What the heck are they thinking in China… I mean –
Truly. Space is at a premium in Chinese population centers so a new approach to ‘building up’ is apparently occurring on top of commercial centers – like the one above. In this development in downtown Zhuzhou, four suburban-style track-homes have been built atop a shopping mall.
Living in one of these homes would be surreal. Where do they put their garbage cans?
Perhaps a more conventional solution to the population problem is to build conventional (ground level) McMansion subdivisions, only make the lots closer together. MUCH closer together.
The Mentougou Estates are located in a suburb of Beijing. The palatial-sized Palladian style homes are under construction in this photo, but you get a sense of the close proximity of the homes. There’s nothing like a 15 million dollar mansion [yes, they start at $15 mil] where you can reach out and touch your neighbor, five feet away.
But the granddaddy of all space-saving measures in the Chinese housing market is this home:
It’s not for sale. Rather, the elderly couple who lives here are die-hard ‘homestead hold-outs’ and have repeatedly refused to sell their long time home to the government in order to make way for a new highway.
A village of 500 families in Wenling, China was relocated four years ago by the government in an extreme case of eminent domain. Unfortunately for the government, Luo Baogen and his wife refused to go.
But the government clearly got the last laugh…
…they built the road anyway – right around the house.