China to create an ideal cycling city

"China to flatten 700 mountains for new metropolis in the desert.

Lanzhou new area plan to begin with 'mountain-moving project', but
financial and environmental wisdom of project questioned.

A long, long time ago, an old Chinese peasant named Yu Gong decided to
move two inconveniently located mountains away from blocking the
entrance to his home. Legend has it he struggled terribly, but
ultimately succeeded. Hence the Chinese idiom "Yu Gong moves the
mountains." Where there's a will, there's a way. Now Chinese
developers are putting old Yu to shame.

In what is being billed as the largest "mountain-moving project" in
Chinese history, oneof China's biggest construction firms will spend
£2.2bn to flatten 700 mountains levelling the area Lanzhou, allowing
developers to build a new metropolis on the outskirts of the north-
western city.

The Lanzhou New Area, 500 square miles (130,000 hectares) of land 50
miles from the city, which is the provincial capital of arid Gansu
province, could increase the region's gross domestic product to £27bn
by 2030, according to the state-run China Daily. It has already
attracted almost £7bn of corporate investment.

The project will be China's fifth "state-level development zone" and
the first in the country's rapidly developing interior, according to
state media reports. Others include Shanghai's Pudong and Tianjin's
Binhai, home to a half-built, 120-building replica of Manhattan.
China's state council, its highest administrative authority, approved
the Lanzhou project in August.

The first stage of the mountain-flattening initiative, which was
reported on Tuesday by the China Economic Weekly magazine, began in
late October and will eventually enable a new urban district almost 10
square miles in size northeast of downtown Lanzhou – a small, but
important part of the Lanzhou Nnew area project to be built.

One of the country's largest private companies: the Nanjing-based
China Pacific Construction Group, headed by Yan Jiehe, is behind the
initiative. The 52-year-old former teacher is portrayed in China as a
sort of home-grown Donald Trump – ultra-ambitious and preternaturally
gifted at navigating the country's vast network of "guanxi", or
personal connections."

And, even better, there's little likelihood of rain spoiling your
ride:-

"Liu Fuyuan, a former high-level official at the country's National
Development and Reform Commission, told China Economic Weekly that the
project was unsuitable because Lanzhou is frequently listed as among
China's most chronically water-scarce municipalities. "The most
important thing is to gather people in places where there is water,"
he said."

So, win-win (as the zoo-keeper named his panda).