There is a city which is suffering a worse property bubble than Sydney, whose residents are more priced-out than Londoners, and where there is a greater divide between the housing haves and have-nots than even San Francisco.

That city is Vancouver, and in response to these mounting challenges, the west-coast Canadian metropolis recently imposed an extraordinary new tax on foreign buyers – whose impact is now being watched closely by other cities grappling with bloated property markets. — theguardian.com

In August, after a multibillion-dollar, year-and-a-half-long battle, Uber agreed to sell its business in China and depart the country.

It was a face-saving retreat for Uber, which got a 17.7 percent ownership stake in Didi and $1 billion in cash. [...]

Investors recently valued Didi at $35 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Uber, with operations in almost 500 cities on six continents, is worth $68 billion. — bloomberg.com

Mr Shan Jixiang, head of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, said many of the selected structures tell abundant stories and are witnesses to key events in the nation's history.

He added that the new list will make people aware of the need to preserve more recent architectural sites for future generations. [...]

"Masterpieces of the 20th century prove that Chinese architects' spirit and techniques are well inherited. And they deserve to be passed on to modern times." — straitstimes.com

“Village” may not seem like the right term for a cluster of tenement-style walkups that can house more than 100,000 people. Chengzhongcun hang onto the name partly because of the familiarity evoked by the traditions and small-scale businesses that thrive among their migrant populations, and partly because when modern Shenzhen began growing, these places really were just villages in the middle of the city. — foreignpolicy.com

A glass-bottomed bridge in China that was heralded as a record-breaker when it opened just 13 days ago has closed.

Officials said the government was planning urgent maintenance work in the area and the bridge closed on Friday, with a re-opening time to be announced. [...]

He said there had been no accidents and the bridge was not cracked or broken. [...]

The bridge can accommodate 8,000 visitors a day but the spokesman told CNN that 10 times as many people wanted access daily. — bbc.com

The South Sea Pearl Eco-Island development is funded by HNA Group and will include houses, hotels, a cruise ship port, yacht harbour, spa and theme park. [...]

The jury said the “singular and clear” design would “create a beautiful, iconic form rising naturally out the landscape, recalling the volcanic caldera of the area, and shape the island into a continuous structure that would be an extremely efficient compaction of resort, retail, and housing." — globalconstructionreview.com

It's touted as the "world's highest and longest" glass-bottom bridge, elegantly stretched between two mountain peaks in central China's Hunan province.

And as of this weekend, it's open to visitors. Now, one can walk the 470-yard length of the glass bridge, which is positioned a vertigo-inducing 328 yards above the ground, as China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The bridge is located in the Zhangjiajie National Forest [...]. — npr.org

“Everybody in China has been moved to a new location or a new city, new town, new apartment... But with such a big movement, or revolutionary change, there is very little discussion or very little meaningful challenge — intellectual challenge — about what architecture is in this fast developing society.”

Despite the country's building boom, Ai says that the state of China's architectural philosphy has largely remained stagnant because conversation is stifled. — asiasociety.org

[T]he city of Bao'an in Shenzhen is setting its sights on revamping the 30 kilometer, 12-lane G107 highway...By rethinking the notion of a highway and envisioned with a series of utopian-like renderings, [Avoid Obvious Architects + Tetra Architects & Planners] proposed “a smaller, more fluid, multi-layered thoroughfare that will be a spectacular starting point of growth for an organic smart city.” — Bustler

“One day at around eight in the morning, I was returning from the market when six of the developer’s thugs tackled me outside my home and pushed me into a car,” remembers Xi.

Several others, she says, climbed a ladder to her balcony. Xi says she screamed for her husband, but it was too late. There was a scuffle inside, and then black smoke poured out of their balcony window before the house went up in flames. Xi’s husband burned to death, and the developer’s men escaped. — marketplace.org