| 'Paradise' lost in property boom WITH a coastline blocked by high-rise buildings, formerly lush mountains scarred by construction and a blue sea tainted by sewage, Boao, a town on China's southernmost island province of Hainan, is feeling the harsh realities of a building boom. Further detracting from the "Paradise Town" tag, sewage pipelines can be both seen and smelled from the beach. In addition to the coastline, real estate developers have also turned their attentions to Boao's mountains, with trees felled to make room for buildings. "I came to relax and enjoy beautiful scenery, only to find densely packed concrete buildings that don't suit a place nicknamed 'Paradise Town'," said tourist Cheng Fei, who lives in the provincial capital of Haikou. But with the booming housing market, many residents like Xu have razed their traditional houses and built new concrete ones that are often two or three stories high. Developers and home buyers are driving the property boom. "The coastal areas are full of property development projects and I think Boao has been ruined by overdevelopment. "We should be familiar with this dangerous trend," said Wang Yiwu, a professor at Hainan University. Boao was once dominated by Nanyang-style Qilou buildings, which are balcony-type tenant buildings for both residential and commercial use. "Boao used to be a quiet fishing village with few people and a lot of tile-roofed houses in the 1990s," local resident Xu Dafu said, adding that it is quite different now, as an abundance of real estate development projects are diminishing the tranquility that once prevailed in Boao. But such high visibility has come at a cost, as the once tranquil fishing town on the east coast of Hainan has been shaken by bulldozers clearing the way for mushrooming housing projects. Preserving Boao's environment and building it into a tropical resort town with its unique features is the path that need to be taken, he added. |
Monday 14 May 2012
'Paradise' lost in property boom
