Forest City... in the swamp?

Mimi took us on another adventure on Wednesday, which, among other things, included a flying visit to Forest City. This is a fairly new, major planned development (seeming mostly aimed at Chinese investors) that is... kinda in the middle of nowhere (i.e. in a swamp... I mean forest... hence Forest City).

As far as I could tell, the "city" is / will be constructed entirely on "reclaimed" land / artificial islands among the forest mangroves facing Singapore across the Strait. A lot of their advertisements emphasised only 2km to Singapore (as the crow flies).

Despite where/how the city is being constructed, they are keen to push their eco-credentials and green-building. And to be fair, this is often literally true. Almost all of the structures (including large high-rise apartment blocks) include integrated greenery and living green walls.

I have some reservations about the whole concept, but the design did look pretty amazing. Mimi suggested that the remaining parts of the city may not be built, as a lot of the drive behind it may have since dried up (special financial zones for the commercial district, second-home permanent-residency status options for owners etc). While much of the buildings have been sold, apparently only about 2% are actually inhabited.

But it did have very nice beaches, a great little water park and some other very nice features. There was also an employee library, which excited A, but seemed a bit over-edified for my taste (not to mention almost exclusively Chinese language).

They had a copy of "Heidi" and a cool-looking illustrated history of the world though.

A suggested that she might be keen to retire here! We'll see...