Construction in China: Plans vs Reality

Ever since I moved here there has been constant construction going on right outside my window on the West Gate Road. I love the West Gate Road, it is the place with all the restaurants, little shops and fruit stands. Since we aren’t located right in town, the west gate road is the source for much of our shopping.
I never really had any idea what they were doing with the construction. New buildings are going up, old buildings are being torn down. Every week it is like a whole new road.
They recently put up a giant poster of what the whole area will look like in the future. It is one of those computer generated pictures and at first glance it looks quite grand.

But the devil is in the details. And the details in this mock-up are fantastic. Instead of making it realistic they just threw up different English names and logos as the store names. Here are a few of my favorites…
I’ve heard of the Discovery Store, but the Discover Card store? You know, I don’t know if the Discover Card is actually accepted anywhere in China!
Ah yes, the Louis Vuitton store. Coming soon to a campus near you. (Actually this section is already built and in that spot is a fast food chicken sandwich place.) Also notice a few stores down in ‘Escada’ but it is backwards for some reason.
And what campus wouldn’t be complete without a good old fashioned ‘Rock & Roll’ store? Also see how international these stores are. English, Chinese and Russian (I think) all in one spot!
But the most hilarious and ironic part of this is the actual street. For all it’s computerized glory on the map, this is what it actually looks like.

And this is what one of the new buildings looks like. (On the map it lists KFC, Haagen Dazs and Carrefour in this area.)

This road has been under construction since we got here and seeing as it is happening right outside my door (all day and all night) I am ready for it to be done and over with. I do actually like all the new little shops and places to eat though. Most are copies of each other  (there are about a dozen fruit stands in a quarter mile radius, and half a dozen meat on a stick places) but every now and then something unique opens up (like an Italian ice cream place. It’s not quite gelato but good nonetheless).
I’m not sure how long the whole project will take. China is known for its super speedy construction, but I think all the fast worker were moved to the major cities which left us with the slow ones.