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The Chinese island where dreams of real estate glory never die
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Pedestrians stroll on the man-made development of Ocean Flower Island, in the South China Sea just off Hainan, on Jan 2.
PHOTO: GILLES SABRIE/ NYTIMES
Andrew Higgins
OCEAN FLOWER ISLAND, China – 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 for swimming – helps explain why China’s years-long real estate crisis never really seems to end.
