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Sarah Zheng

An elderly man and his dog are the sole gatekeepers for a deserted villa in eastern China.
The 75-year-old, surnamed Gao, guards dozens of lavish apartments in an unfinished housing complex sitting on a sprawling 130,000 square metres of land near Chaohu in Anhui province, Tencent News reported on Wednesday.
In the day, Gao is the king of the “ghost villa”, watching over it to prevent anyone from stealing the construction equipment still sitting on the deserted site. At night, he retires to his humble bed space in a tiny, dilapidated room crowded with dusty shoes.


Gao began his unusual job when the unfinished apartment project, developed by Sun Century Group in 2009, was suspended two years ago.
How China’s rush to urbanise has created a slew of ghost towns
The suspension came after a radical move by the local government that saw the city of Chaohu shut down in August 2011 and its 4 million population absorbed by its neighbouring cities of Hefei, Wuhu and Maanshan. The move was meant to address “an inherent need for a certain level of growth”, according to a broadcast to residents at that time.
The Sun Century housing complex, which had received some 300 million yuan (US$43.5 million) in investments, now stands unfinished and unused, with weeds sprouting around the apartments.

On the complex’s south side facing the Chao Lake – now technically part of the city of Hefei – two rows of the villa have been built to completion. Each row has five to six villas, each with two floors below ground and three above.
But past the first two rows of houses, the third row of buildings is still surrounded by scaffoldings. And beyond that row, the cement roads start to peter out into gravel paths.
Ghost town: developer demolishes over 100 houses unsold for nearly decade in southern China
Gao, who has lived in the area for seven years, is paid 1,800 yuan a month to watch over the empty apartment, according to the Tencent report.
Accompanied by his pet dog, a stray missing a chunk of its tail, he tends to a patch of vegetables he grows near the apartments.

The villa is another one of China’s projects that has become a “ghost town” – the spawn of rapid urbanisation and an unsuccessful build-it-and-they-will-come urban planning mentality.
Chasing ghosts: Where is China’s next wave of empty ‘new towns’?
China has seen various other half-finished projects scattered across the country, from half-finished skyscrapers in Yujiapu, Tianjin, to empty houses in Kangbashi, Inner Mongolia, and the deserted Shenfu new town in Liaoning province.


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China society

This old man and his dog are the last guards of China’s ‘ghost town’ of lavish villas

Gao, 75, and his pet dog are the only residents of a ghost town in Chaohu, Anhui province. Photo: Handout

=== NO ARCHIVE IMAGE === ATN. GHOSTTOWN03. A 75-year-old man and a dog are the only residents of a ghost town in Chaohu. UNDATED HANDOUT

News

China

People & Culture

The sprawling development was abandoned after the city was ordered to shut and relocate in radical government move


This old man and his dog are the last guards of China’s ‘ghost town’ of lavish villas

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The sprawling development was abandoned after the city was ordered to shut and relocate in radical government move

The sprawling development was abandoned after the city was ordered to shut and relocate in radical government move