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Comment by 205guy | Hacker News Reader

Can foreigners buy/rent there? After living in cars, RVs, and the wilderness, will edgy hackers go for cheap digs and cheap food in the 90% empty Paris replica in the hinterlands of China? Get a dozen friends together and start something there. I'm sure you can find some cheap programmers there too. Heck, you could start a zh-combinator there.

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If they were cheap, they wouldn't be ghost cities. They're ghost cities because poor people got kicked out of their homes to build expensive buildings that they now won't let go of for low prices. Eventually of course they'll need to sell it, once China's real estate bubble starts to pop.

Expensive for farmers who make $2kUSD per annum. Even in the central districts of tier two Chinese cities[1], rent is only $200-300/month for a decent two bedroom. In which case, they ought to just move to a functioning city. My total monthly expenses (rent, food, leisure, taxis, reasonably fast internet) are often <$800USD.

[1]ie not Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou

The farmers can't afford it, who can? China also has to reform its hukou system before these cities can really become viable communities; for a foreign kid having fun, whatever, but what if you had a family to worry about...medical care, schooling, and other social welfares become very important.

Yes, these issues are major problems for China overall and for the individuals that make up the working poor (Still literally hundreds of millions of people.)

The parent comment was about creating cheap hacker spaces.

If we want to use cheap art space as a guide, like 798, they don't last very long, or, if generic, are not very intellectually stimulating. Might as well crash someplace nice like Bali where at least Google+ and Facebook aren't blocked.

I would join such a venture in a heartbeat. However I don't think the Chinese would appreciate their colonizing habits being put in reverse.

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