Have you ever heard of the “nail houses”? Not many people in the United States have. Nail houses are the name that Chinese developers have given people who will not sell their houses to developers for demolition. Land development in China is proceeding at an extremely frantic pace to keep up with demand. Large amounts of land are torn up to make room for apartments and high rises every day all over China. Ancient villages that have been standing for thousands of years are torn down daily to feed the ever-growing economic power that China has become. Most people will gladly take the money that is offered them and buy a new home and everything will be okay. However, there are more and more people who are saying enough is enough and refusing to sell their homes to big land developers. Whether nail houses in China are a problem will really depend on who you talk to. I’m sure the people who live in these homes would say they are just protecting what’s theirs, while developers are sure to say these people are simply being stubborn and stopping progress. No matter what side you are on, these 20 incredible images of nail houses in China will leave you stunned.
I couldn’t imagine going home to a place like this. Zheng Meiju (pictured) has been living in this single slice of apartments since 2013 even though the water and power have been cut.
Apparently these people wanted some extra protection from developers and decided to go all medieval and build a moat.
Old houses in the middle of high rises like this can throw major problems into a big development project.
This lone house makes for such a sad picture amongst the more modern looking apartments rising all around it.
These few houses are the last remaining remnants of the over 900 year old Yangji Village. The whole project that was supposed to happen here was stopped because too many people held out.
According to a popular Chinese forum, this house was voted the coolest nail house in history.
This woman was utterly devastated and reduced to tears after her house was finally torn down.
It really would be interesting to find out how much money some of these developers have offered these people for these houses just to get them out-of-the-way.
Only two houses remain from what was once an entire village on this piece of land. The residents were subject to attacks from anonymous sources that would randomly shut off their power and water.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to have the entire rest of the building you live in demolished around you.
So apparently these people have to rappel down from their house every morning…
This guy is actually in a pretty prime position. High end luxury apartments now surround his home, increasing its value, and it’s the only one out of all these that could have a decent yard.
Sometimes developers will just say screw it and build around the nail houses in China. This road doesn’t seem safe or practical though.
These developers may be out of luck with this house though. I don’t know how you’re getting around that.
These people even continue to maintain their garden in the middle of a street.
This house is in the middle of busy square, and even has a shop located directly beneath it.
This has to be the strangest one out of all of these. This isn’t a house, but yes, those are tomb stones and this is grave site. Contractors just work around it like it’s no big deal however.
The juxtaposition between these two halves of the street is pretty crazy to look at. You have complete and utter urban development of modern China on the right, and on the left you have the much more traditional rural look of what China used to be.
These people refused to leave when a giant freeway system was being built all around them.
It really is a wonder how these people continue to live in these houses.
Home is very important to most people. We feel a special attachment to the place where we go home every night with our family to eat, laugh, sleep, and make memories. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to these developers or anyone else that some people are not going to give up their home without fighting until the very end. However, as a society we do have to balance personal rights with the common good, and that is where things can get very tricky. For the time being though, it seems citizens will have to continue to deal with these nail houses in China.