Althouse: "Residents at a Chinese housing complex who looked forward to living in a verdant 'vertical forest' found themselves in a veritable hell..."

September 16, 2020

"Residents at a Chinese housing complex who looked forward to living in a verdant 'vertical forest' found themselves in a veritable hell..."

"... with mosquitoes swarming their eco-paradise, according to a report. The experimental green project at Chengdu’s Qiyi City Forest Garden attracted buyers for all 826 apartments, but it also attracted the pesky insects that gave the towers a post-apocalyptic facade...."

The NY Post reports.

This is why you need to test your ideas of paradise.

By the way, aren't there a million stories where people think they have found paradise and then they realize it is hell?

But what I don't understand is — it's China — why don't they just fumigate like mad? I know it's supposed to look like an eco-paradise, but do they really care about the use of insecticide? That surprises me. I'm suspicious of this story. Please entertain me by concocting a conspiracy theory.

59 comments:

Lucid-Ideas said...: I can't remember which band had it on their album cover, but there was a band that had a picture of a NYC apt. highrise with the caption:

Maybe this world is another planet's hell

Supposition confirmed.; 9/16/20, 10:22 AM
Jaq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/16/20, 10:23 AM
PM said...: "Please entertain me by concocting a conspiracy theory."

Jim Jones is still alive.; 9/16/20, 10:31 AM
Jaq said...: "Please entertain me by concocting a conspiracy theory.”

Not sure I can come up with a conspiracy theory, but there may be another explanation.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/chinese-ghost-cities; 9/16/20, 10:36 AM
Kate said...: The Chinese have developed a new super-malaria they want to export to the world. It's all the fault of this eco-project and not at all due to evil intent.; 9/16/20, 10:39 AM
Ken B said...: Just imagine what Mrs Birkel would say.; 9/16/20, 10:39 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: Maybe it's Global Warming.; 9/16/20, 10:46 AM
Carol said...: I used to wish I had a place in the woods, up among the trees...kinda glad I never did it now.; 9/16/20, 10:48 AM
Charlotte Allen said...: "Vertical forests" always look awful. They always look like a "The Birds"-style horror film in which trees exact their revenge for being cut down elsewhere. These hideous Chinese towers are no exception. Why would anyone want to live in Chengdu, anyway? It looks like a mess of high-rises planted in the middle of nowhere.; 9/16/20, 10:55 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Mosquitoes are a disease vector. The residents thought they were there for housing; in reality they were human petri dishes at a biological weapons development site.

See also: Wuhan; 9/16/20, 10:56 AM
Nonapod said...: it's China — why don't they just fumigate like mad?

This is an obvious attempt at Eco-Virtue, so if it got out that they had to resort to chemical pesticides to deal with the mosquitos it'd sort of undercut the whole point. No doubt China would love to be all morally superior about how great they are with regards to innovative eco friendly solutions like this, way ahead of the Western world. But it turns out that it's pretty difficult to accomplish something like this without unforeseeable snags.; 9/16/20, 10:57 AM
Mary Beth said...: The building was finished two years ago and only 10 families have moved in since then. Why didn't more move in when it was ready? What's keeping the plants' roots from growing into the concrete and destroying the building?

Are there mosquitoes now because they killed the bats in retaliation for CV-19?; 9/16/20, 10:57 AM
SteveSc said...: Those are not mosquitoes, they are nanobot vanguards of an interstellar invasion presaging the Second Coming. The nanobots are going to infect the residents when occupancy reaches 66.6%. The residents will either morph into angels or demons, then the battle will commence.

The battle lines will be drawn between those that propose that heaven is blissfully swimming with the dolphins under the transgender rainbow of peace and those that think that heaven is a fifth of Jack Daniels and a doublewide.; 9/16/20, 10:59 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Twilight Zone episode where the bad guy dies and goes to what he thinks is heaven but is really he'll. The final scene of the criminal coming to that realization and Sebastian Cabot as Lucifer laughing is a classic.; 9/16/20, 10:59 AM
born01930 said...: All the bats which were supposed to eat the mosquitoes ended up in soup; 9/16/20, 11:02 AM
Howard said...: It's to filter out city noise and air pollution. Their market demo isn't going to want fumigation. This is the test at scale. It just has some bugs to be worked out. Think Koi ponds.; 9/16/20, 11:08 AM
Ralph L said...: Who's watering the plants?
Mosquitoes can only fly 1.5 mph, so a light breeze should force them to land. I think this excuse is bogus.; 9/16/20, 11:11 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Why I refuse to buy Property in China; 9/16/20, 11:11 AM
Readering said...: I have a friend who practiced law in Chengdu as an expat for a while. A major city.; 9/16/20, 11:12 AM
kwenzel said...: My theory is that instead of fumigation, they're planning to enact a CRISPR-CAS9-based gene-drive annihilation plan, but are worried that there's still too much bad CRISPR press after those babies...so they're keeping it quiet.

(I fully support mosquito genocide); 9/16/20, 11:12 AM
Fernandinande said...: Please entertain me by concocting a conspiracy theory.

That's too easy. The MSM just made it up.

Here's why:

Article: "according to a report." and "...the state-run Global Times reported."

The "Global Times" is in English.

And yet:

No results found for ["Forest Garden" site:globaltimes.cn].
No results found for ["Qiyi City" site:globaltimes.cn].
Your search - ["Qiyi" "Forest" site:globaltimes.cn] - did not match any documents.

["Forest Garden" site:globaltimes.cn] and ["Qiyi" "Garden" site:globaltimes.cn] returned some results, none recent and none about these apartments.; 9/16/20, 11:12 AM
Wince said...: Looks like the conception of a Post Apocalyptic urban hell scape.

"Why don't you guys just buy some screen doors, or something?!"

"You know, that's easy for you to say. But not all of us make $90 million a week."; 9/16/20, 11:15 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: OT:

"After taking a break from rioting for several days because of the wildfire smoke in Portland, #antifa are planning to gather again. Their flyer says, “Spread Fire.” No, this is not fake."; 9/16/20, 11:18 AM
mandrewa said...: I think these apartments look quite attractive. And obviously some of those units look occupied. If mosquitoes are really a problem, why don't we see mosquito netting?

But moving on to the 'conspiracy' theory.

There are very few legal things that you can put your money into in China. In the United States we have hundred of options, but other than building your own small business, which is a pretty big deal, where does a family or a person in China put the money they have earned.

Apartments are not the only option but they are almost the only option.

So I would guess that most of those apartments have been sold to people looking for a place to park their money. But they can't rent them because there is an overabundance of comparable property with relatively few people that can afford to rent these units.

And then I imagine this is not a highly sought after location. The apartments themselves may be nice but there are other things needed to draw people than housing.

Now the deeper level of explanation would be to explain why investment opportunities are so limited in China. Actually that is even more interesting. But it's a complicated theory and I'm going to skip it for now.; 9/16/20, 11:18 AM
Fernandinande said...: You can also search globaltimes.cn; "garden" and variants of "mosquito" didn't produce any results about this place, although that latter search lead to:

"New virus passed via tick bites emerges in China, killed seven so far"; 9/16/20, 11:21 AM
daskol said...: In China, bugs make life miserable for the people. In the West, people make things miserable for themselves (and the bugs).; 9/16/20, 11:22 AM
daskol said...: JG Ballard: he may have been a bit of a pervert, but he saw stuff.; 9/16/20, 11:24 AM
Fernandinande said...: As for "Agence France-Presse reported" ...

Your search - site:afp.com "Qiyi" - did not match any documents.

"[site:afp.com "Chengdu" -diplomats] It looks like there aren't any great matches for your search."

Here's a kinda cool drone tour of the place, which does seem to be empty. Didn't see any skeeters, though.; 9/16/20, 11:34 AM
Shane said...: "This could be heaven, or this could be hell
Life could be falling down a bottomless well
I stumble to the left, I stumble to the right
I fumble for the switch, of a disconnected light
Stay with it, don't let temptation be your load
Stay with it, but there are bandits on the road"

~Neil Finn; 9/16/20, 11:36 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: Charlotte Allen:

Why would anyone want to live in Chengdu, anyway?

Sichuanese cuisine? Although I think you can get that in Chungking as well, and Chungking seems like a more interesting city (to me, who has never been to either).; 9/16/20, 11:39 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: Fernandinande:

I think Global Times might actually be World Journal (世界新聞網). Search for 七一城市森林花園.; 9/16/20, 11:43 AM
Sebastian said...: "This is why you need to test your ideas of paradise."

But the point of such ideas is to do away with the need for testing.

Testing is dangerous.; 9/16/20, 11:47 AM
Gk1 said...: As a recovering architect I can tell you the "green" or LEED certified designs never, ever work as envisioned. From the "green" products and adhesives that bleach out or break down in the UV rays of the sun to the grey water reuse of collected rainwater, they are complicated systems that rarely work as intended. If they do work they are often require herculean efforts in maintenance and re-engineering to keep running.

I just read a report on the maintenance required for some of these roof gardens of the new high rises built just 3 years ago and their maintenance and design issues were far greater than the designers had originally accounted for. This sounds like another one of those nightmares.; 9/16/20, 11:50 AM
Darrell said...: China is asshole.
Since they bought the Democrats, Democrats is asshoe.; 9/16/20, 11:54 AM
Gk1 said...: "Twilight Zone episode where the bad guy dies and goes to what he thinks is heaven but is really he'll."

Heartless, If we are thinking about the same show could it have been a "Night gallery" episode "Hells Bells" with John Astin playing a hippy that dies in an accident and winds up sitting on a porch listening to an old farmer talk monotonously about weevils and playing old tyme music on an old phonograph? The devil shows up to inform him that the hippy is actually in hell but the farmer is in his own version of heaven. I love that one! ;-); 9/16/20, 11:55 AM
gilbar said...: those that think that heaven is a fifth of Jack Daniels and a doublewide...

don't forget the (kinda) hot 2nd cousin once removed, with big (fake) tits!
a doublewide is MADE for rugrats!!!; 9/16/20, 11:57 AM
Paul Snively said...: I guess they didn't read "The Mosquito Coast," or watch the movie.; 9/16/20, 12:02 PM
traditionalguy said...: DDT makes a comeback. They have to use it or use up their supply of Hydochloraquine. So who owns the DDT producer; 9/16/20, 12:04 PM
clint said...: Clearly, the Chinese are actually breeding Killer Mosquitoes to release throughout the U.S. in October, to increase misery just before the election.

Apparently, Killer Mosquitoes are a real thing. See noted trustworthy blue-check News(TM) source Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/blood-sucking-livestock-killing-mosquito-hordes-are-2020s-latest-gift-1531142; 9/16/20, 12:32 PM
Xmas said...: I don't understand why they just don't grow some basil on each balcony.; 9/16/20, 12:35 PM
tomaig said...: "They called it Paradise
I don't know why.
You call someplace Paradise
Kiss it goodbye."; 9/16/20, 12:36 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: when it comes to overgrowth of Chinese funk

...Trump is "Agent Orange"; 9/16/20, 12:39 PM
JB71-AZ said...: For pity's sake, they figured it out at the Panama Canal at the beginning of the last century.

Mosquitoes need standing water to breed. Take away the water, empty and turn containers that can catch rain upside down, unblock drains, get rid of plants that trap water - and the mosquitoes will go away.

All it'd take is one empty bucket on an unattended balcony, and you'll have swarms in a couple of weeks.; 9/16/20, 12:40 PM
Rabel said...: "Take away the water, empty and turn containers that can catch rain upside down, unblock drains, get rid of plants that trap water - and the mosquitoes will go away."

That helps, but the mosquitoes never go away completely.; 9/16/20, 1:24 PM
Rabel said...: Also worth noting that only the females suck your blood.; 9/16/20, 1:28 PM
Rabel said...: That applies to mosquitoes too.; 9/16/20, 1:30 PM
Francisco D said...: By the way, aren't there a million stories where people think they have found paradise and then they realize it is hell?

When the Cabrini-Green housing projects were built on Chicago's Near North Side, they were nicer than most Tokyo luxury apartments. The buildings go so bad that they were torn down to the great relief of most North Siders.

I wonder what happened that turned them into hell.

Joe Biden promises to end suburban zoning regulations so we can have more Cabrini-Green complexes in suburbia as a way of ending systemic racism.; 9/16/20, 2:29 PM
Fernandinande said...: I think Global Times might actually be World Journal (世界新聞網). Search for 七一城市森林花園.

Thanks.

A search on "七一城市森林花園" does return some picture of the place, and
https://global.udn.com/global_vision/story/8662/4865051 says, in the only English sentence on the page, "Plants overrun housing project in Chengdu, turning 'eco-paradise' into mosquito-infested jungle" links to -> here which has the same "post-apocalyptic" words as the nypost article and also credits a mysterious, unnamed "state media" and ... the Global Times.; 9/16/20, 3:12 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: This makes me wonder what they did about the mosquitoes in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Maybe that wonder of the world wasn't so wonderful after all.; 9/16/20, 3:20 PM
Gospace said...: Gk1 said...
As a recovering architect I can tell you the "green" or LEED certified designs never, ever work as envisioned.

Pretty much regenerative heat exchangers, whether water-to-water to increase incoming water temp to water heater, or air-to-air so you can increase air exchanges per hour without vastly increasing heating or air conditioning costs are the ones that work best- and are used least. And even then- proper filter maintenance is required. I can tell you horror stories about that....; 9/16/20, 3:40 PM
Jaq said...: "New virus passed via tick bites emerges in China, killed seven so far”

Great, so now we are being driven from the cities *and* from the countryside. Reading that, and were I forced to chose, I will take Wuhan flu any day. This one killed seven out of 60 cases. Of course we all know now that there are likely a lot of mild cases that never make it to the notice of doctors, so it *probably* doesn’t kill 10 percent of it’s victims, I hope.; 9/16/20, 3:46 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Chengdu is an important population center culturally, commercially and politically. A new, lush housing complex would be reserved for upper levels of the Party, who greedily snapped up accommodations in Qiyi City Forest Garden. As part of Trump's offensive against the CCP, the president directed that a DDT-resistant mosquito, which had been bred by the infamous Japanese biowarfare Unit 731 in 1943, be released in the apartment complex, confident that it would easily breed in the complex's many planters. An itchy commie is an ineffective commie. Score: DJT-1, CCP-0.; 9/16/20, 4:17 PM
lgv said...: Blogger Ralph L said...
Who's watering the plants?
Mosquitoes can only fly 1.5 mph, so a light breeze should force them to land. I think this excuse is bogus.

This. Mosquitos aren't there because of plants. They are there because of standing water in which to breed. The females need blood. If no one lives there then they must search for animals. Where is the standing water?

The whole thing sounds concocted.; 9/16/20, 4:21 PM
RobinGoodfellow said...: Blogger SteveSc said...
Those are not mosquitoes, they are nanobot vanguards of an interstellar invasion presaging the Second Coming.

“... the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.”; 9/16/20, 4:40 PM
robother said...: ",,,aren't there a million stories where people think they have found paradise and then they realize it is hell?"

There are 8 million stories in the Naked City.; 9/16/20, 5:09 PM
Iman said...: That not number one paradise, that number ten!; 9/16/20, 5:45 PM
Peter said...: I live in Hong Kong and have lived in China mainland for five years. I too was puzzled by the story. Why not rip out the greenery was my reaction. I did note that there was at least one place lived in, as there was outdoor furniture on the balcony.
My other reaction, this being Chinese, with their eye for money, that they’re after getting some sort of compensation or reduction in purchase price. Not much of a conspiracy theory, I’m afraid, but based on 40 years knowledge of Chinese. (I’m married to a lady from Beijing, by the way, which I hope exempts me from a “xenophobe” or “racist” label....); 9/17/20, 1:08 AM
Jaq said...: "I’m married to a lady from Beijing, by the way, which I hope exempts me from a “xenophobe” or “racist” label....”

Seinfeld: “If I like their race, how can that be racist?”; 9/17/20, 5:33 AM
Unknown said...: Blogger Tyrone Slothrop said...

Chengdu is an important population center culturally, commercially and politically. A new, lush housing complex would be reserved for upper levels of the Party, who greedily snapped up accommodations in Qiyi City Forest Garden. As part of Trump's offensive against the CCP, the president directed that a DDT-resistant mosquito, which had been bred by the infamous Japanese biowarfare Unit 731 in 1943, be released in the apartment complex, confident that it would easily breed in the complex's many planters. An itchy commie is an ineffective commie. Score: DJT-1, CCP-0.

Despite the fact that the idea of DDT-resistanr skeeters makes me want to run for a desert in horror, this is the funniest thing I've read all week.; 9/17/20, 1:21 PM