European Bureaucracy Travel: Just Try to Build a Chinatown
On the outskirts of Berlin, a Chinese couple is working to build at €500 million Chinatown that'll be the first in Germany. But classic European bureaucracy is gumming up the works: The project has been in development for three years and ground has yet to be broken.
Before the bulldozers can start rumbling, all manner of paperwork needs to be finished. That has Chinese developer Hongbin Ren learning about Europe before he can share his culture with Germany:
He had never heard of some the expressions he was reading, phrases like "spatial planning procedure," "development of the local public transport system" and "substantiated preliminary draft development plan." It was time for Mr. Ren to get to know the real Germany.
Until then, he had seen the country as a place with good air, wide-open spaces and industrious people. He was about to encounter the invisible Germany, the land of ordinances and regulations.
Totally reminds us of trying to buy stamps in Italy. With some luck, work on the Chinatown project could start by this summer. There'll be lots to do: Blueprints call for pagodas, gardens, an opera house and even a replica of the Great Wall of China.
Related Stories:
· Planned Chinatown Raises Hackles in Rural Germany [Spiegel, via]
· Germany Travel coverage
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