Images: 8City.
Those 19
th century English garden cities seem so quaint by the standards of today's big dreamers. For the moment the dreams do not come bigger than 8City a proposal for Incheon South Korea that is hoped will attract 134 million tourists each year by 2030!
Seen as a tourist city, the plans include luxury hotels, leisure facilities, apartments, casinos and of course shopping malls. There will also be a theme park, a water park, a 50,000-seat concert hall, and a Formula One racing track. There will even be a special town showcasing Korean entertainment and a district dedicated to medical tourism.
Whilst it sounds megalomaniac there are precedents which the developer might study: for example Monte Carlo, Macau and Vegas. The developer is Eightcity Co who reckons the scheme could cost US$275 billion. Land compensation for the 29.2 square km site is reported as being well under way, whilst the first stages are scheduled for completion in 2020, with the entire project completed by 2030.
Original article by Frances Cha, CNN International.
