A Chinese woman refused to sell her house to make room for a highway, forcing the authorities to divert the four-lane highway. This did not quite go as the woman had expected.
Images released by local media show how the small house is firmly wedged between two lanes of the newly opened Haizhuyong bridge in Guangzhou. According to a local television station, the Chinese government has been trying for ten years to buy the property from the woman, but she refused to give in.
According to the lady, she was offered a replacement house, but because that house is next to a morgue, she had invariably rejected it. According to the authorities, she refused several offers, including substantial sums of money. Now every day, thousands of cars drive left and right along her house via the Haizhuyong bridge.
Wenling
Nevertheless, the woman says she has no problem with her new situation and says she is happy to accept the consequences of her decision. “You may think this is an unpleasant environment, but I experience it as quiet, liberating, pleasant and comfortable,” she claims, according to the British newspaper The Daily Mail.
It’s not the first time a main road is being built around a house in China. One of the most famous examples was in the city of Wenling, where an elderly couple refused to move, after which a road was built around the house. After some time, the house was demolished.
