Ghost Cities of China

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-kangbashi-a-ghost-city-in-china-2012-7?op=1

As recently as July 2012 China stated it will build 20 cities a year for the next 20 years.
Is it wise and thoughtful preparation for future population growth? Or the biggest waste of resources ever known? China keeping its cash at home? The biggest real estate bubble in the universe?

I used to travel to China extensively in the 90's and 00's. At that time, one thing was omnipresent: abandoned and empty housing and factories everywhere in China. Mostly old, although now with these Ghost Cities, a mix of old and new. No Chinese person could or would explain them to me. I think of empty apartment buildings, left standing with no air circulation, growing moldy, eroding, metals oxidizing and rusting, plastics embrittling. In a short while these buildings will not be inhabitable, if they were habitable to begin with. Mostly it seems wasteful to me. Monuments to nationalism.

I guess I missed this topic making the rounds last year. Yesterday we ran across a video of skateboarders skating on public works in Ordos city, on Vimeo. If there had been any citizens living there, they surely would have complained about "disrespectful acts." 

More pictures of Ghost Cities here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339536/Ghost-towns-China-Satellite-images-cities-lying-completely-deserted.html

Even more pictures here (Time Magazine): http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1975397_2094492,00.html