More catch up posts and here’s the one I promised about Tianjin, which in my opinion looks eerily just like Singapore. Well, at least the plan of it.  Just like anything else in China, it’s just WAY bigger.  Presenting Exhibit A, the beginning of the Animation Park and that’s just ONE side of ONE building.

I’m not quite sure how to feel about the uncanny similarity.  I’ve seen the plans for One North and other developments in Singapore … and I can’t help but feel a tad weird-ed out that it’s all being replicated in China.

Why?

I’m not quite sure.  Maybe it’s because parallel universes make me uncomfortable and that’s exactly how I feel whenI was overlooking the model of Tianjin Eco-City, except that picture above is just the animation park, which is a smaller part of the whole city :p  The all too similar public housing, tree lined streets, mall in every suburb creeped me out a little … like I’d bump into a miniature doppelgänger Carlene.

Ok ok, I can be overly dramatic

I do think Singapore is one of the best engineered cities and we’re as good as any to JV up with to build cities that work.  That’s just it, it’s incredibly engineered so why is it that having little manufactured Singapores all over China isn’t exciting me?  I can’t quite put my finger on it … maybe it has something to do with how it’s all so planned, regulated and manufactured.  At some level even the practical part of me still hopes that the world doesn’t lose it’s magic that comes from chaos, well slight chaos.  I don’t want to live in Zimbabwe either but a little dirt or mess never killed anyone.

In fact, in cleaning up my mess from the office and setting up my home office, I even managed to find a treasure or two.  So never underestimate chaos, I say.  At least, it’ll hopefully be inspiration for something better than this:-