In 2022, the government made him an offer many people would have signed without a second thought: about 220.000 dollars and two residential plots in exchange for his house in Jinxi County, in China’s Jiangxi Province.
He said no. He wanted a better offer. The officials didn’t come back to the negotiating table as he had hoped: they demolished the homes of his three neighbors and built a 14-kilometer highway that completely encircles his house. From the air, it looks like a pupil between two eyelids, and in China it’s already known as “The Eye of Jinxi”.
The construction left a special access road so the family can come and go, so they still live there, with the highway right up against their roof. And that’s exactly the detail that matters. If the government opened a road for them, it’s hardly likely to demolish the house or offer new compensation. Huang Ping, the owner, admits his mistake: “If I could go back in time, I would accept the demolition terms they offered me. Now I feel like I lost a big bet”. Although the property still stands in the middle of Highway G206, the family was forced to move permanently because of the unbearable conditions.
