China Perspective: How a masterplan turns out to be ill-conceived

More than seven years after the Xiong’an project was unveiled, a new city is taking shape and growing 110 kilometers south of Beijing. Edifices and clusters of high-rise apartment buildings are already erected; grocery stores and bookstores can be seen at street corners, although business looks slow; the only Starbucks and the only McDonald’s in town are open every day in the city’s fenced administrative center.