Tens of millions of homes lie vacant across China following the country’s credit-fuelled construction boom.
Taichung, Taiwan – Around a tiled square on the outskirts of the Chinese city of Nanjing, a cluster of apartment buildings rise like concrete columns towards a grey sky.
At first glance, the structures look like a testament to China’s awe-inspiring construction boom, which saw the country use more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the United States did throughout the entire 20th century.
But upon closer examination, the development is more like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic story than a symbol of grandeur.
There is no light in any of the buildings and most of them lack doors or windows.
An eerie silence lies over the compound, which is strewn with disassembled equipment and construction materials, broken occasionally only by the sound of a tarp flapping lazily about on top of a stack of iron rods.
There are no residents in sight.
“The workers stopped building in 2019,” Ji Zhang, a 61-year-old resident who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera. “They say it was because the developer ran out of money.”
Over a grainy video call, Ji gestures towards one of the unfinished high-rises, where she and her husband purchased a sixth-floor apartment in 2017.
Ji felt like they were buying into a dream when they poured most of their life savings into a 60 percent down payment for the property.
“It was all just an old village back then, but when the sales agents showed us the plans for the area, I saw how it could give my husband and me the retirement we were looking for,” Ji said.
The compound promised a range of modern amenities, proximity to an array of shopping options and access to far better medical facilities than the urban village outside Nanjing where Ji and her husband had been living.
Most importantly, the apartment offered the chance for Ji and her husband to live much closer to their daughter and two grandchildren in Nanjing.
“But we haven’t had a chance to enjoy any of that,” Ji said with tears in her eyes.
But with their apartment still unfinished five years after their purchase, Ji’s retirement dream lies in tatters.
“And this is not just happening to us,” Ji said, wiping away her tears. “It is unfortunately happening all over China.”