Planning for the Present

With a population of 6 million plus, Dalian is a huge city. China is part of the trend of populations moving toward urban areas, which will require the cities here to continue to morph into new entities as time goes on. It also means that there are very few stand-alone homes, and most people live in pseudo-condominium buildings. A great thought experiment to demonstrate the population of China was pointed out by James Fallows recently which says that, since China and the United States are about the same size in terms of land, to get 1.3 billion people into the boarders of the U.S. you would have to add the populations of Canada and Mexico, in addition to all of South America's population... and since that still wouldn't be enough, add in the populations of Nigeria and Japan. That is roughly what China is dealing with in terms of population.
So what does this mean for urban planning, construction plans and current-but-constantly-changing living conditions? The building J's parents live in was probably built about 15 years ago, but there is already talk of tearing it down and rebuilding. That is partially because of the constant urban re-planning going on for the reasons given above. It is also because the construction methods and materials have advanced considerably in the past decade. For example, around ten years ago they bought a hot water heater that is completely solar. It is a round container made of metal mounted on the roof of the building. Environmentalists (like myself) are excited by the fact that the water is heated entirely by solar energy, but there are days--particularly in winter--where there is not enough hot water to take a shower. For comparison, when we went to J's uncle's place, which he bought in 2007, he showed us his solar-electric hybrid hot water system. That said, in winter, depending on what you've done that day or have planned for the next day, taking a shower every single day may not really be necessary--and I am fine with that. People will plan their living conditions according to what they are comfortable with.
However, in China, they seem to take this a step further. To illustrate, in the States, the value of a condominium will be relative to the interior design and conditions, so that two units in the same building are not necessarily the same value. In China, there is no appraisal of individual units based on their condition or features; apparently the value is based on area. That means that if and when this building--or any other--is torn down for "urban re-planning", the government will reimburse the residents only the area-based value. The residents that invested in, say, a hybrid hot water heater are not given any more than people with a straight-solar heater, or even a unit with no water heater at all. Everyone gets the same amount of money, or the option to move to a designated unit elsewhere (maybe of comparable value, but usually further away from the city center). Therefore, to an American accustomed to a condo unit being appraised according to its individual merits, this system seems de-centivize residents to invest in their unit at all. When I posed this to J, she said that the cost for home improvement, or even complete interior reconstruction, was minimal due to the low cost of labor and building supplies, so the responsibility was reasonably put on the individual to match their living conditions to what they are comfortable with for the present. I can accept that, but still wouldn't be happy with that were I a resident of Dalian. If there is even the smallest possibility that the government can tell me to relocate, I would want to be reimbursed for the investments I'd made in a unit. But the Chinese system seems to simply encourage planning for the present, and leave it at that.