Property Pitfall

Comrade Shi Bingfeng hails from the countryside in Fujian Province. Having lost his job, he is travelling around China, trying to earn some pocket money from YouTube and other donations. The topic that repeatedly dwells on is China’s profusion of 烂尾楼. This is especially lamentable and insulting to folks like Comrade Shi because people like him have to work their entire lives to be able to afford one of these units.

In this video, Comrade Shi is in first tier city Chongqing. This used to be a productive piece of farmland, but greedy developers have decided to acquire it and turn it into something more profitable – a luxury multi-million dollar project, now abandoned due to multiple levels of exploitation akin to a pyramid scheme.

Interestingly, some of the former occupants of the land have returned to make use of whatever land available to grow some crops. Perhaps the pond could be used for rearing fish too. Comrade’s reference to the pits with 请君入坑 is metaphorically so appropriate.

I found an advertisement for this development on a Chinese website. The place is sold out, which could mean anything. Have the folks at the top tier of the pyramid cashed out? Or have they fallen into the pit?