Development

I have noticed that each trip I seem to be more spiritually focused with less interest in the things of the world. Maybe that is because I am getting closer to leaving this world or maybe it is an indication that I am growing spiritually. I find, especially on this trip, that I am not drawn to construction sites like I have been in the past. If you are a blog follower you have probably noticed this in the lack of China construction pictures so far on this trip.

Since coming to Wuhan I have been following the development of the pedestrian walk. I have taken a very large number of pictures there over the past four years and written many blog entries. I thought it was time for one more blog entry and decided to take my camera with me on one of my trips to Mr. Mai’s and get off the bus several bus stops early and walk the length of the development and take some more pictures.

On April 20, 2009 I took a picture of a very big hole just east of the first phase of the project. (Imagine all the truck loads of earth moved from there to someplace else.)

Just to the right of the hole an apartment building was being built for many people to live in who might buy things from the stores that would one day fill the big hole and make somebody very rich.

I returned with my camera on April 22, 2010 and found a building filling the hole, still in a state of construction.

Then just recently, on April 18, 2011, I got some pictures of the completed building. The first picture is taken from the location of the next phase of the project. The picture is looking toward the east end of the completed building. I could write blog entries for a whole week about what I see in that picture, but I will limit it to just a few words.

The water you see flowing is raw sewage and has been flowing for three years. When the old buildings were removed the old sewer line was dug up. Someday the new sewer line will extend through the whole project and then the sewage will not have to run down into the storm drain and into the river that people fish and swim in.

The large building on the right is another apartment building to supply a place for more people to live in to support all the commercial stores to fill the space to be developed. Imagine how much land would be required if all those people lived in an American home.

Those strange looking buildings in the midst of those high rises, consists of hundreds of high end shops and restaurants. It is very interesting to walk through the area and see the variety of things found there.

The building with the green sign marks the west end of the commercial section. The total length of this project is about a mile and a quarter. Both sides of the commercial center are lined with tall apartment buildings with about 26 to 30 floors.

A side view of the building that now fills the hole shown in the first picture. The big hole was required to provide parking space. Under all these buildings and under the space around them are huge parking facilities for all those cars the Chinese are buying.

A picture of the architecture seen along the center walkway is shown in the above picture. There was one design flaw I noticed. Several times I tripped and nearly fell as did other people who were walking and looking at the store fronts. Without notice the sidewalk would have one to six inch step in places where you would not expect one. When it steps up you always trip over it and if it steps down it can really throw you off balance. These breaks are all over the place.

I am still amazed at the massive size of those buildings, housing the thousands of people who will live there above two floors of commercial shops. Under all those buildings and the open space between them will be one gigantic parking space. Are you ready to live there when it is done and do kingdom work? Why not?