Kunming "Different Happiness City" Lot 4 was unfinished 5 years ago.
is unfinished, often forgotten due to lack of people's interest. An unfinished real estate in Kunming that stopped construction five years ago has attracted attention due to its popularity.
Since May this year, more than 30 households have moved into an unfinished property in Kunming Wujiaba CBD. They are all owners who bought houses here six or seven years ago, and most of them are ordinary people who have worked hard for many years in Kunming. With the actual circumstances of their lives and the impact of the epidemic this year, they had no choice but to break through the bottom line of their living space and live in unfinished buildings.
A couplet in the unfinished building.
This unfinished building is called "Different Happiness City" and is located on the west side of Wujiaba CBD. It is a shantytown renovation project launched in 2011 in Guandu District, Kunming. At the beginning of 2015, the construction of the No. 4 plot of the project was suspended, including 12 buildings with the main body capped and 1243 residential houses.
has been living in the "Different Happy City" without water, electricity and elevators for several months, and the owners seem to have become accustomed to the life here. In their free time they chat, play cards, sing and dance. It's just that they are still looking forward to some day when they can repossess the building and experience real happiness.
The struggling single mother can no longer afford to rent a house.
Chen Yanchun fertilizes the vegetable plot opened downstairs in the unfinished building.
Chen Yanchun is the first owner to move into the unfinished building in the "Different Happiness City". She is a single mother with a monthly mortgage of 4,000 yuan. After
moved into the unfinished building, she raised chickens, grew vegetables, and cooked big pot rice. Some of the owners admire her and feel distressed, and send her daily necessities from time to time.
Chen Yanchun was originally from Sichuan. As a child, she lived in Tibet with her parents who were in the fruit business all the year round. Because she liked the climate of Kunming, she decided to settle in Kunming seven years ago.
At the beginning of 2013, she bought a 60-square-meter one bedroom and one living room in the "Different Happy City" on the recommendation of a local friend.
Chen Yanchun's daughter is wearing a newly bought mermaid swimsuit.
After buying a house, she has been living in the urban villages around the "Different Happy City". Because this area is adjacent to the Wujiaba Airport that year, it is only 4 kilometers away from Kunming Railway Station in a straight line. It is a choice for many foreigners who are new to Kunming.
In the past 7 years, Chen Yanchun's family has undergone several drastic changes. The daughter had just turned one year old, and her husband divorced her; her father was seriously injured in a car accident four years ago and lost his ability to work, and the treatment costs ran out of savings at home; earlier this year, she opened a small restaurant with a friend. The door was completely closed under the blow of the epidemic.
On May 18 this year, Chen Yanchun's rental contract expired. Due to financial constraints and unable to continue to pay the rent, she finally decided to move into an unfinished building.
"Different Happiness City" at night in the No. 4 plot.
The unfinished building looked very gloomy in the windy night. "The strong wind was blowing outside, and the head-high weeds on the open space seemed to come alive." In the first two weeks after
moved into the unfinished building, Chen Yanchun lived in the shed in the community. For the first few days, she almost had to stay up until 6 o'clock in the morning before she dared to sleep with her eyes closed. The floor design of this community, the first floor is the basement, and the second floor and above are the residences. She couldn't even go upstairs because the elevator was blocked. Later, more people moved in, and we worked together to build up the stairs from the first floor to the second floor before they could move into the building.
Later, Chen Yanchun bought a dozen chickens from the market and kept them on the open space outside the shed. Kunming was in the rainy season at that time. The next night, a heavy rain drenched the chicken halfway, and she cried.
The unfinished community has not repaired the drainage system. At the end of May, a night of rain flooded into the shed where Chen Yanchun slept. Chen Yanchun woke up and found that the water had almost risen to the bedside. Seeing the gurgling bubbles on the wall covered by water, Chen Yanchun's heart sank. She realized that the house she bought had gone through a lot of wind and rain over the years, and if work was not resumed, she might really have no chance again.
The vegetable plot opened by Chen Yanchun. A week after
lived in the unfinished building, Chen Yanchun removed the weeds growing in the open space downstairs and planted vegetable seedlings on it. The seedlings soon grew new leaves, and the unfinished building glowed with vitality.
Chen Yanchun recently found a job in a foot therapy shop, and the night shift often lasts until 4 in the morning. On weekdays, my daughter is taken care of in the kindergarten, but only on weekends.
Chen Yanchun was cleaning up the "lobby" of his own building, covering the sofa and putting flowers on the table. z2Every weekend, z
cleans up the "lobby" of the building where she lives spotlessly, covers the sofa and puts lilies on the table. At night, the blue light from the Wujiaba CBD opposite will be reflected on the petals of the lily. She said: "Every time I go home and see this light, it is like seeing hope." Since June, the owners of Lot 4 have moved into unfinished buildings. They are all ordinary people who have worked hard in Kunming for many years and invested their life savings here. The reality is there. They have to break through the bottom line of their respective living conditions and live in unfinished buildings without water, electricity and rain.
gritted his teeth to buy a building, he became the "loneliest person"
Maoyong stood on the bay window in the bedroom.
Affected by the epidemic, Mao Yong had almost no income in the first half of this year. Two months ago, he took his wife and son into the unfinished building he bought.
is a set of two bedrooms and one living room on the 18th floor, facing northeast. Maoyong moved the bed, table and chairs, drinking water and gas stove into the ruined building. Every night, he returns here to eat and sleep.
lives at night in an unfinished building, Mao Yong likes to lie on the window guardrail and look at the brightly lit Wujiaba CBD in the distance. Among the surrounding buildings, his family seemed to be the only one with lights on. This is the 13th year and two months since he came to Kunming. Mao Yong called himself "the loneliest person in Kunming."
Maoyong's living room.
Maoyong's hometown is on a large mountain in Weining, Guizhou, where no highway has been accessible. When I was young, I grew potatoes and corn at home. A large family only had enough food for half a year. His three eldest brothers had to go out to work early to make a living. Among the four brothers of
, Mao Yong loves to study the most, and was the first place in the county when he was a child. The family is counting on him to be admitted to university in the future. However, the successive deaths of his mother, eldest brother and second elder brother forced him to give up his dream of going to university early.
Maoyong still remembers the experience of going to a gold mine in Gejiu to pull ore with his second brother during the summer vacation. Because of his low strength, he has to go up and down more than a dozen times a day than others. When I lay in the cave and looked up to the sky, I discovered that the mine was ten stories high. In the summer of that year, there was an accident in the mine, and the second brother could not escape from the mine. With the ashes of the second brother and 3000 yuan in compensation, Maoyong went home by car alone, "tears can only flow in my heart" along the way.
In June 2006, Mao Yong, who had just finished the college entrance examination, came to Kunming alone and soon found a job as a porter in the vegetable market. He is used to snacks, and one person can do two people's work. After working for less than a year, his salary rose from 300 to 800. In the second year of coming to Kunming, he married a girl he met at work, and the two settled in Chengzhong Village on the west side of Wujiaba Airport.
In 2014, Maoyong's son was 5 years old. In order to allow his son to attend a public elementary school next year, he used all his savings to pay the down payment and bought a set of 89.26 square meters of two bedrooms and one living room on the 18th floor of the 12th building on the fourth plot of "Different Happiness City". The date of repossession on the purchase contract is April 2015.
worked for 20 years and bought a house just to settle in the city.
Dai Jin Hong and his wife sat on the bedroom windowsill.
Jinhong’s hometown, Huize (in Qujing City, Yunnan), was featured in the "Focus Interview" last year for the feat of lifting 100,000 people out of poverty. With the help of the poverty alleviation policy, every household in the village where Dai Jinhong is located walked out of the mountains last year and moved into new houses in the county town. Only Dai Jinhong was excluded from the list of assistance because of having a house purchase record in the city. Because
bought a house in the "Different Happy City", Dai Jinhong missed a new house of 100 square meters in the county town, education subsidies for children, medical reimbursement subsidies for the whole family, and employment opportunities arranged by the government.
He feels that he hasn't caught up with any good things in his life because he has suffered an uncultured loss. Dai Jinhong Primary School only reaches the third grade. He came to Kunming from his hometown 20 years ago to work and has been working in the construction industry. The two highlight moments in the life of the
generation Jin Hong, the first occurred in 2013: he bought a 106-square-meter large three-bedroom in the "Different Happiness City"; the second occurred in 2016: his daughter passed the Yunnan teacher The first interview of Xiaosheng from Dazhong High School.
In 2017, because the house was unfinished, the Kunming household registration of Dai Jinhong's family disappeared. Limited by the policies at the time, he had to send his daughter who was in the second grade of junior high school back to his hometown. The school teacher felt sorry for his daughter and persuaded him to think of a solution. However, Dai Jinhong has not been able to turn over the mountain that lies between his hometown and the city.
At the beginning of this year, Dai Jinhong’s client went bankrupt, and the wages owed were completely lost. In mid-June, he took his wife and son into the unfinished building. "As long as there is a way, I don't want to let the children live in." Now he is most worried about the lack of electricity in the community and the insufficient brightness of the solar lights at home, which will affect his son's homework.
Before his wife died, she was still worried about the unaccepted building
Huang Lihua stood in front of the wedding house she bought for her son for the first time.
Huang Lihua recently read the news and realized that the house she bought "had a big incident." She originally thought that the suspension of real estate was only temporary, and it would naturally get better in a few years. Since reading the news, Huang Lihua couldn't sleep night after night.
Huang Lihua is 67 years old and is from Kunming. Before retiring, she was a financial officer. In 2013, she and her husband bought a one-bedroom and one-living room in the "Different Happiness City" as a wedding room for their son. In 2016, the house was confiscated and the daughter-in-law divorced her son. Not long after the son's divorce, Huang Lihua's wife passed away due to illness, and she was still thinking about confiscating the house before she died.
On August 6 this year, Huang Lihua walked into the house she bought for the first time. The living room and bedroom of the house are facing south, so the lighting is very good. "If it weren't unfinished, how nice this house would be to live in." She couldn't help sighing.
She learned in the news that more and more owners are living in unfinished buildings, and she also had an idea and came to check it out. However, when she saw the dark elevator shaft in the corridor, she retreated.
Huang Lihua’s son is 43 years old this year. He occasionally does some packaging design work outside. He has never had a regular job. A while ago, he turned to credit cards in order to pay off debts, and his credit information was blocked. The mother and son live in a rented house near Yuantong Mountain and are supported by her pension every month.
Huang Lihua cautiously walked out of the unfinished building, reluctantly said: "The child is in his forties and has not been married. If the house is not repaired, it will be ruined in his lifetime."
Both couples are unemployed and can only live in the unfinished building
Resident Liu Ping.
Get up every morning, Liu Ping will tie the curtains into a symmetrical inverted triangle. Behind the curtain is a reinforced concrete wall surrounded on three sides.
Liu Ping and her husband are both unemployed this year. The husband recently returned to his hometown of Shilin to take care of his father. She took her daughter into the unfinished building.
Liu Ping remembers that when he paid the down payment for the house in 2013, the foundation of Lot 4 was already being dug. At that time, the house was built very quickly, adding a new floor almost every other week, and the roof was sealed in the blink of an eye.
During the 2014 Spring Festival, she found that there were few workers left on the construction site, thinking that the workers were just going home for the New Year. The sales staff also patiently replied to her at the time: "It's okay, wait a minute, construction will start soon." At the end of 2014, the construction of Lot 4 was completely suspended. Liu Ping and other owners began to report the situation everywhere. From the 12345 hotline to the Housing Management Bureau, the Housing Construction Bureau, the streets, and even higher government departments, relevant units and departments have been traversed layer by layer.
Liu Ping and her husband used to be in the tourism industry. It turned out that a family of three had a small house of more than 60 square meters in the civil aviation community. Later, with a young daughter, Liu Ping hoped that the family could live in a more spacious house, so he sold the original small house and bought it in the "Different Happy City" A large unit of 151 square meters. At that time, she was 42 years old and wanted to pay off her mortgage as soon as she was young. The loan only lasted ten years.
Before buying the "Different Happy City", Liu Ping specially checked whether the real estate has all five certificates. She is convinced that with these documents issued by the government, the house is secure. Even if work is temporarily suspended, sooner or later someone will come forward to solve it. It has been 5 years since
was the date of repossession on the contract. The 12 unfinished high-rise buildings of the "Different Happiness City" are still standing intact by the main road on the west side of the Wujiaba CBD. Liu Ping's hope has been exhausted a little while waiting.
"Every day I close my eyes and think about this unfinished building, and when I open my eyes, I think about this unfinished building. I feel crazy about moving into a new house. I really hope that time can turn back."
Liu Ping and Gao after dinner Peach Blossom (left) dances with the accompaniment of her mobile phone.
Liu Ping and Gao Taohua (left), who had some wine for dinner, dance with the accompaniment of mobile phones. Gao Taohua used to live with her daughter in the house of a widow and lonely old man she took care of. In order to buy this house, she borrowed 130,000 yuan from her only sister. I am afraid she will not be able to pay the money in a short time. Now she is separated from her sister getting bigger.
Tulips in Liu Ping's room.
In the third month of living in the unfinished building, Liu Ping has adapted to life here. During the day, she cooks with other people who stay behind. At night they would chat and play cards at the gate of the construction site, sometimes even singing and dancing. However, the beauty in unfinished buildings is fragile. When it rains, the community will become a piece of land.
Liu Ping is 48 years old this year, and she realizes that she is no longer able to buy a second house. Living in an unfinished building is not a long-term solution. She always hopes that someone can take care of them and help them live in a normal new house. In the
community where the "Minister of Engineering"
was opposed to moving alone, many people have similar experiences and ideas with Liu Ping. Most of them moved in because they had no choice.
The water intake point at the entrance of the community.
Ding Yong (pseudonym) and his son. The 38-year-old is from Bijie, Guizhou. Currently, a family of four lives in an unfinished building. The eldest son is studying at school. His wife takes the younger son at home during the day and helps everyone cook. He goes out to drive at night.
is about to move into Li Hongmei in Building 11. Li Hongmei is 50 years old this year, from Kunming. She has her own homestead house in a village in the city. The house is bought for her son. She said that her son was born in a village in the city and it is difficult to get married without a house or car.
Yang Zhixing helped the new owner move furniture. He is from Kunming. He is 54 years old this year. He used to run cars and engage in construction. He installed almost every door in the unfinished building. The owner called him the "Minister of Engineering in the unfinished building."
Yang Zhixing returned to his room. In June of this year, despite the opposition of his family, he moved into the unfinished building alone. Unlike most owners, he still has a house in Kunming. He moved into an unfinished building to seek justice for himself.
lives in Zhou Qin on the 13th floor of Building 5. Zhou Qin opened a small shop in the village in the city, and her husband drove a motorcycle as a passenger. The husband and wife have worked hard in Kunming for more than ten years and have been living in a village in the city. They have always dreamed of having a home of their own in a big city, and no longer send them under the fence.
Children playing games between the unfinished rough houses.
Zhang Xueying and her grandson. Zhang Xueying used to open a supermarket downstairs in her home, but the government's land acquisition house was demolished. In order to reduce the burden on her daughter, she and her husband moved into an unfinished building. The female foreigner works outside, and she takes her grandchildren in the unfinished building.
Li Xuexian and his two-month-old son. Li Xuexian came from Wuding, Chuxiong, Yunnan. He spent all his family's savings in buying this house. He used to sell in a jade store, and the store has been closed since the 30th of this year and has not opened yet. At present, he can occasionally receive some sports car jobs, "I have to pay 2,300 yuan in mortgage every month, and the pressure has been reduced a lot after living here."
The big pot of rice at noon in the unfinished building. There were not many people staying in the community during the day, so they started eating a big pot of rice with the AA system.
Postscript:
Some owners who live in unfinished buildings said that in 2017, the owners of the "Different New City" collectively applied to the court for arbitration. The Kunming Arbitration Commission ruled that the developer should pay a monthly overdue loss of 1,500 yuan to the commercial housing owner who purchased the unfinished building.
A few months later, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court issued an enforcement ruling, stating that the developer had not fulfilled the obligation of compensation and had no property to enforce enforcement upon inquiry. The
China Executive Information Disclosure Network currently shows that Kunming Jiadali, the developer of the "Different Happy City", and its related Kunming Xiaoan Demolition Company have been listed as untrustworthy enforcers.
Collection/Photography: Southern Metropolis reporter Zhang Zhitao
