extraordinarily stubborn 'nail houses' ( changsha, china )

his dilapidated shop/home sits continues to do business outside a sparkling, relatively modern-looking shopping centre in changsha city and the contrast between the two buildings is shocking. i don't know much about this house but if you look at the first photo, there are a couple more old properties which also seem to have weathered the development storm. the photos themselves are from october 2007 so i'm unsure whether they held up for much longer and a search on google maps proved fruitless.

extraordinarily stubborn 'nail houses' ( wu ping, chongqing, china )

perhaps the most famous nail house in history was situated on a huge mound of dirt in chonqing until april 2007, at which point it was demolished by exhausted developers after battling for 3 years and eventually parting with ¥1m. the house's owner, mrs wu ping, was the only person from 241 properties who refused to leave when asked in 2004 in order to make way for a new shopping centre. she really dug her heels in and the story quickly spread around the world by way of the intertubes. there's an interesting interview with mrs wu here. following some searching, see what i believe to be the site of wu ping's old house here on google schnapps.