Shi Yan （十堰）

十堰 Shi Yan is a small town by Chinese standards....but a BIG town by the rest of our standards...

It has a population of nearly 1 million. The inner city population is about 300,000 to 500,000.

I doubt some of the Australian towns have a population of that size! Malaysian towns...nah! Even our cities aren't that big, except for Kuala Lumpur..

Where is Shi Yan?

It's about 500+ km northeast of Wuhan! It's near to the border of Hubei province and Shaanxi province. It's actually nearer to Xian than Wuhan!

It is set amongst the hills.....
It is in the valley between...

Shi Yan is similar to Canberra! They are manufactured cities...
Canberra was "set up" to be the capital of Australia and set to hold all the administrative and power of Australian politics...

Shi Yan...was set up to be the manufacturing base for one of China's project! It is set up to be the headquarter of my client!

How is Shi Yan laid out?

It is shaped like an octupus, with 4-5 tentacles.

There is the city centre with its wide roads (a.k.a body) This place has good roads...much better than in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan! And the roads are actually non-bumpy! And do not have potholes!

And along 4 - 5 wide avenues, leading to 4-5 districts with its own factory, accomodation for workers and their families, schools, clinics, playgrounds....

For every two districts, there will be a centralised hospital!

Sounds like Pleasantville right?

I think it was planned to be like Pleasantville! But knowing the chinese's inventful streak, it became a little too chaotic to be so...
But it can be modelled as China's answer to Pleasantville!

It's a pleasant little town...and it has FRESH air (that is a premium in China!)
And the air is light, crisp and fresh...very much like in the hill ranges!
It is in the hill ranges! Duh...

I think this blog is turning out to be a geography lession...so I am going to sign off now...
adios...

More on Shi Yan's food later...