‘Unforgivable’: Chinese county still living in shadow of wild spending binge

Few areas of China reflect the country’s decades-long economic transformation more vividly than its cities. Rapid development has turned villages into dense urban landscapes and already sizeable metro areas into some of the world’s largest population centres. As the rate of urbanisation slows and the country transitions into a new economic era, we explore how select Chinese cities are navigating the change. Read the rest of our series here.

In a remote corner of China’s southwestern Guizhou province, hulking replicas of ancient Chinese city walls, Beijing’s Forbidden City and London’s Big Ben rise from the jagged karst landscape.

The town feels almost surreal: a blend of ruin and grandeur that defies logic. Half-built resorts and deserted monuments dot the skyline. Rows of crumbling storefronts and semi-demolished buildings stand like open wounds along the dusty main road.

Until recently, this community of just over 350,000 people nestled in the Guizhou mountains was largely unknown in China. But it is now famous across the country as a cautionary tale: a story of reckless investment on an epic scale.

In the 2010s, Dushan county – the area that administers the town – launched a vast construction spree as the impoverished region tried to transform itself into a culture and tourism hub. Grandiose hotels, shopping malls, pavilions, apartment complexes and even a sprawling university hub all sprang up within just a few years.

But the boom was built on debt – masses of debt. By 2018, the county owed around 40 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion), a staggering sum for a region whose annual fiscal revenues barely reached 1 billion yuan. The money ran out soon after, leaving the landscape littered with decaying, abandoned vanity projects.

Locals in Dushan are still dealing with the fallout years later. The county government remains weighed down by debt repayments. Many of the ambitious projects never opened. Income levels remain low: urban residents had just over 42,500 yuan of annual disposable income on average in 2024, while rural residents had less than 17,500 yuan.

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