Vice minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Qiu Baoxing says new city developments like the Huilongguan area in suburban Beijing are a failure.
According to the minister, who is also a veteran in urban studies research and implementation, the failure lies in the fact that these new cities only provide a place to sleep, not to live.
A lack of employment opportunities and services is looming large in quite a number of new cities developed in recent years to cope with China's fast expanding urban growth.
Is there a crisis of sleeping towns?