Chinese authorities have built a motorway bridge named as Haizhuyong around a woman’s house after she refused to move. She stayed stubborn and now has numerous cars passing around her home 24/7.
It’s not the first time a major road has been built around stubborn homeowners in China. Homes, where owners refuse to move for development, are known as “nail houses.” Developers often simply build around them – sometimes even removing part of a building and leaving the rest. One of the best-known examples was in the city of Wenling. An old couple refused to move, and so a road was built around them.
China is well-known for its “nail houses”, properties of homeowners who reject compensation from a developer for their demolition, or ask for more than the deserving amount leads to a dispute.
Footage released by Chinese media shows the woman’s house tightly squeezed between the lanes of the newly opened Haizhuyong Bridge, in the city of Guangzhou. It is located in the middle of the four-lane road bridge, and people are snapping their social media scores, taking a picture with the house in the background.
Ms. Liang, the owner of the small 40-square-meter, one-story house, told reporters that the Government failed to provide her with a replacement property in an ideal location, instead offering her a flat located near a morgue, which she just couldn’t accept. She is the only person out of a total of 47 homeowners and seven firms who still lives there. The others took the Government’s offers and moved away by last September.
The Government made Ms. Liang several offers, but she turned down all of them. One of the most generous ones included two other flats, as well as monetary compensation of 1.3 million yuan ($186,500). She allegedly asked for four apartments and 2 million yuan ($287,000), which we all know is pretty too much to ask in return for what her house.
After failing to reach an agreement with the homeowner, the Government reportedly had no choice but to alter the original project and build the bridge around the ‘nail house.’ However, a spokesperson said that negotiations with the woman would continue. Meanwhile, this dispute has sparked a heated online debate, with most social media users accusing the woman of being greedy and others supporting her decision.