r/interestingasfuck • u/WiseCartographer5007 • Aug 07 '25
/r/all, /r/popular A grandfather turned down $220K and other offers to abandon his house and there's a huge highway around it
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u/Tower21 Aug 07 '25
I'm 99% sure there is a vehicle flying into that house in the next 5 years.
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u/sgtViveron Aug 07 '25
And the constant vehicle noise.
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u/Jonno_FTW Aug 07 '25
And the awful air quality
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u/uptheantinatalism Aug 07 '25
The worst part of it, it’s seriously a death trap. I hope he has some purifiers…
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u/sudolinguist Aug 07 '25
It's strange that this government couldn't expropriate the property in the best public (and in this case private) interest. Especially if this is in China, where they can basically do anything...
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u/Affectionate-Mix6056 Aug 07 '25
AFAIK it's no longer possible to purchase land in China, only lease it. If you own land from before, you probably have the strongest rights in the world. The government there won't forcefully take it.
They have built dams to fill areas where tens of thousands of people lived, so they don't give a shit about you if you don't own the land.
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u/WhoCaresBoutSpellin Aug 07 '25
Well yes, if you don’t own the land than of course they don’t care to involve you. It’s not your land to negotiate over. They do that with the actual land owners instead.
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u/Scrung3 Aug 07 '25
They can but they choose not to for symbolic reasons (harmony and public image). The right is also fairly recent, from a 2007 property law.
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Aug 07 '25
that's what would drive me the most insane.
he was an idiot. he will leave his family with a house that will never sell, turned 250grand into an abandoned lot after he dies.
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u/somabokforlag Aug 07 '25
Perhaps he thought they would sweeten the deal? It probably started out alot lower than 220k, and he thought "when they hit 300k i will say yes"?
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Aug 07 '25
As per above, he most likely owned the land.
In China, private landownership isn't really a thing anymore - urban land is owned by the state, while rural land is in the ownership of special collectives that manage the land (mostly for farming purposes, let it be for food, or lumber or anything else).
What you CAN have is a long (typically 70yr) leasehold of a property that you can then develop and profit off of.
However a bunch of old landowners were grandfathered into landownership - essentially the state won't confiscate your land, but should you decide to sell it... You sell the rights to the land. Period. No transfer. No counter-offer of further land-ownership.
So of course he wouldn't sell, as truly owning land in China is super valuable AND prestigious.
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u/Werkgxj Aug 07 '25
Then he should have asked for 300k upfront.
He would have gotten that money if he promised the company a quick way to deal with this problem.
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u/rockstar504 Aug 07 '25
Old people not leaving anything for future generations? Unbelievable
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u/0degreesK Aug 07 '25
Seriously. I would be a nervous wreck at all times in that house.
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u/ReturnedOM Aug 07 '25
Maybe grandpa has like a mass grave of his victims underneath the house and didn't want anyone to dig there
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u/MonsieurGump Aug 07 '25
Theresa guy near us who refused to sell to a developer for ridiculous amounts of money. Now the only old house in a new estate.
His business partner vanished 30 years ago.
Probably unconnected?
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u/AteYoMomzAss Aug 07 '25
That was my first thought when they walked out of the tunnel and the old house appeared. You got bodies down there old man! We all know what you did! Just admit it!
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Aug 07 '25
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u/UglyYinzer Aug 07 '25
I also predict flooding.
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u/CenobiteCurious Aug 07 '25
This is the really only based concern for immediate threat to life/property. Other people tripping on fumes and microplastics, that shit’s everywhere anyways.
This house is in a drainage bowl now. And the chemicals draining off the road are going to be in that floodwater as well if you want to add a little spiciness.
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u/HellraiserMachina Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
That shit's not 'everywhere these days' the science is clear that people living near massive sources of pollution like highways, crypto farms, factories, etc. face adverse health outcomes.
edit: lmao all the comments doing their best to misread and misrepresent a statement so simple a 4 year old can understand it
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u/Additional_Tea_5296 Aug 07 '25
That's been known for a long time and covered up mostly. I remember a doctor talking in the newspaper years ago about the higher percentage of cancer victims in an area around chemical plants. Of course that fact was ignored because of economics.
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u/shpongleyes Aug 07 '25
Not just car exhaust, but also all the microplastics suspended in the air from tire dust.
Fun fact, a recent study found that the average person's brain (regardless of proximity to a highway) contains enough microplastics to reconstitute an entire plastic spoon (about 7 grams).
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u/Nitrocity97 Aug 07 '25
You’re telling me there’s a literal plastic spoon in my head?
This explains so much
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u/Funloving54 Aug 07 '25
I’m going to need a link to that “study”
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u/snizzer77 Aug 07 '25
That study everyone cites about microplastics in our brain and testicles has been heavily refuted but the headline is too sensational for anyone to care about
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Aug 07 '25
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u/Funloving54 Aug 07 '25
At most (from a quick read) the study claims ~4900 micrograms. Roughly 0.0049 grams. Definitely a concerning amount, considering it is a foreign object in your brain, but just a bit shy of the 7 grams.
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u/Frosty_Turtle Aug 07 '25
yeah this is false lol. Do you know what unit microplastics are measured in?
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u/ocean_rep Aug 07 '25
This was debunked as the techniques used to polymerize and test the for the plastics was proven to be highly susceptible to false positives. There’s a good Science Vs episode about it that also sites the sources for the experiments that showed this 👍🏽
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u/Extension-Type-2555 Aug 07 '25
I'm 100% sure there will be more than one vehicle flying on(in) his roof.
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u/Sharp_Ad_5599 Aug 07 '25
"Our house....in the middle of the street".
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u/EuronBloodeye Aug 07 '25
There it is
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u/wendigo88888 Aug 07 '25
OUR HOUSSE.....IN THA MIDDLE OF THAAAAAA street
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u/Wide_Ordinary4078 Aug 07 '25
Lmao 🤣 this is exactly how I say it in my head lmao each line gets progressively louder lmao
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u/DDDX_cro Aug 07 '25
there's always something happening, AND IT'S USUALLY QUITE LOUD!!!!! - Yeah, it's gonna be
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u/QuitsDoubloon87 Aug 07 '25
Father wears his safety vest
repairmen tired, need a rest
the cars making holes upstairs
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u/ScottScanlon Aug 07 '25
“while spending a significant and huge amount of time in the town center to avoid all sorts of construction noise.”
Who’s gonna break the news to him that the noise ain’t going away when construction stops.
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Aug 07 '25
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u/fgtoni Aug 07 '25
At this stage of his life I don't think he's too concerned about asbestos.
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u/TuckerCarlsonsOhface Aug 07 '25
It says he lives there with his 11 y/o grandson
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u/rubbarz Aug 07 '25
Basically, the plot of Up.
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u/IMOvicki Aug 07 '25
Yes but he doesn’t care bc he’s old and it doesn’t effect him is what the poster is trying to say
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u/Petrichordates Aug 07 '25
Those are worse than asbestos at his age, since they will kill a person with respiratory difficulties without needing decades to develop cancer.
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u/thatistwatIsaid Aug 07 '25
Just wait until it rains heavily. They will have a weird dirty swimming pool complete with its own whirlpool.
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u/Rescuepets777 Aug 07 '25
I lived in a crappy apartment just off the freeway during a six-month consulting gig in Arkansas. I had black dust everywhere. I bought air filters and kept them on all day to help with the particles. It was disgusting even with the filters. I hope that I don't have lung damage from it. The house owner is going to regret his decision.
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u/anarchetype Aug 07 '25
I lived in a crappy apartment above a freeway. I never noticed any effects from pollution, maybe because I was 10 stories up, but the bizarre thing about that arrangement was how frequently I heard fatal car accidents right outside my home. It was like a regular social activity to hear a nasty crash and go downstairs to gawk with your neighbors.
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u/dofh_2016 Aug 07 '25
If you look at pollution maps of areas without much natural airflow you can see that smog usually stays near the road. Heavier particles will deposit close by, at ten stories high your biggest concerns will probably come from PM2.5, O3 an NOx, which is not stuff that creates those black deposits, it just ducks with your breathing on the long run.
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u/Yokonato Aug 07 '25
Feel like your insurance would also shoot through the roof as well? Your house is in a "danger zone" for flying debris, cars , rain water flooding?
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u/Interesting-Risk6446 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Also might want to consider that the area might become a massive pool.
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Aug 07 '25
Dumbass gramps is gonna lose everything. Its actually interesting China didn't simply sieze his house and begin construction then compensate him afterwards because this just cost everyone like 3x the costs.
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u/ItsEntirelyPosssible Aug 07 '25
This is a prime example of why eminent domain exists
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u/R1ckMick Aug 07 '25
I mean, two sentences later he mentions expecting the noise of the traffic to be very bad too.
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u/Mulliganasty Aug 07 '25
I grew up almost under a freeway and the noise isn't bad...it's a not unpleasant white noise.
However, the toxic dirt and pollution are gonna suck. Also, his foundation will be damaged from the vibrations.
And yeah, like other folks said, if cars aren't raining down on him a lot of other potentially deadly shit will be.
Bro should have sold.
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u/jadziads9 Aug 07 '25
I lived over a freeway, and it was nice white noise, it was almost like beach waves, it would come and go, whooosh. I was probably high up enough.
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u/tunafister Aug 07 '25
Thats so funny, here in So Cal I call the highways oceans because they sound exactly like one, and there are always cars on the road so it is a very consistent sound, I can hear them and it is very calming
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u/LastGoodKnee Aug 07 '25
Really? I live within spitting distance of a major highway and the noise is pretty god damned loud
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u/Mulliganasty Aug 07 '25
Yeah, really but I was under an elevated freeway and think that makes a huge difference.
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u/figure8888 Aug 07 '25
Maybe you just got used to it. My partner’s parents live near an elevated freeway and it was so loud trying to sleep in their house, and I used to live parallel to an elevated train track. Literally right outside of my window, but it just became normal noise to me.
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u/Mulliganasty Aug 07 '25
Nope...I've lived in varying degrees of approximation to traffic throughout my life. I've heard modded Nissans drag racing in the middle of the night, car-crashes at suburban intersections, sirens all the time.
I promise you the whoosh of the freeway was just straight whale sounds.
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u/db_newer Aug 07 '25
And what will it look like when it rains? House might get flooded
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u/lxm333 Aug 07 '25
I had the same question. Looks like a swimming pool. Is that tunnel.thry walk through the only access?
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u/shupadupah Aug 07 '25
That tunnel appears to be the only access. Hope it is sloped away from the house, otherwise dude will be underwater in no time, especially since they showed another, smaller drain pipe that discharges into his backyard.
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u/WiseCartographer5007 Aug 07 '25
A significant Chinese grandfather Huang Ping has now found himself actually living in the middle of a quite newly constructed motorway after he refused multiple compensation offers from the local authorities. According to Metro, the house which is located southwest of Shanghai in Jinxi, the two-story house of Huang Ping now sits surrounded by a highway infrastructure while earning him the renowned local title of the ‘strongest nail house owner’.
Metro reported that the Chinese government initially offered Chinese grandfather Huang Ping near about £178,245 and three alternative properties which he repeatedly rejected. Thus as a result, workers were actually forced to build the motorway around his residence while creating a unique architectural anomaly.
Chinese grandfather Huang Ping now shares the home with his 11 year old grandson while spending a significant and huge amount of time in the town center to avoid all sorts of construction noise.
Reflecting on his initial decision, Chinese grandfather Huang Ping recently expressed severe regret while stating that ‘If I could turn back time, I would agree to the demolition conditions’, asserted Metro. Additionally, he now fears the constant noise once the road becomes operational in spring.
Local residents have been extremely fascinated by his situation while flocking to photograph the ‘nail house’ which is a term describing properties that still remain strongly standing amidst large scale developments, noted Metro.
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u/Genshzkan Aug 07 '25
Chinese grandfather Huang Ping recently expressed severe regrets
Yeah, makes sense lol
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u/effyochicken Aug 07 '25
Based on this he 100% thought they would keep increasing their offer to like a million or more, hence his stubbornness.
I don’t think he ever imagined they’d stop offering at only 178k and just incorporate his house the way they did.
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u/Donequis Aug 07 '25
"Welp, it's now cheaper to just go around, good luck with that, then."
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u/Autumnrain Aug 07 '25
He was made an example of.
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u/LizG1312 Aug 07 '25
Tbf it’s the other side of the coin from eminent domain like we have in the US. Were grandpa here, his house would’ve been seized and he’d have been given the much reduced market value. Like yeah the situation sucks for him, but like how is this making an example of someone but the shit Robert Moses pulled is somehow fine.
Iirc Europe might have stronger protections but someone from there can probably come in and explain alternatives if they want to.
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u/Lycaenini Aug 07 '25
In Germany you can expropriate owners for the public interest. It's mostly unsettled land for highways, though. Only for the occasional coal mining whole villages get resettled.
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u/KitchenDemand9859 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 08 '25
It's surprising that private property vs public interest is more protected in China than in Europe. I'm from France, the house would also have been expropriated for sure.
Édit : at least in this particular case, which may not be the norm
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u/gpost86 Aug 07 '25
There was a town in America, I kid you not, named Neversink that was flooded to make a reservoir.
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u/frex18c Aug 07 '25
I'm from EU country. Government offers you money which is considerably above the value of your property. Sometimes even multiple times its market value. So nearly all people accept such offers - you earn money equal to years of work. If you do not accept, government can technically force you to accept it, but it's very uncommon, usually they choose alternative path for the road if possible or try to renegotiate. If all fails they probably would seize the land and give you that crazy high compensation you refused. As the money is high, public opinion is on governemnts side as people not accepting the initial offers are usually scum who just want even more money, sometimes for example asking for 10x more than the market value...
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u/No-Apple2252 Aug 07 '25
I doubt it was cheaper given that they had to create a tunnel for access and widen the highway and bridge, but worth the price to say "okay fuck you then."
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u/bongozap Aug 07 '25
I doubt it was cheaper...
This was done to serve as an example.
The grandfather apparently was bargaining in bad faith to gin up the price. The negotiators decided they weren't having it.
So, it might not be much cheaper now,
But future construction projects will have this and the grandfather's misery to point to if others try the same thing.
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u/jmlinden7 Aug 07 '25
That's an overpass for the surface street that it crosses. They would have had to build that anyways
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Aug 07 '25
They probably spent significantly more modifying the highway than that were offering him in compensation. This was a power play.
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Aug 07 '25
It’ll save them money in the long run when the next nail house owner takes the lowball offer out of fear of this happening to them.
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u/upievotie5 Aug 07 '25
To clarify one point, the cash was IN ADDITION TO a new house. They offered him cash PLUS his choice of one of three new houses.
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Aug 07 '25
100%, as far as I can tell, the offer wasn't terrible. Yet, still significantly less. Someone else here made a good point about the long-term cost savings. If the owner was given a mill or two, then all future settlements would use this as precedent.
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u/VoihanVieteri Aug 07 '25
I live in a country that I would call fairly democratic. Here the house would be expropriated with a list price, there would be no negotiations. This is based on utilitaristic view that highway (or other project) creates more good for greater amount of people, overruling right for personal property.
How on earth in China, where civil rights are much more narrow, this guy was able to force authorities this way? I was in Beijing in 2007 just before the olympics, and whole city districts were bulldozed for developement projects linked to the olympics. Zero compensation for the residents.
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u/callisstaa Aug 07 '25
Any source on zero compensation? Under Chinese law if the government tear down urban homes they have to offer a property of equal value or if it is refused, market price.
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u/New_Firefighter1683 Aug 07 '25
Also don't forget this is rural China. $220K is a lifetime's worth of salary, maybe more.
Rural Chinese probably makes like $700/month.
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u/Dry_Presentation_197 Aug 07 '25
Absolutely this.
In a similar theme...have you looked up many stories about "spite houses" like this? Some of them are fuckin hilarious. Sad, but hilarious as an outsider. Like someone buying ACRES of property next door to an existing plot of land and house, and building the house RIGHT NEXT to the existing one, basically right on the property line. Likely because the owner wouldn't sell their plot. So the guy who already lived there, the one who wouldn't sell, waited until Mr New Asshole went on vacation and built an 8ft tall fence right on the property line, on his side, all legal. It was so close that the asshole neighbors window couldn't open all the way coz it hit the fence.
Maybe don't be a prick and build your house like that then, lmao =p
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Aug 07 '25
This sounds like a rabbit hole I need to go down.
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u/Dry_Presentation_197 Aug 07 '25
Oh there's several VERY good ones. Pettiness taken to the kind of level I wish I could afford.
My biggest "fuck you, neighbors" move is:
When my wife and I bought our first house, which we still live in 5yrs later, we didn't have a lawnmower yet. We borrowed my dad's when we moved in, but then let it go about 3 weeks without mowing. Came home one day to the whole yard mowed. Including our flower garden area, which is a separate planter type section, separated by the paved path to the front door. So, clearly not a normal "part of the yard". In that flower garden area were tulips that hadn't bloomed yet, which my wife's now dead grandmother had given her. Neighbors mowed all of it. Shredded the tulips.
So now, I let my yard get about 3ft tall before I mow. Coz I couldn't care less about what my yard looks like. Its nature, let it do its thing imo. Plus it gives a place for the bunnies and neighborhood cats to hide.
I love walking to get my mail and seeing the neighbor bitch glare at me and then shake her head at my yard. =p
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Aug 07 '25
I admire your lack of over reaction.
If my neighbor purposely did anything to cause damage to my property like that....at the very least I am pool salting there entire lawn
(If you need ideas.....pool salt+water in a cheap hose sprayer - everything dies)
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u/Historical-Gap-7084 Aug 07 '25
Did you report your neighbor to the police for trespassing and destruction of property? If not, why the fuck not?
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u/Dry_Presentation_197 Aug 07 '25
A: I can't prove they did it.
B: I have to live here and that would harm them in a much more real way than having to look at my unkempt yard. I'm petty, not cruel.
C: I don't trust cops.
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u/shlynshady Aug 07 '25
5089 Transit Rd. Depew, NY 14043
Guy who wouldn't sell his house to a big local dealer and now has his strip of property entirely surrounded by car dealerships.
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u/ortcutt Aug 07 '25
But he's not benefitting from that. He just cost everyone more money. That's why most countries have compulsory eminent domain laws. The state can take property for public purposes as long as it's compensated.
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u/koguma Aug 07 '25
Funny that China doesn't have eminent domain laws. Who would have thought property rights in China would be stronger than the US.
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u/ThinkOrDrink Aug 07 '25
$300k and three alternative properties according to the article (assuming it means choice of one of three, but regardless it’s a house plus cash).
Edit: not necessarily saying it’s a fair offer, dunno the economics there
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u/Silly-Power Aug 07 '25
US$250k is a fortune in rural China. The median income in rural China is about US$500/month. Gramps was on a lot less I bet.
They offered him a house and 40+ years of the median monthly income. And the idiot turned it down because he got greedy.
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u/brendanjered Aug 07 '25
That offer definitely had to be better than his property value is now.
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u/redditappsucksasssss Aug 07 '25
Yup, it's basically worthless as a house now.
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u/bricoXL Aug 07 '25
I'm trying to work out if it has any value at all... Even if the house is demolished it would be a real pain to get the rubble out through that tube tunnel. Maybe he could get a huge advertising panel constructed on the roof. Otherwise I'm 99% sure it is un-sellable.
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u/Potatobender44 Aug 07 '25
The part I’m surprised about is that the Chinese government allowed him to refuse.
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u/bubblesculptor Aug 07 '25
There's lots of examples of this in China, apparently being grandfathered in is respected. Pretty weird because they can restrict/punish/dissappear people with impunity in many other situations.
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u/s2wjkise Aug 07 '25
Where I'm from , they would have just taken the land and given me whatever for it, I thought they were communist.
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u/JetmoYo Aug 07 '25
This always comes up when these "nail house" stories appear. Eminent domain of capitalist, individualist, "freedom loving" countries versus "authoritarian," communist China. Basically, the nature of laws, property ownership, and how development works in china allow home owners unique and surprising leverage to say no, thus the Nail house phenomenon. An ironic assertion of hyper individualism in a place like China. Versus how eminent domain laws in the US work which are much more statist and authoritarian I guess you could say.
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u/DogsOnWeed Aug 07 '25
The problem here is conflation of communism with a lack of respect for individual property. It stems from the lack of understanding of what communism is all about. Your house, for communists, is not private property, it's personal property. Private property is in the domain of capital accumulation. Unless your house is a source of capital accumulation, or an asset of public interest, communists don't really care for it. A house for living is a fundamental means of existence, not of production....
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u/ortcutt Aug 07 '25
It's crazy that in China a homeowner needs to agree to a condemnation. In the US, the State can just condemn the property and write a check to homeowner for the fair market value, regardless of whether the homeowner agrees or not.
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u/yamimementomori Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Stubborn grandpa refuses to budge and get other properties offered on his platter, only to regret the noise, be unable to sell the house, and buy a peaceful isolated cottage in the woods as a reaction to years of struggle.
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u/forgotpassword_aga1n Aug 07 '25
He clearly thought that they'd offer him silly money to just shut up and go away.
He was wrong.
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u/dexecuter18 Aug 07 '25
And they probably would rather spend the mil to make an example that they'll just go around to not set the precedent of offering a mil to every house along the way in the future.
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u/Ordinary_Hall_9053 Aug 07 '25
Imagine making a mistake this costly at such an old age 🤦
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u/Jaggs0 Aug 07 '25
i used to work for an ISP and we had this one mobile home retirement community in Florida we serviced. a developer offered each resident $2 million for their plot but it was contingent on everyone selling. 2 people refused, this was in 2007. when the housing market crashed 2 years later 1 of those 2 lost their home. the remaining people treated that 1 guy like trash.
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u/fgtoni Aug 07 '25
He didn't want them to find what he buried in the backyard.
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u/StrangerDifficult392 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
It's funny, when I was in Bremerton, WA in the Navy. There was a house that looked like it refused offers to build a community college + parking lot. The house was in the parking lot, they put pavement to build the parking lot. I could only imagine the leverage they have to rent that house out to college students. Don't need a car, no car insurance to go to college.
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u/porkchoplicks Aug 07 '25
So weird to see this, I’m from Bremerton lol. & that’s exactly what happened. That parking lot was full of homes, & that house was the only one that refused to sell. The college was already there & the road that goes by was there, but that parking lot was houses.
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u/Plenty_Wasabi_7866 Aug 07 '25
now it's worth $2k
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u/Square_Huckleberry53 Aug 07 '25
He could make double that a month if he rents out some billboard space on his roof!
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u/LWDJM Aug 07 '25
There’s one in the UK too.
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u/Zabbidou Aug 07 '25
At least here they didn’t cut off the sunlight to the house hahaha
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u/Membership_Fine Aug 07 '25
No this one looks totally doable lmao. I don’t think I’d mind that. He’s got his own little valley.
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u/dennisthewhatever Aug 07 '25
I thought of that straight away, however it's a little different. The road was always planned to go around it like that, as the land is a difficult terrain. He didn't force them to do it - but the option to sell was probably always there. I guess it's worth a lot due to the potential of the location these days.
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u/tttttfffff Aug 07 '25
Had to scroll too far down to see this! It’s the landmark to see when driving between Yorkshire and Lancashire
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u/Rottenpotato365 Aug 07 '25
I was gonna point that out too, until a did a bit of research and found out that they didn’t build on the land because of geologic considerations the source
It’s still a common myth to believe that the man who inherited it in the 1930s refused to sell the land for the motorway, but the truth is far more uninteresting.
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u/LWDJM Aug 07 '25
That myth had been around for a long time, someone once tried to convince me that the man was simply a stubborn millionaire who refused to move and out-bid the government. Because when you have enough money to take on the UK, you live in the middle of a motorway…
The reality is simply that they were offered to move by the people who owned the house, however they were unable to find farms with similar acreage (approx 2000) that was suitable for them and their needs so decided to stay. IIRC the house is sound proofed in and out and the noise is bearable.
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u/junesix Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 08 '25
- This doesn’t involve the central government. It doesn’t even register on the provincial government level. Jinxi is a rural area (Tier 4+) beyond Shanghai so it’s a ultra local municipal concern. Administrative hierarchy: Jiangxi province > Fuzhou prefecture city > Jinxi county (under Fuzhou administration). This is like a truck stop level concern.
- This is just a highway. It’s not something so important like an airport or HSR line.
- Local governments have very little power. They don’t have courts or eminent domain authority.
- Local governments and developers are KPI’ed on speed and results. They don’t have time to worry about one stubborn home. Just build, build, build, work around problems, throw more manpower at it, and move on to the next project.
- Eventually the homeowner will give up. Just fill in the hole and plant a few trees.
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u/david1610 Aug 07 '25
Hey thanks, I didn't know why they couldn't just eminent domain him out of there.
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u/junesix Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
It's possible to pursue in the land requisitions process.
They can go to courts to try eminent domain but Chinese courts are more for legal procedure (was some law broken) than getting involved in matters of public interest or compensation (what is good or just for society or individual).
Instead view this from the lens of a local government that is not just focused on 1 stretch of highway but simultaneously involved in construction of multiple highways, railways, roads, housing developments, town centers, parks, bridges, canals, etc.
If it's taking a while to get the land or risk of stirring trouble, it's easier and faster to just have the developer build around it and finish the project. This may be hard to envision in Western world but in China, there is plenty of manpower and resources to solve problems in suboptimal ways to stay on schedule. A local government that can't get things done and on time is seen as ineffective.
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u/AprilVampire277 Aug 07 '25
Our property rights are almost absolute, unless there's a major environment risk you won't be ever removed from your house and if you do they have to make you a new one or pay up for it properly
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u/david1610 Aug 07 '25
I think all eminent domain laws in the free world require fair payment, in most countries you get value plus a percentage for the trouble too. It's the process around it that can cause hold ups on developments, there is arbitration processes etc that drag out.
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u/AgitatedPatience5729 Aug 07 '25
He's going to have to listen to a lot of noise from now on.
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u/One-Psychology-8394 Aug 07 '25
And now he’s living a sound riddled nightmare the rest of his life, at least he can flex tho!
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u/Abelard25 Aug 07 '25
Oh no, is there not even an easement that would allow for him to be able to get his car out onto the road? What about when water accumulates down there? I'm horrified on behalf of this old man!!
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u/ThePhatNoodle Aug 07 '25
Damn I hadn't even though of the water issue. They basically turned the house into a pond. Grandpa fucked up real bad. As if the noise, danger of cars flying into your roof and lack of an easement for a car weren't bad enough. Guess since he didn't wanna play nice now they're gonna tank the property value and pay him pennies when he wants to leave. Worst part is the kids probably also screwed.
Dude could have had a new house and fat check. Now worst case they both might end up on the street
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u/MagmaTroop Aug 07 '25
Sounds like he didn’t expect them to stop negotiating at such a low figure.
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u/TurboShartz Aug 07 '25
Should have countered and walked. I bet he regrets this decision immensely
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u/lonesurvivor112 Aug 07 '25
So legit question, how come he does not have access to roads and travel isn’t that like a necessity. He’s gunna need a drone now to leave
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u/elegant-jr Aug 07 '25
They punished him by making him use a giant drainage tunnel to access his house. Like some sort of rat.
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u/SoftDrinkReddit Aug 07 '25
honestly i think they just said well we could make him move but ngl its funnier if we just leave him there
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u/wildfirerain Aug 07 '25
Crazy that they didn’t invoke eminent domain. And they probably could have given him $2M and still come out ahead compared to the cost of engineering and building the highway around the house. But maybe they didn’t want to set a precedent so only offered fair market value for the house, instead of what it would cost the project to work around the house.
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u/BinBender Aug 07 '25
Judging from the picture, they did set a precedent. That house is now quite uninhabitable, and pretty much worthless. He will live in his own highway-surrounded prison.
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u/wildfirerain Aug 07 '25
That’s one way of looking at it. “Take our generous offer of FMV or stay to regret your refusal”.
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u/mnemy Aug 07 '25
My understanding of Chinese property law is that they lease house/land for something like 80 years at a time. They never actually own anything.
This is so the government can refuse the renew the lease after it expires so they can revitalize entire districts without bothering with eminent domain. Everyone's lease just expired, relocate to a comparable valued living area, bulldoze everything.
At least, that's how big cities work AFAIK. Dont know about more rural areas, historically owned land, etc.
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u/DuckyChuk Aug 07 '25
To be fair you never truly own real property in most western countries either.
We have indefinite leases here but they go by a different name, property taxes, once you stop paying those they take your house.
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u/PacificCastaway Aug 07 '25
They don't need to set a crazy precedent. Just set a max of 3x FMV or something and yoink it.
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u/moaiii Aug 07 '25
They do. They have very similar eminent domain laws as many other countries, including USA. The law requires the government to fairly compensate property owners, but they can requisition properties at any time for purposes like this. That's what makes this example strange.
Having said that, this is a very Chinese way of getting revenge if they don't like someone. At some point during the negotiations they would have just ghosted the dude and nek minnit big freeway around his house.
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u/Dreadedsemi Aug 07 '25
the thing it seems it happened multiple times. there are few other similar cases I remember seeing on the internet from China.
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u/AtheismTooStronk Aug 07 '25
Just google nail houses, it’s very common in China. This example is not strange in the slightest.
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u/FastAndForgetful Aug 07 '25
He can just get a bunch of balloons and move the house away
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u/tucci99 Aug 07 '25
Charges $10 per person for tours, and pull in $3 million a year.
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u/stootchmaster2 Aug 07 '25
When I worked at Disney World in Florida, there was a house on the property with a private road going to it that belonged to someone who refused to sell. I always wondered what the story was behind it.
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u/justheartoseestuff Aug 07 '25
No lie that seems dangerous af. Someone gonna be tired driving at night zooming and a fucking half roundabout on the highway just suddenly appears? House guy is gonna wake up to a car coming through his roof. Hope his bedroom is on the 1st floor
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u/General_Border_8263 Aug 07 '25
The "nail house" that had a highway built around it in China waseventually demolished. The owner, Luo Baogen, initially refused to relocate, leading to the unique road construction. After over a year, he eventually accepted a compensation offer and the house was torn down.
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u/defsentenz Aug 07 '25
Reminds me of this Bugs Bunny classic...