China Evergrande ordered to liquidate, owing $300 bln

[Emrys]

11. I worked as a subcontractor on a prospectus for Evergrande a few years ago

It set out, in a highly glossy and idealized format, literally grand designs for an urban development for which they were looking for backers.

It looked amazing, and had a high degree of regard for environmental concerns, with the sorts of a whole range of design features it would be great to see incorporated into urban planning anywhere.

My main misgiving was when you added into the equation the people who would live there.

It might have suited the Chinese culture, it would certainly demand a high degree of conformity from residents despite a lot of thought and effort to make it liveable and provide many amenities, as evidenced by the flashy illustrations showing happy families in idyllic surroundings etc., but its scale was daunting (especially for me as I'm not a city person anyway), and unless a hell of a lot of resources were devoted to upkeep, I could see it turning into a nightmareish, dirty concrete jungle as so many of our brutalist townscapes that were thrown up in the west in the 1960s have done over the years.

The other big question was where on earth all the money was going to come from. It looks like they didn't solve that one.