The workers who haven't received their salaries have packed up and are prepared to leave. Photo by reporter Hua Jian. Yesterday, at the "Jingshang Oriental Beacon" real estate development in Xingsha, the construction site has already ceased operations.
"The oath to reduce the burden of home ownership for young people in Changsha." Seeing such advertising slogans for a housing development, citizen Mr. Wu was somewhat moved. After inquiring about the price, he bought a house over 120 square meters in size at the "Jingshang Oriental Beacon" development located in Xingsha, intending to use it as his marital home.
With the wedding date drawing near, unexpectedly, the "Jingshang Oriental Beacon" development suddenly stopped construction, with rumors circulating that "the boss has fled," making it hard for Mr. Wu to accept the situation. "Without a house, how can I get married?!"
Reported by Wang Huan of this newspaper, intern Zeng Manyu, Changsha report.
The construction site is "deserted", and the sales office's doors are tightly locked.
The day before yesterday, a post on the Rednet forum titled "The developer has disappeared, what should the contractor, migrant workers, and homebuyers do?!" quickly caught the attention of netizens. The poster, "Insomnia Snoring," said that he lives near the "Jingshang Oriental Beacon" development, and when passing by the development at night, he noticed that the previously brightly lit construction site had become eerily quiet, "a project worth hundreds of millions left there."
Yesterday, reporters came to the "Oriental Beacon" construction site on Kaiyuan East Road in Xingsha. There was no sound of machinery here, nor could one see the busy figures of workers.
Next to the construction site, the doors of the "Project Manager's Office" and "Chief Engineer's Office" were wide open, filled with clutter inside. Sofas and desks were all covered with a layer of dust. Workers said, "They left long ago."
It was learned that the development was invested and developed by Hunan Jingshang Real Estate Co., Ltd., with Hunan Gao Ling Construction Group as the contractor. The development originally planned to have a total construction area of over 221,108 square meters, consisting of seven high-rise buildings. However, now only buildings No. 1 and No. 5 have been completed, and building No. 2 was halted halfway through construction. The exterior walls of the houses have not been plastered, only cement steel frames remain, and the sales office is already tightly locked.
In a guard room, several men were calculating something on a computer, with blueprints in front of them. They claimed they were from the construction side but were not responsible. A staff member said that the development has been halted for more than ten days due to lack of funds to purchase materials and start work again. Currently, the government is trying to find solutions. "We are currently doing the accounts, and the workers' salaries should be able to be issued soon."
According to Mr. Li, a construction technician from the contractor, the developer may owe billions in debt and has "run away" because there is no money to continue investment. Currently, the wages of more than 500 workers remain unpaid, leaving them helpless. He stated that there were issues with the approval procedures for the development, and the reason for the workers' unpaid wages was the failure to pay the labor bureau the required 6.5 million yuan security fee.
Workers who haven’t received their wages for two months smashed the canteen
Reporters observed on-site that many places within the housing complex were marked with the character “拆” (tear down). On the concrete floor and walls, messages written in ink like “Where did the people run off to?” were visible. Security personnel at the gatehouse confirmed that these were written by angry workers.
A worker surnamed Yuan informed reporters that initially there were over 500 workers here, but after the halt in construction, some gradually returned home. "Now there are still over 200 people waiting for their wages."
Reporters observed that the glass windows of the canteen had all been shattered, and the chairs were overturned. One worker explained that this happened because the canteen couldn’t provide meals, so the workers, in anger, destroyed it.
Some workers sitting outside had already packed their belongings and were ready to go home. "We haven’t been paid for over two months, and now the small bosses have given each of us 100 yuan for travel expenses to go home, saying they will call us once we receive our wages."
The workers said that they have reported the situation to the local government and labor bureau, but so far there has been no result, leaving them very anxious.
"My wife might faint upon hearing this news"
In the afternoon yesterday, reporters encountered three homeowners of the housing complex at the scene. A citizen surnamed Tang said that his purchased apartment is in Building No. 5, for which he has already paid a 140,000 yuan down payment. Unexpectedly, Building No. 5 is now just an empty frame, with the developer having fled and no one left at the sales office, meaning the blood and sweat money accumulated over more than a decade has gone to waste. "My wife doesn’t know yet, but if she finds out, she might faint," he lamented.
Citizen Mr. Wu is undoubtedly the most "angry". Last year, he bought a matrimonial home here, over 120 square meters in size, costing more than 600,000 yuan. With the wedding date approaching, the sudden halt in construction at the site now means his house has fallen through. "Without a house, how can I get married?!" Nowadays, Mr. Wu works during the day and comes to the construction site at night to understand the situation. He says he cannot accept this reality.
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