Taitou, Gaocun

Taitou (simplified Chinese: 台头新苑社区; traditional Chinese: 臺頭新苑社區; pinyin: Táitóu Xīnyuàn Shèqū), formerly (simplified Chinese: 台头村; traditional Chinese: 臺頭村; pinyin: Táitóu Cūn),[1] is a newly built village in Gaocun township, Wuqing District, Tianjin.[2]

Taitou Xinyuan
台头新苑社区
Residential community
Coordinates: 39°38′03″N 116°51′14″E
CountryPeople's Republic of China
MunicipalityTianjin
DistrictWuqing
TownGaocun
Elevation
12 m (39 ft)
Population
 (August 2018)
 • Total1,000
 Includes around 30 expatriates
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)

Location

Located just two kilometres from the Gaocun exit of the Jingjintang Expressway, Taitou offers excellent transportation links to Beijing and Tianjin.

Taitou is a vibrant community of relocated farmers surrounded by agricultural land and thousands of vacant new buildings. Many of the empty buildings in the surrounding area were constructed during a speculative real estate bubble in the early 2010s. While occupancy rates in Taitou are very high, occupancy rates of housing and shopping malls in the surrounding area are still extremely low. The surrounding area could be described as a Chinese ghost city.[3]

In late 2018, house prices dropped from 15,384 Chinese yuan per square metre to 11,771 Chinese yuan per square metre in just two months.[4]

Commercial activity

Within Taitou residential compound
  • Spa, building 2
  • Skincare products, building 7
  • Printing and photocopying, building 10
  • Sauna, spa and massage parlour, building 13
  • Hairdresser, building 17

In Taitou building 21 (commercial space)

Outside Taitou North Gate
  • Family Destiny Restaurant (known colloquially by the expatriate community as the "Dirty Dragon")
  • Beef hotpot restaurant
  • Real estate agent
  • Lanzhou Lamian restaurant (halal)
  • Massage parlour
  • Two mobile jianbing vendors (mornings only)
  • Electric rickshaws waiting for passengers

For safety reasons, no cars are permitted to enter this gate. Pedestrians, bicycles (including electric bikes) and electric rickshaws are allowed.

Outside Taitou West Gate
  • Guard sentry
  • Intercity bus stop

Around Taitou
  • Crematorium
  • Work yard with agricultural equipment and farm animals
  • Road corn

Wisdom Plaza
  • Face-to-Face Noodle Bar
  • Beijing Institute of Big Data Research
  • Apple'tree (restaurant and yoga studio)
  • GreenGo electric car rental service[5]

Online retailers

Most couriers do not ship to Taitou due to its remote location. Only SF Express, JD.com and China Post deliver mail to addresses in Taitou. Other couriers usually deposit Taitou-addressed mail at Hexiwu (11 km away), Gaocun (3 km away) or Haileybury International School (1.25 km away) and notify the intended recipient of the item's location by SMS.

JD.com has a near monopoly for online groceries because it is the only online grocery company willing to ship to Taitou. JD.com's grocery products (which include cabbages, eggs, electronic items and frozen fish) are available for same-day or next-day delivery to Taitou.

Map
Annotated map of Taitou and the immediate surrounding area
Annotated map of Taitou residential compound

Air quality

The air quality as measured by the air quality index (AQI) in nearby Langfang varies from excellent to severely polluted.[6] In summer months, the AQI is usually around 100, while in winter months, AQI of 300+ is common. In May 2017, the AQI of Langfang and other cities in the Jingjinji area exceeded an extremely hazardous 1000 points.

Green: lowest AQI each month; blue: average AQI each month; maroon: highest AQI each month. Higher numbers indicate more polluted air.
Green: lowest AQI each month; blue: average AQI each month; maroon: highest AQI each month. Higher numbers indicate more polluted air.

The lack of an extremely polluted winter in 2017/18 is owed to policies from the central Chinese government that placed severe restrictions on heavily-polluting manufacturing plants and coal furnaces used for heating.[7]

Renovation process of 2016-17
Black waterproof layer has been applied to the exterior walls of all 21 buildings at Taitou residential compound
Black waterproof layer has been applied to the exterior walls of all 21 buildings at Taitou residential compound. Walls are now ready for stencilling with masking tape and beige paint.
Taitou apartment exterior walls with cladding being removed by workers on cranes
Major renovation works were carried out at Taitou residential compound from 2016-17

Shortly after construction of the Taitou residential compound was completed, and after residents had moved in, major renovation works were carried out on the exterior walls of all 21 buildings at Taitou.

The process included:

  1. Chipping away the existing stone cladding
  2. Removing the old Rockwool insulation material from the external walls
  3. Installing new, upgraded Rockwool insulation material to the external walls
  4. Painting the exterior walls white
  5. Painting the exterior walls black
  6. Covering every face of every building with masking tape in a brickwork pattern
  7. Painting the buildings beige then peeling off the masking tape to reveal a brickwork pattern

The exterior wall renovation process took nearly 12 months to complete, during which, the compound was littered with dust, rubble and debris. After the exterior wall insulation was finished, workers planted hundreds of trees and bushes around the residential compound.

Haileybury International School used some of the Taitou debris as material for its elective handicraft activity.

Trees being planted around Taitou residential compound after the completion of renovation works in 2017
Trees being planted around Taitou residential compound after the completion of renovation works in 2017

References
  1. 高村镇 [Gaocun Town] (in Simplified Chinese). XZQH.org. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2018. 【2013年代码及城乡分类】120114123:{...}～208 220台头村
  2. 2017年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码：高村镇 [2017 Statistical Area Numbers and Rural-Urban Area Numbers: Gaocun Town] (in Simplified Chinese). National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China. 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2018. 120114123002 123 台头新苑社区居民委员会
  3. "'An incredible amount of waste': What China's eerie ghost cities say about its economy". ABC News. 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  4. 台头新苑房价_台头新苑价格_台头新苑均价_天津搜狐焦点. tj.focus.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  5. GreenGo 共享汽车. www.green-go.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  6. 廊坊空气质量指数AQI_PM2.5月统计历史数据_中国空气质量在线监测分析平台历史数据. www.aqistudy.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  7. "China's putting the brakes on coal for heating millions of homes this winter — Quartz". qz.com. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
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