China’s ‘rotten-tail buildings’: homebuyers in limbo for years with no home due to dodgy developers and red tape
- A survey conducted this year found over 45 per cent of homebuyers in mainland China encounter unfinished building problems
- Unfinished or ‘rotten-tail buildings’, as they are known in China, usually have no electricity, no running water, lifts that do not work and no sewage system
At 9pm 67-year-old Li Zhu’e was hobbling up the stairs to her 13th-floor flat after using the public toilet in her compound’s yard. Since the stairwell has no lighting, she held an electric torch in her right hand illuminating the steps as she climbed.
Li suffered a serious car accident in 2019. After two surgeries, a large piece of flesh was removed from her right leg, and she still has 12 metal pins in her lower back, limiting her ability to walk.
The place Li calls “home” is an unfinished building, colloquially known as a “rotten-tail building” in China, with no electricity, no running water, a lift that does not work and no sewage system.
To light her apartment, Li’s daughter-in-law bought a solar light, which they charge on her balcony during the day; to cook they use a small gas stove, and to drink, they cart bottles of water up from downstairs two to three times a day.
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There are now more than 300 families living in four out of 13 rotten-tail buildings in Li’s compound in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi Province in central China.