Perhaps Beijing and Shanghai Aren't As Densely Populated As We Thought

From the NY Times' "Room for Debate" blog, this time about the potential strain of infrastructure spending on debt, Yasheng Huang makes the following observation:

The Chinese cities do not lack buildings, which they have in surplus. The cities lack people. Beijing and Shanghai have some of the lowest population densities among the world’s big metropolises. The current infrastructure is more than adequate to accommodate China’s urbanization.

The new ghost cities of China are well known, as are the "cities in a box" concepts being developed by Cisco and others. I hadn't realized that the building boom outstripped demand by residents in the largest cities, however. I'm sure Beijing and Shanghai are still plenty dense in any case.