‘I managed to escape’: Inside a Chinese-built ‘ghost city’ in Malaysia – Beragampengetahuan

Forest City was supposed to be home to one million people – but only a handful of its units are occupied. Picture: Getty Images

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Residents of this large development have a serious issue with their neighbours: there aren’t any.

In the Malaysian state of Johor, the few folks living in the Chinese-built Forest City complex say the amount of space and lack of people is making life unbearable.

“I managed to escape this place,” IT engineer Nazmi Hanafiah recently told the BBC of his six months renting a one-bedroom unit in one of the $100 billion mega-project’s towers.

“It’s lonely around here — it’s just you and your thoughts.”

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When China’s biggest property developer, Country Garden, unveiled Forest City back in 2016, it was advertised as an eco-friendly “dream paradise” equipped with a water park, a golf course, eateries and, eventually… one million residents.

The Forest City logo which was billed to be a ‘paradise’ before it was built. Picture: Getty Images

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Not a lot going on in this shopping centre. Picture: Getty Images

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But eight years on, that oasis has failed to materialise, with only a smattering of individuals call the abandoned-looking matrix of buildings their home, rendering it less a utopia than a “ghost town,” as Mr Hanafiah described it.

Indeed, only 15 per of the development has been built, only 1 per cent of the apartments are occupied and Country Garden now faces debts of close to $200 billion, the BBC reported.

Still, the developer told the outlet it is “optimistic” Forest City will one day be completed.

“I had high expectations for this place, but it was such a bad experience.

Visitors describe the place feeling like ‘an abandoned resort’. Picture: Getty Images

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“There is nothing to do here,” said Hanafiah of his time in Forest City before abandoning his deposit to not live there any longer.

Even going back for a visit gives him “goosebumps.”

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In a way, Mr Hanafiah was lucky: As a renter, he had less to lose when he fled after realising his new home wasn’t all it seemed, but was instead a victim of China’s overzealous early-2000s real estate boom.

Another look at the city back in 2017. Picture: Getty Images

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“I feel sorry for people who actually invested and bought a place here,” said Joanne Kaur, a Forest City resident who, along with her husband, are currently the only people living on their floor. “It should be the project that was promised to the people, but that’s not what it is.”

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This story initially appeared in The Post and was republished with permission.