Inside a Chinese Ghost Town of Abandoned Mansions | WSJ

Property troubles alone, this site would be incredible for shooting apocalypse or future sci fi movies in.

So crazy to think that people who would want mansions like this would also want a bunch of others super close to them like that.

If I remember right from 60minutes, those 20 million people who pre-purchased an unfinished home totals $1 trillion lost

Never pre-order games, never pre-order houses

Nothing like having a mansion opening your window and giving your neighbor a high five.

What a waste of resource of materials and labor.

I was in Shenyang last week and they said a lot of the developers build on the land without getting the permit first and then later had to abandon the project due to the land not being safe to build on

Interesting. I'm Romanian, I lived under Communism for about 19 years, before it fell. We used to build flats after flats, but they were cheap and assigned to people once finished. Basically, everyone with a job at a factory was given a 1-2 or 3 (if you had children) bedroom apartment nearby to live in. The rent was very modest like 1/10 of the monthly income and retained directly by the factory from your salary. I was given a 1-bedroom condo at 19 when I got my job as a worker with a car manufacturer (Dacia). The university was also free. I studied for free for 6 years, every evening (4 hours, 6 days - the work week in Communism had 6 days) at the local university. Years later, I immigrated to Canada. I was stunned to find out from some of my Chinese co-workers that in China university was not free and people were not assigned condos. What Communism was that? It looks like everyone implemented Communism their own way.

Weird—really weird to see rows of mega mansions like suburban bungalows.

You failed to mention the most important thing: Those who bought the house have already taken out the entire mortgage and paid it to the developer in the beginning of the project. Now even when the developer bankrupted, they still have to pay what the owe to the bank. That is, they will continue paying their debt for 20, 30 years without the hope of having a livable house. If they stop paying the mortgage, according to China's law on "social credit", they are banned from many things, including buying airplane tickets or high-speed rail tickets. ========= The 2nd part to this story: So, for those who can't afford a mortgage and a rent at the same time, there have been numerous reports that some of them choose to move in to the newly bought, unfinished apartment unit in a skyscraper, without elevator, electricity, water, some don't even have windows, and live there for years.

OMG this explains it all! I travel into a few big cities in china for work quite often. Going from the airports into the cities, I have seen so many half built, but appearing to be abandoned housing complexes that never seemed to make any progress or have people working on them. It’s those exact apartment towers in the video and they’re all like that.

Great that you disclose this! Flabbergasting how this is possible!

What kind of rich person wants an identical mansion?

This is a terrifying example of ruined land.

Great coverage.

Man those are beautiful shells of mansions. It's a shame they never completed the project.

The all concrete construction makes me think this is just "make work" to keep people employed. I don't believe there was ever any real expectation that anyone would live in this place. Theres no transportation infrastrucutre, no electrical or plumbing, no yards, no commercial space. Its like a CGI backdrop from a movie.

I lived in Beijing in 2010 and we would go and play in an enormous abandoned building next to ikea, it was magical. Great acoustics.

Great documentary, short but very saddening.

But why would you buy a house before its constructed? Here in México there's people you hire to check for structural problems from the foundation to the ceiling, including everything in between like the water pipes and electrical wires when buying a house. Buying a house before being able to see it is bananas.