[The Catskills] could become a lot flashier, thanks to [Sherry Li's] proposal for the area: a multibillion-dollar "China City of America," complete with an amusement park, mansions, a casino, retail centers, a college, and more. [...]

The Center for Immigration Studies wrote a comprehensive take-down of "China City," criticizing the project's potential for environmental disruption, dubious promise of job creation, and possible role as a stalking horse for the Chinese government. — The Atlantic Cities

Because of Beijing’s sky-high apartment rental costs, as many as two million people—about a tenth of the city’s population—are said to be living below street level in underground storage basements and air-raid shelters partitioned into cramped, windowless rooms. Many of those who have to crowd into these homes are migrant workers like Wang, from the nearby province of Hebei. — qz.com

schmidt hammer lassen has been chosen to design the new 30,000 m2 Ningbo Central Library in the coastal city of Ningbo, China. shl's winning design will display the library's collection of more than 2 million books — including the largest number of historic and ancient books in Ningbo, one of China's oldest cities. — bustler.net

The latest market opportunity for entrepreneurs in China? Polluted air. For nearly as long as pollution has been a salient, public issue in the country, foreigners and locals have been devising ways to help residents avoid the worst of smog—and in some cases make a little money in the process. Here are some of the most notable ones. — qz.com

For those who do not believe travelers’ tales, there is the Chinese government’s own report, from 2010, concluding that home ownership rates in China were then nearly 90%. This compares with a world average of 63% and a U.S. average of 65%. — Forbes

China's wealthy patrons like Mr. Lu's family are underwriting a major cultural boom, spending billions of yuan on grand buildings to showcase impressive collections of art, antiques and other cultural rarities. Their largesse and ambitions echo American industrialists who sponsored the arts in the early years of the 20th century... — online.wsj.com

NEXT architects from Amsterdam and Beijing recently won first place in a bridge design competition for Meixi Lake near the Changsha capital in Hunan, China. The new bridge is a major part of a development project for the new Dragon King Harbor River district. — bustler.net

After years of witnessing the ravaging effects of China's rapid transformation from a rural to an urban society, the Tsao brothers decided to devise an alternative. It's no easy feat in a country that has been destroying evidence of its past at an unprecedented rate. At a lecture at the Architectural League last April, Wang Shu, China's most prominent architect, bemoaned the "crazy change" sweeping his homeland, noting that 90 percent of traditional buildings have been destroyed in recent years. — online.wsj.com

The skyline of Taiyuan, the capital and largest city of North China's Shanxi province, is scheduled to receive a 280-meter / 919-foot addition soon: German firm HENN has won the architectural competition to design the new Cenke Group tower sporting a slick convex shell. Planning is expected to commence in 2014/15. — bustler.net

A jovial group of Red Guards bask in the golden glow of cornfields, waving their flags at the magnificent harvest, while a rustic farming couple look on, carrying an overflowing basket of perfectly plump red apples. In the centre of this vision of optimism, where once might have beamed the cheerful face of Mao, stands the twisted loop of the China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, radiating a lilac sheen. — theguardian.com

Designed by Rem Koolhaas’ architecture firm OMA, the soaring 225-meter tower will be officially inaugurated on Tuesday. It has an open plaza at its base, shaded by a floating three-story podium that juts out 36 meters above ground level. — blogs.wsj.com

Like the flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York, the Shanghai cylinder is made almost entirely out of huge monolithic glass slabs, with only connecting joints fashioned out of metal. The Chinese build is more complex, however, as the specifications required the glass pieces required be curved to form arcs. These panels were then joined to create a circle and ultimately a cylinder. — appleinsider.com