How to identify the location of 'Ghost city' where there are no people even after developing in China

Various "distortions" are pointed out behind the rapidly growing Chinese economy, and there is the emerging city "Ghost city" where no one lives even though it was developed as one of them. An unexpected way to identify the location of Ghost city dotted in such China is released.

[1510.08505] Ghost Cities Analysis Based on Positioning Data in China
http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08505

Baidu found China's "ghost cities," but it is keeping their locations mostly a secret - Quartz
http://qz.com/540571/baidu-found-chinas-ghost-cities-but-it-is-keeping-their-locations-mostly-a-secret/

In the China that has undergone rapid economic development since the 2000s, emerging cities consisting of many high-rise apartments were developed in various places. However, even though construction of condominium started but construction stopped due to abandonment of the plan, and almost no residents were found even though the construction was completed, the apartment group full of vacancies towering spookily, such as not functioning as a city, "Ghost It is known that the city "is scattered.

Naturally the Chinese government is not going to declare the existence of a ghost city and neither developers nor investors publish it, so it is veiled up to what extent the ghost city exists anywhere in China. I will. For this reason, some hedge funds who are closely watching the Chinese economy are judging whether the ghost city is counted by counting the lights of the condominium group at night.

ByPhalinn Ooi

A method to respond to such a request to "find the location of the ghost city" was developed by a joint research group of Beijing University and Baidu, a major search company in China,paperIt is announced in.

In this research it is said that Baidu combines map information held throughout China and user's activity information to determine whether the person actually functions as a resident city. Specifically, comparing the estimated population size of a city that wishes to determine whether it is a ghost city or not, and the number of people who use Baidu search, a case where there is only a trace of activity less than or equal to one hypothesis as a ghost city To judge.

The following 20 cities were certified as ghost cities by this method.


Representative districts are Mausan (A), Dongsheng (B), Kang Xihe (C), Binhai (D), Luo (E), Toei (F), Four tiles (G) It is said that it is Rukaku (H), Dongling (I). The red dot on the map of each district shows the apartment group of the ghost city.


The method developed by the collaborative research group of Baidu and Peking University is the data analysis data obtained from Baidu's huge user of 770 million people. However, users who can use Baidu search are also relatively affluent, so it is possible that ghost cities that actually can not be detected by this method are enough.

If you use this method, it corresponds to the Chinese New YearThe spring seasonIt seems that it is also possible to investigate cities whose population is greatly reduced by homecoming (in other words, cities with many migrant workers).