Summary
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The State Guest Mansions project was a real estate development in Shenyang, China, that was abandoned after two years of construction.
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The project was supposed to create 260 European-style mansions for affluent residents, but it was never completed.
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The reasons for the abandonment are unclear, but locals suspect that corruption might have been the cause, as funding had been discontinued, and unauthorized construction crackdowns had left the project incomplete.
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The mansions are now being used by farmers for their crops and livestock.
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Ghost towns are not uncommon in China, and there are an estimated 65 million empty houses in the country.
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The rise of ghost cities in China is due to a number of factors, including government policies and oversupply of housing.
Additional Details
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The State Guest Mansions project was developed by the Greenland Group, a major Chinese real estate company.
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The project was located in the hills near Shenyang, a major city in northeastern China.
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The mansions were designed to be luxurious, with marble floors, chandeliers, and coffered ceilings.
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The project ran into financial difficulties within two years of constructions.
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The Greenland Group has not commented on the reasons for the abandonment of the State Guest Mansions project.
The article also mentions the issue of ghost towns in China. Ghost towns are areas that have been built up but are largely uninhabited. There are an estimated 65 million empty houses in China, which is enough to accommodate the entire population of France.
That's kinda a cultural thing (which I'm not so certain wasn't part of the ruse itself).
Long story short, supposedly the Chinese "want" the clean empty slate so they can "customize" the home to meet their desires. People were told that they need investment properties because that's what westerners are doing to make money. Simply buy an "empty unfinished home" and eventually someone is going to want to buy that property in the future and you'll be rich!
Buying an empty house is pretty standard. I'm talking about the fact that many properties were never even completed to the 'habitable' stage. 'Empty unfinished' refers to things like light fixtures, AC, etc. Abandoned properties were nowhere near that point.
I'm not talking about "habitable" either. I'm talking no countertops, no tile flooring, no mouldings, no finishings whatsoever. It is an empty "unfinished" shell with the intention that the buyer who moves into the home will fully furnish everything, including all the cabinets etc to match their personal tastes.
This indeed was a scam to sell fake investment properties to the up-and-coming Chinese middle class. There are entire ghost towns full of these investment properties that nobody will move into because there is zero other infrastructure for any residents if they actually moved into the property lol. It's kinda bizarre and insane that the government allowed it to happen for so long.