China’s luxury hubs are turning into ghost towns
China is known for its booming population, high ambitions, and sprawling mega-projects that often blur the lines between communism and capitalism. But not every grand plan ends in success.
In the hills of Shenyang, the State Guest Mansions, once pitched as a luxury retreat for millionaires, now lie abandoned. Real estate giant Greenland Group walked away from the project just two years after breaking ground in 2012. Today, the half-built villas are slowly being overtaken by nature, farmers, and the occasional grazing cow as a quiet symbol of overreach and fading ambition.
This ghost town is more than a failed luxury development: it’s a warning sign of cracks beneath China’s building boom. And it’s not alone—many similar ghost towns across the country reveal a worrying trend in the real estate market.
Intrigued? Click through this gallery to see what’s been left behind.
Sky-high ambitions
Greenland Group operates in more than a hundred cities across nine countries, including the US, UK, and Australia, with 23 supertall buildings in progress or complete.
A shattered dream
But just two years after breaking ground, it was abandoned. Now, local farmers till the overgrown grounds, planting crops where manicured lawns and lavish homes were once promised.
