This house, stranded in the middle of an asphalt road, is the home of a tenacious couple in Wenling, China, who refused to move out when the government relocated some 500 families to allow for a thick vein of road to cut through the village. The pair, who had been playing chicken with the Chinese government for nearly four years, said they stayed put because the some $41,000 the government offered in compensation was not enough to buy a new house. What happened? Why, the thoroughfare was built around them, of course! Sure, the island-like abode is pretty bizarre, but it's not like this is China's only random bit of housing plunked in an unexpected place—remember the tiny tract of suburbia perched atop of a shopping mall? There's also, of course, the world's future tallest building, which will be plunked in the middle of a field.
· The House in the Middle of the Street [The Atlantic via Laughing Squid]
Filed under:
Loading comments...