ordos en Chine, bâtie au début des années 2000 lors d'un boom minier du charbon. Elle a été conçue pour un million de personnes, mais aujourd'hui, environ 100,000 seulement y vivent—ce qui signifie que la majeure partie semble désespérément abandonnée. Beaucoup de ces villes fantômes ont été créées comme d'énormes projets d'investissement, mais lorsque les habitants ne s'y sont pas installés, elles se sont transformées en jungles urbaines vides. Certaines gagnent doucement des habitants, tandis que d'autres restent des rappels silencieux de projets d'urbanisme trop ambitieux. Oseriez-vous explorer l'une de ces villes ? 👀  Animation créée par Sympa. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Musique par Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Pour ne rien perdre de Sympa, abonnez-vous!: https://goo.gl/6E4Xna​ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nos réseaux sociaux : Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sympasympacom/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sympa.officiel/  Stock de fichiers (photos, vidéos et autres): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Si tu en veux encore plus, fais un tour ici:  http://sympa-sympa.com

Transcript

00:00You walk along a vast artery in the heart of a tentacular megalopolis,

00:06seized by the strange impression of having been projected into a science fiction setting.

00:11Around you, a heavy silence reigns.

00:14The skyscrapers, brand new, seem deserted.

00:17No vehicles, no living souls.

00:20Could the apocalypse have swept away all human presence?

00:23These could be your thoughts if you had wandered, a few years ago,

00:27the streets of Ordos Khangbashi, a new city built in Inner Mongolia.

00:32It emerged in a record time, less than a decade.

00:35In the middle of the desert, it offers an ambitious architecture,

00:39a profusion of public space and freshly built residences.

00:43However, it is not for these qualities that it became known.

00:47What struck the minds, it is rather its lack of population.

00:51Soon, the media made fun of the nickname of ghost town,

00:55claiming that it was deserted and lifeless.

00:58Faced with such an observation, a question arises,

01:01why no one wanted to establish it?

01:03This is where history takes a unique turn.

01:06As early as 2009, the first articles relating the supposed failure of Ordos Khangbashi emerged.

01:12Journalists went there and found that the city had few inhabitants.

01:16In their eyes, it evoked a metropolis ravaged by a catastrophe.

01:21However, these reporters did not bother to question the local authorities

01:25about the reasons for this apparent desertion.

01:27They also omitted an essential element.

01:30In 2009, the city was still in its sixth year of construction.

01:34It was not even finished.

01:36Of course, the population was still enlightened when they called it a ghost town.

01:41But by ignorance or sensationalism, they amplified the situation,

01:46thus distorting reality in the eyes of the public.

01:49Do you want to know the real story?

01:51Ordos has never been built to remain empty.

01:54It is an urban project still in gestation.

01:56Its initial plan was to welcome a million inhabitants by 2023.

02:00However, a series of upheavals on the coal market,

02:04the main economic resource of the region,

02:06has come to compromise its ambitions.

02:08The city has therefore reviewed its objectives

02:11and is now based on a population of about 3,000 inhabitants.

02:14During its first five years,

02:16Kangbashi has a real city center including offices,

02:19a world-class museum and an opera house.

02:22It even had a modern library,

02:25whose structure evoked books aligned on a shelf.

02:28However, the city remained a construction site in full evolution.

02:31Rather than a ghost town, it was actually a vast construction site.

02:36At first, no one lived there permanently,

02:39due to essential infrastructures such as schools, hospitals and shops.

02:44Workers went there on a daily basis

02:46before regaining their homes at nightfall.

02:49It took several additional years to equip the city with the necessary equipment,

02:53thus explaining its low population density.

02:57Today, Ordos could not be qualified as a ghost town,

03:01just like our next destination.

03:03Heading for Africa, towards a large residential project,

03:06Nova Cidade de Quilamba.

03:08Located about 30 km from Luanda, the Angolan capital,

03:12this city houses 750 residential buildings,

03:15more than a dozen school establishments and more than 100 shopping malls.

03:19The cost of the project is 3.5 billion dollars, a colossal sum.

03:24It was initially planned to accommodate up to 5,000 inhabitants.

03:28Quilamba was highlighted in careful promotional videos,

03:31in which families were seen getting away from the overcrowded districts of Luanda.

03:36But the reality was quite different.

03:38These people were not real residents, but mere extras.

03:42Indeed, almost a year after the first apartments were put on the market,

03:47only 220 had found a home.

03:50If you had known Quilamba in its early years,

03:53you would have been struck by an almost unreal atmosphere.

03:56The long rows of buildings with colored facades remained unoccupied,

04:01their closets and balconies deserted.

04:03The streets were almost empty, with few vehicles and even fewer passers-by.

04:08Most shops remained closed, except for a supermarket at the entrance of the city.

04:13If a few inhabitants had chosen to settle there,

04:16the absence of nearby shops made it difficult to access the first-need products.

04:21Mystery point here.

04:22Quilamba's apartments were offered at fluctuating rates between 2,000 and 200,000 dollars,

04:28a rewarding sum for the majority of Angolans,

04:31of which two-thirds subsisted with less than 2 dollars per day.

04:34In addition, the obtaining of a bank loan was part of the fighter's journey.

04:38Even with the adoption of new laws aimed at facilitating access to real estate loans,

04:42many Angolans, including the weakest, struggled to raise the necessary funds.

04:47Fortunately, the rates of the smallest apartments were seen to decline,

04:52going from 5,000 to 7,000 dollars.

04:55This decrease led to a significant increase in the population,

04:59which reached 8,000 residents in July 2015.

05:03Four years later, Quilamba already had a population of 19,000.

05:07In 2024, the city became a destination for the middle-class Angolans.

05:13We continue our exploration of the megalopolises in a post-apocalyptic style.

05:18Imagine wandering on paved streets,

05:20bordered by charming old-fashioned houses.

05:23You pass in front of Edwardian-style houses,

05:26and rows of Victorian terraces.

05:28There, a Fish and Chips and, right next to it,

05:32the emblematic red telephone booths,

05:34the whole seems to come straight out of an English postcard.

05:38But here is the loophole.

05:39You are only 40 minutes from the city center of Shanghai.

05:43Shanghai sought to offer its inhabitants a glimpse of the world by launching,

05:47as early as 2001, an ambitious project called

05:50One City, Nine Towns.

05:53The goal was to decongest an overcrowded metropolis

05:56by building nine residential areas on the outskirts,

05:59each of which reproduced the architecture and atmosphere of a Western country.

06:03Among these thematic enclaves,

06:05Thames Town, a small part of England.

06:08The creation of this miniature England required an investment of more than 330 million dollars.

06:14Some elements were directly imported from overseas,

06:17such as authentic reverberators,

06:19and a Gothic church in Bristol was faithfully reproduced.

06:22But the initiative did not limit itself to England.

06:25Other neighborhoods were inspired by Germany, Spain,

06:28the Netherlands and even Canada.

06:30So what happened?

06:32Thames Town's homes sold out at lightning speed,

06:36but they remained out of reach for most of the middle class they were destined for.

06:41In their place, wealthy buyers rushed to invest or make it their secondary residence.

06:47Today, Thames Town, like most of the nine cities, remains deserted.

06:52This neighborhood has turned into a ghost town,

06:55full of elegant houses and shops, but devoid of any life.

07:00Our next stop is not very far away.

07:02Welcome to Naipidao, one of the most unique capitals in the world.

07:07Imagine a metropolis, emerging from nowhere,

07:10built in the middle of rice fields and sugar cane plantations.

07:13In 2005, Myanmar unveiled to the rest of the world this brand new capital,

07:18called Naipidao, which means Royal City.

07:22According to some rumors, its construction would have cost up to 4 billion dollars.

07:27This surrealist city is six times larger than New York.

07:31Everything is designed on a monumental scale.

07:34The arteries have up to 20 routes and stretch out at eye level.

07:38There is a safari park and at least two golf courses.

07:42Unlike the rest of the country, the electricity supply is stable,

07:46and many restaurants offer free and fast Wi-Fi access.

07:50But a size problem persists.

07:52The place is abnormally empty.

07:54Its strange urbanism and its heavy atmosphere have even earned it international fame.

08:00The BBC's Top Gear team went there and never came back.

08:04They devoted a special episode to it, during which they looked for the perfect time,

08:09played a football match on deserted avenues

08:12and organized a speed race on one of the huge unoccupied boulevards.

08:16Looking closer, you can see some municipal workers in fluorescent green vests.

08:22They roam these roads, sweeping them meticulously, even if they are already immaculate.

08:27But what's the point of such an interview if no one wants to live there?

08:30Naipidaw is accused of being dull, expensive and devoid of essential infrastructure.

08:36The whole place seems to illustrate the adage,

08:38build and they will come.

08:40A bet that this city has manifestly lost.

08:43Let's now take the direction of the United States.

08:46In Pennsylvania, there is a city on the brink of fire.

08:49Centralia, an almost ghostly locality.

08:52Since 1962, a coal fire covers these streets and could still burn for two and a half centuries.

08:58It all started with an attempt to clean up a local discharge,

09:02which maliciously burned underground coal veins.

09:05Over the years, the inhabitants have deserted their cities,

09:08while the flames dug up threatening gulfs and charged the air with toxic gases,

09:12including carbon monoxide.

09:14In 1992, the state bought most of the land, leaving behind only a handful of residents,

09:20who agreed to return their property to the authorities after their death.

09:24Centralia was condemned and under these silent streets, the fire continues to rage.

09:29So, among these ghost cities, which would you choose to visit?

09:33Tell us in the comments.

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