"nail house" in China 中国钉子户与违章建筑

[big-dog]

List of forced demolition cases grows longer
By Wang Jingqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-02

BEIJING - China's list of violent and bloody home demolitions gained two new entries on Saturday, as a man set himself on fire in protest in Northeast China and another man in North China was beaten to death after he refused to move out.

Cui Dexi, a 56-year-old man from Mishan city of Heilongjiang province, set himself alight on Saturday morning during a conflict with about 100 local officials, policemen and housing developers who wanted to demolish Cui's house for a real estate project.

Cui was not sent to hospital for more than one hour after he set himself on fire, his family said, adding that he might lose the use of both hands.

Cui's son-in-law, Hou Jinlong, said more than 100 people, most not in uniform, burst into their house on Saturday morning as ambulances and fire engines waited outside.

"It was about 7 am, we found the house was filled with people. They even set a police cordon around the nine houses not demolished yet in the neighborhood," Hou told China Daily on Monday over the phone. "They came to demolish the house."

However, the local city government said the people went to negotiate with the Cui family, not to demolish the house. The government said nine households have refused to move out because they are not satisfied with the compensation deal, which for Cui's family is 600,000 yuan ($89,800).

A publicity official surnamed Chen told China Daily that the area where Cui lives is mostly old houses and in 2008 the local government invited about 15 real estate developers to rebuild the area. The nine families who have refused to leave, out of 45 households in the community, want more compensation than offered.

Chen said so many people went there because "we didn't want them to overreact".

"We were negotiating, when Cui suddenly set himself on fire on the roof," he said.

Hou, however, said no government officials had ever talked to them about a compensation deal or a real estate plan. "That morning they wanted to demolish the house before they paid us."

A similar case happened the same day in Shanxi province, where a man was beaten to death and another seriously injured by about 10 attackers who demolished their homes, according to local police.

At about 2 am on Saturday, Meng Fugui and Wu Wenyuan, neighbors of Guzhai village of the provincial capital, Taiyuan, were sleeping in Wu's house when more than 10 people broke in.

The group beat them, left them in the street, and later demolished their homes. Meng died in the attack, and Wu was later sent to hospital.

The local government announced on Sunday that it was a case of violent demolition.

"We're investigating the case now. We already know six suspects involved in the attack, and the police have five," said an official surnamed Yang from the government of Jinyuan district, where the village is located. Yang refused to name or give the identity of the five detained suspects.

Wu said he and some other villagers were not satisfied with the compensation offered so they refused to move out.

Taiyuan plans to extend a main road in the city and those villagers' homes are in the way.

China's current regulation on demolition allows governments to seize people's houses for public projects. The government and real estate developers usually hire professional demolition companies to negotiate with people or even force people to move.

A series of bloody cases of demolition have led people to question the legitimacy of the regulation, and legal experts have been asking lawmakers to revise the current regulation.

However, faced with pressure from local governments that make profits from selling land, the adoption of the revised regulation has been delayed since January.

"China's urban development should stop using demolition as its engine," Yu Jianrong, a professor with the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said on Monday on his micro blog at sina.com, one of the most popular online portals in China.

"Development should never be achieved at the price of people's basic rights," he said. "Even demolition for public interests should be handled through legal procedures."

Qiu Bo contributed to this story.

source

[big-dog]

4.28 nail house in the middle of a new road. Taizhou, Zhejiang Province

[big-dog]

9.28 Nail house in front of the new Shenzhen North Station

20 million yuan offer has been rejected by the owner





more photos in here

[little universe]

The "Nail House" in the middle of the road leading up to the new railway station from my hometown, Wenling / 温岭, became the internet sensation in China or even around the world these couple of days.



Report from the american magazine The Atlantic:

After this week's earlier entry, Chinese Architecture, Old and New, I just had to run this short follow-up. Homeowners Luo Baogen and his wife refused to allow the government to demolish their home in Wenling, Zhejiang province, China, claiming the relocation compensation offered would not be enough to cover the cost of rebuilding. So, adjacent neighboring homes were dismantled, and, bizarrely, the road was built around the intact home, leaving it as an island in a river of new asphalt.

Photo credit: www.theatlantic.com

[big-dog]

very funny. I also read this on today's newspaper.

[little universe]

The local government is mild and weak while those villagers are nuts, and it's been like this for years...due to Wenling's renowned "democratic discussions" / 温岭民主恳谈 social/political model.

The Time Magazine's report about Wenling's "democratic discussions" / 温岭民主恳谈.

It's good that it once again gives Western Media the opportunity to witness the improvement of the private ownership law-and-enforcement in China through the prism of this Local Government-vs-Villagers drama.


From Melbourne's Local Newspaper The Age:

Give Way? No Way!

Exclusive location. Close to transport. Lots of room. Unique view.

For once all those tired, old real estate cliches are accurate.

Luo Baogen and his wife have refused to move out of their five-storey apartment block to make way for a highway in Wenling, in China's Zhejiang province.

So the apartment block now serves as an unusual roundabout, surrounded by a multi-lane highway which, when complete, will lead to Wenling railway station.

International media have picked up on the Baogen family's firm stance, quoting the People's Daily, which reported the couple were not happy with the compensation they were offered to move out.

Their neighbours have moved on, leaving much of the building empty.

Several reports said changes in private ownership laws in China have made it harder for residents to be forced out of their homes.

The family are not the only people in China to put up such a fight.

The Daily Mail reported Hong Chunqin, 75, and her husband Kung, residents in Taizhou, in Zhejiang province, had made a similar decision this year to stay in a building, which now sits in the middle of a multi-lane road.

The family initially accepted compensation, but then changed their minds.

In England, the M62 highway near Scammonden runs right through Stott Hall Farm.

It was one property to survive when hundreds were bulldozed in the 1970s.

The tenant farmer, Paul Thorp, told the BBC in 2008 the farm had become an unofficial service station for motorists.

"People running out of petrol; coming and wanting to buy petrol and diesel; wanting to borrow spanners and jacks and to use the telephone," Mr Thorp said.

"If I've got some petrol I'll sell them some. I'll try and help anybody out.

"It's just not a nice spot to be, at the side of the road, especially if it's rough weather. I can't afford to give the petrol away, though. If I could get a regular trade, it'd be OK."

[big-dog]

Excavators are used to demolish a house standing alone in the middle of a newly built road in Wenling, China, on December 1, 2012. Luo Baogen, the owner of the house, who earlier refused to sign an agreement to allow his house to be demolished, finally signed the agreement after discussions with the local government and his relatives. The demolition of the house started this Saturday, local media reported. (Reuters/China Daily)

[big-dog]

Dec 5 This is a "nail tomb" in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province









--netease.com

[Celebriton]

Whaattt???

At first, I don't know what it is.....until I see it carefully. This is 10 times more awesome than Wenling case. The location is truly amazing! Should be posted in the international forum.

Btw, it's kind of spooky, because it's a tomb of someone.

[big-dog]

its being removed, I guess deal is made.







sina.com

[Celebriton]

But living in a house ex-cemetery is bad.

[big-dog]

many ghosts haunting around for money ... lol

[big-dog]

nail house in Guangzhou.







--sina.com

[Celebriton]

Isn't that the famous GZ nail house?

Where hundreds of old residents who already moved away, came again to their former neighbor, to convince these people to give up their stubbornness and end the nail house. Actually I agree with the old residents solidarity to support GZ development and to end the nail house.

But in the comments section of the website where I read this news have different opinion. Instead, the commentators support the nail house and cursed the "crazy-mad-idiot" hundreds of old residents who tried to convinced the nail house owners to give up.

Now, I'm confused.

[VECTROTALENZIS]

Originally Posted by Celebriton

Isn't that the famous GZ nail house?

Where hundreds of old residents who already moved away, came again to their former neighbor, to convince these people to give up their stubbornness and end the nail house. Actually I agree with the old residents solidarity to support GZ development and to end the nail house.

But in the comments section of the website where I read this news have different opinion. Instead, the commentators support the nail house and cursed the "crazy-mad-idiot" hundreds of old residents who tried to convinced the nail house owners to give up.

Now, I'm confused.

You read it on Chinasmack, you maybe think that the translated Chinese comments section are the mainstream view of Chinese people. But I am living here in China and have spoken to many Chinese and it's not so easy to just say that "everybody thinks that or this"
China is big and all types of people are huge in numbers and keep in mind that those comments are handpicked and the most extreme ones are picked. So they are not the mainstream normal comment and opinion.

By living here in China I have observed that you should not take Chinasmack so serious, read it with a pinch of salt. Sure the stories and Chinese opinion are interesting but most Chinese people don't care about these things. They are busy working and living their lives and only a small portion sit home reading news. Most people are on the computer playing games, watching TV series, videos, or chatting.

[Celebriton]

In my country, the same situation applied. But that because we don't speak our feeling honestly on the street. It's in the internet where we speak so badly behind our username. Sometimes, when I read many comments in my country forums, I do have a lot of agreement with most of them. It seems, me and the others have the same thought.

Yeah, I read that too in Chinasmack, but I also read directly in the news comment section. I'm very surprising how rude Chinese netizens are.

[big-dog]

here comes a whole nail building Changsha, Hunan Province



(sina.com)

[little universe]

Errrr...that's a huge "Nail Apartment Block" or "Nail House 2.0".

[Bannor]

That one doesn't even look old. So is it just bad planning?

[CoCoMilk]

It looks like shit tbh. Just looking at their rusty fenced windows makes me throw up