Elderly man and dog sole residents of 70 abandoned luxury villas

This 75-year-old man is the only current resident of a sprawling community located next to a lake in Anhui province that includes over 70 luxury villas left abandoned before completion.

Well, that's not entirely true. There's also the man's dog.

The elderly man surnamed Gao is paid 1,800 yuan a month to keep watch over the deserted villas, along with all the construction equipment that has been left behind. Gao first got the job back in 2009 soon after the project began with a 300 million yuan investment. But two years ago, the 130,000 square meter site along Chaohu Lake in Anhui's capital city of Hefei was abandoned, NetEase reports. Since then, the weeds have taken over.

Now, the only one living there is Gao who stays in a shabby bungalow next to the entrance gate of the "ghost town" and spends his time tending to his small vegetable garden and taking care of the stray dog he has adopted.

In the last decade, Chinese companies have embarked on numerous ambitious real estate projects in anticipation of millions more people leaving the countryside for the city. While some of these projects have worked out, others have not. Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China's most ambitious development project yet -- turning a Hebei backwater into this century's version of Shenzhen or Pudong.

[Images via NetEase]

SHANGHAI TO DO

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