control, having control over others, your in a maze being looked at, and controlled.

now i know how the hamster feels in the cage, the only difference is its a bigger cage, even driving a car, cameras everywhere, toll roads to observe plate numbers and driving habits and receipts to show where you have been.

in china i feel like the ups package thats barcoded at pickup and delivery and tracked in transit so they know where the package is at all times.

even the great wall to keep out foreign marauders, makes you wonder if things will ever change or will these people every realize they only have a few advantages over a lab rat.

Well there are walls to keep people in and walls to keep people out. If you are in, then you are monitored, 24/7. Cameras are everywhere, but there's a good side to this. Criminals are tracked down very quickly because of these cameras. All citizens must have an ID card. You can't buy train tickets, book a flight, drive in the national highways and motor ways , hell you can't even rent an apartment without it. With 1.4 billion people moving constantly, it's a lot of work to control and monitor. But things are getting better. You  don't get checked so constantly these days. I only got checked once in the 2 years I am here and that one instance was 3am in the morning coming out of a highway. Back in 1994, I could be checked 3 times in 4 hours and that was in Beijing. 

WCG, you probably aren't an American either. I'm Dutch, from one of the few countries where gated communities are still illegal. China is copying the USA by turning every housing complex, shopping mall or hotel into a walled fortress. It's probably related to the wealth gap and theft prevention, but if not, they're just copying their idol America. They even copy the language: "State Grid", "Green Card", "kindergarten", etc. To us it comes across as cheesy, pathetic wannabe behaviour; to them it's progress.

as an american, i dont see walls except in rich urban areas of large cities, my home town of atlanta has many open areas to visit i can walk down the street by the governors mansion and the founder of coca cola without any harassment. we do love our guns though, and walls make it hard to hit a target moving toward you, bobwire fences also help keep the view and allow more visual awareness of your surroundings. walls can hide enemies as well give an unsecure sense of safety.

the best pat is, when your gate on west side of wall, while the metro station is on the east side ... same as your house ... so you take 10 minutes more of walk around. its good for health, for sure. but not for my nerves... 

The only walls Ive seen in Shenzhen, are highway sound walls and HK/China border walls.

I guess the city your in is very hyped up.

I think it is to make people feel important. The more impressive wall you live behind the more face you gain.

We have wall of about 2 meters around our community, they have motion sensors, and recently they added 5 extra cm of concrete to the top, including shards of glass sticking up to prevent (stupid) people from scaling the walls. The funny thing is, it is all for show, whenever a tree grows so a branch interferes with a motion sensor, the red flashing lights will be on for weeks without anyone snapping off the offending branch, if you want to get in, you can just walk past the security guard or if there is a particularly militaristic guard there, you can just tailgate someone with an access card. It's certainly not for security... when there is break ins in our hood, all guards are biking around with water pipes and other things to give someone a good thrashing.