This article is by the Christian group OMF International, however it has a sociological focus rather than a theistic one. It contends that the population shift in China from villages to cities is killing rural life and putting the country at risk.

The Death of the Chinese Village
Our readers will be aware of the tidal wave of migrant workers from the villages into China’s cities over the last three decades. Well more than 200 million rural people have gone to the cities to seek work—the greatest migration in human history. Millions have sought a better life and a higher income, and many have found it. However, this migration has its downside...
Full article here: http://omf.org/us/the-death-of-the-chinese-village/

Here are a couple of poignant excerpts:

A recent article has pointed out the devastating effect this migration is having on rural villages and the traditional Chinese way of life (Daily Telegraph, November 24, 2013). It claims that the very soul of China is rapidly being destroyed. What Mao failed to accomplish through the People’s communes and the Cultural Revolution is now coming about through migration, urbanization, materialism and consumerism on a vast scale.
...
Since 2000, more than 900,000 villages have been abandoned or destroyed. The total number has plummeted from 3.6 million villages in 2000 to only 2.7 million in 2010—a decline of 25 percent in only a decade. If this rate of destruction continues, the vast majority of traditional villages will disappear over the next 20-30 years. What replaces them? High-rise apartments, shopping malls and all the trappings of rampant consumerism. As one travels around China, the modern city centers look alike—just like so many soulless Western cities with their McDonalds, Starbucks, supermarkets and chain stores.

So, are there parallels in Cambodia? I've only lived in Phnom Penh so I'm not well placed to form an opinion. The time I've spent in the provinces has shown me that the textile factories are keeping the villages going, but do country youth have the same yearning to be urban-dwellers, or is the lure of the city more based in the need to provide for village-based families? Is the rampant urbanisation/consumerism that we're seeing (that new coffee shop just opened in TTP a couple of days ago) going to impact Cambodia in the same was as it is China?

While a lot of small villages in China have disappeared, the larger ones have turned into cities. If you have read The Good Earth, you'll remember that when there was a drought the family went to the city and then returned when things got better. The town I live in was a village 30 years ago. Many also return home after a few years in the city. Plus I think many will agree that many Khmer are not as ambitious as the Chinese.

0to60 wrote:While a lot of small villages in China have disappeared, the larger ones have turned into cities. If you have read The Good Earth, you'll remember that when there was a drought the family went to the city and then returned when things got better. The town I live in was a village 30 years ago. Many also return home after a few years in the city. Plus I think many will agree that many Khmer are not as ambitious as the Chinese.

Cheers - from memory the article in the OP also mentioned The Good Earth. Absolutely, a prosperous village will become a town, will become a city (if natural resources/industries are present)... I think this is a little different to that, though. I've heard it said that China engineered a new 'solution' to Nepal - build a highway between the two, and within a generation Nepal will be done and dusted. I don't think there's any similar deliberate intent here (that would be paying too much credit to the organ-grinder AND the monkeys) but I wonder if the end result will be the same. After spending some time in Takeo Province recently, I hope not. I was visiting a village with a couple of teacher mates, and we were seriously discussing that apart from health and education, the kids in the village have a far happier life than in the city.

The only city I can think of that didn't start out as a village would be Phoenix, AZ. Laid out and planned in the desert, a big checkerboard. But you probably have similar examples in Oz, being a new country as well.

The wiki says PP has gained 300 000 in the last 6 years. I think most will stay but many will return.

0to60 wrote:The only city I can think of that didn't start out as a village would be Phoenix, AZ. Laid out and planned in the desert, a big checkerboard. But you probably have similar examples in Oz, being a new country as well.

The wiki says PP has gained 300 000 in the last 6 years. I think most will stay but many will return.

Was Las Vegas planned, or did it evolve from a village?

A couple of large towns in outback Oz were planned from scratch and are less than or around 40 years old, built as mining support towns. Actually Canberra (the capital of Australia) was purpose-built as a city as the good people of Melbourne and Sydney would each not allow the other to be the capital, so Canberra was a half-arsed compromise. The town planner did such an appalling job that s/he later suicided following criticism of the PP job. That didn't stop the town of Port Hedland in WA being planned on exactly the same model. You know the little mazes with a ball in them?



Just like that. You can literally see your destination as you drive off for ten minutes before coming back to it.

Edit: It's of little consequence, but the town planner of Canberra, WB Griffin, didn't suicide but rather died of peritonitis - the planner who copied his concepts to create Sourh Hedland did.

They also want to build a high speed train from Kunming to KL, but Thailand is backing out on the deal. that's hurting Laos more than anything,they were looking forward to it.




Perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled here 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Pauite tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago.

A young scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first European to encounter the valley, in 1829. The area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for "the meadows", as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers.[10] The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C. Fremont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas’ Fremont Street is named after him.

Eleven years later members of the Mormon Church choose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

0to60 wrote:They also want to build a high speed train from Kunming to KL, but Thailand is backing out on the deal. that's hurting Laos more than anything,they were looking forward to it.

Perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled here 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Pauite tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago.

A young scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first European to encounter the valley, in 1829. The area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for "the meadows", as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers.[10] The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C. Fremont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas’ Fremont Street is named after him.

Eleven years later members of the Mormon Church choose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Las_Vegas#History

I fixed that for you. I can't help it, too many years at university. I'm sorry.

Ironic that a town established by Mormons becomes the global representation of everything the Mormons are against.

I was wrong about Phoenix, that was something someone told me when I asked why all the avenues are exactly a mile apart.
What did you fix? I see forgot to capitalize the t, but that's still there.

As far as Vegas turning out that way, it had a lot to do with silver in Nevada and gold in Cali.
As far as Cambodia becoming urbanized, I don't see it happening. Like Laos many Khmer prefer the rural lifestyle.