Inspired by Dubai and bloated by the outsize ambitions of a disgraced Chinese property developer, Ocean Flower Island – a cluster of artificial islets in the South China Sea – flopped as a business. But it still dazzles as a breathtaking fiesta of fantasy and folly.
The hugely expensive, partially completed project – a gigantic shopping mall without shops, a theme park without visitors, dozens of abandoned high-rise housing blocks and artificial beaches too dangerous to swim at – helps explain why China’s years-long real estate crisis never really seems to end. There is so much money and so much hope entangled in the wreckage that it is too big to clear away quickly.
