CHINESE HIGHWAY THAT'S BUILT AROUND A HOUSE AFTER OWNERS REFUSE TO MOVE

Won't sell up? Enjoy living in the middle of a motorway! Road is built around a house after elderly Chinese couple refuse to move
By Alex Ward, Daily Mail, 22 November 2012.

A lone apartment building stands in the middle of a newly built road after an elderly couple refused to relocate.

Luo Baogen and his wife insist on living in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province, China because they believe that the relocation compensation offered by the government is not enough.

Now the only building left standing, the five storey block is a strange sight as cars drive around it while the couple remain living inside.

An elderly couple refused to leave despite plans for the road a railway station to be built directly where

the building stands.

To ensure the couple’s safety, adjacent rooms in the building have been left intact but all their neighbours have moved out, according to local media.

The road paved through the Xiazhangyang village leads to the Wenling railway station and is yet to be officially opened.

Mr Baogen and his wife believe that the compensation on offer would not be enough to cover their rebuilding costs.

In the People's Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on - but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.

Not enough to move: The couple refused to move because they believed the relocation compensation offered

by the government was not enough.

Room with a view: Luo Baogen looks out on the new road which is yet to be officially opened from the

apartment building where all his neighbours moved out.

Property owners in China that refuse to move to make way for development are known as 'Nail Householders' referring to a stubborn nail that is not easy to remove from a piece of old wood and cannot be pulled out with a hammer.

Earlier this year, Hong Chunqin, 75, and her husband Kung, who live in the two dilapidated buildings with their two sons, had initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou, in Zhejiang province and accepted £8,000 in compensation.

But then she changed her mind and refunded the money once work on the road had started.

Proof: Mr Baogen stands in front of his home holding the certificate that states he owns the land beneath it,

meaning that he and his wife can't be forced to move away.

Forlorn: Mr Baogen looks wistfully across his new scenery, the tarmac from the new road waving haphazardly

along the side of the building and demarcating the homeowner's land.

Calm before the storm: The balcony from Mr Baogen's home looks peaceful now, but this is all likely to

change shortly when the motorway surrounding the property is opened to traffic.

Thinking laterally: When Mr Baogen refused to vacate his property, which was right in the middle of a

planned route for a new motorway, the road builders refused to let this get in the way.

The long road home: The house that appears to be plonked in the middle of a motorway is likely to prove an

unusual landmark for passing motorists.

Isolated: Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun's home stands on a small parcel of land amid the

growing skyscrapers.

Earlier this year, Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun dared to stand in the way of a local property developer in Zaozhuang, in the Shandong province.

As a result, the resolute couple, both in their 60s, have been left stranded on their tiny spot of land, while all around them the ground is dug up and skyscrapers erected.

The distraught pair were regularly threatened by gangsters and have had to fend over a number of attempts to illegally demolish their ramshackle home.

They were cut off from utilities in 2009 when a local developer started the enormous earthworks involved in building dozens of high-rise residential buildings in the area.

Refuse to move: Another family initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou but changed their minds once

work on the road had started.

Stranded: The couple were left without running water and electricity ground after real estate developers dug

out the ground around it.

Cannot demolish: During the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished but now the laws

have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.

In another case, one family among 280 others at the site of a six storey shopping mall being built in Chongqing refused to leave their home for two years.

Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home, which their family had inhabited for three generations.

The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top and then Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, used nunchakus to make a staircase to the house and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him.

The owners turned down an offer of £300,000 but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.

And here are some more bizarre building projects from China...

High and dry: A furious family took legal action against property developers in Mianyang, south west China, last year after they demolished every staircase in their seven-storey apartment block in a bizarre bid to make them vacate their top-floor flat so they could build a factory (pictured, top, with the flower boxes and awnings).

That's prime retail estate! With space at premium in the densely populated city of Zhuzhou in central China's Hunan Province, homeowners decided to build these villas on the roof of the Jiutian International Plaza shopping centre, which is home to one of most famous wholesale markets for shoes in the region.

Architectural triumph or just plain pants? It has been trumpeted as 'a dramatic, iconic gateway' to the East that makes the Arc de Triomphe look like a mere ornament, but critics of he £445m Gate of the East in Suzhou, China, have likened the structure to a giant pair of long johns.

Ee bah gum! Majestic, yes. But the gloss was taken off ever so slightly when Beijing's new Phoenix International Media Centre (above) was compared by some observers earlier this year to a huge Yorkshire pudding. The building boasts 65,000sqm of floor space for offices, restaurants and the headquarters of China's Phoenix TV.

The world's silliest supertower? Towering 328 metres (1,067ft) above the ground, this skyscraper in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, dwarf's everything in its path. It is 18 metres taller than the Shard in London and its closest rival is 600 miles away in Beijing. But that's because it was built in a village of 2,000 FARMERS.

A touch out of place, perhaps? Near the rice paddies, groves of yellow bamboo and the homes of tens of millions of dirt-poor migrant workers lies this bizarre replica of an Alpine village in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Unsurprisingly, sales were non-existent when it opened earlier this year.

[Source: Daily Mail. Edited.]