Chinese Couple Who Refused To Move Now Have A Road Built Around TheirHouse

What do you call this? Stubbornness or foolishness or wisdom. An elderly couple in China now have their half-demolished house right in the middle of a newly constructed road in Wenling City in east China's Zhejiang province because they refused to move. Duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife were the only couple in the neighbourhood that once housed lots of family but was cleared to make way for the thoroughfare which heads to a newly built railway station.



Mr Baogen said the house cost 600,000 Yuan (around £60,000) to build, but the authorities have offered substantially less to relocate him. He said the compensation he and his wife were offered by authorities for the destruction of his home was not enough, and he refused to sign the property over. Well, that did not stop the government from going ahead with the construction of the road around the five-storey property.

Hmm, I wonder how the couple will enjoy living in their home which is now a round-about, when the road is finally opened. In the People's Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on - but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement. In some countries I know, they won't offer you any compensation and they will still demolish your property. I know it is so painful and annoying but me thinks Mr Baogen should have accepted the compensation and moved out cos it is going to be hellish living in the condition he has found himself in.