China’s ambitious project for a luxury city in South Africa never materialized, leaving behind unfulfilled promises and a ghost town.
Modderfontein: So, China had this big idea to create a £4.2 billion eco-smart city in South Africa, right? They called it the “New York of Africa.” It was supposed to be this fancy place for the rich, but guess what? It never happened.
The Zendai Group from Shanghai bought a huge piece of land back in 2013, thinking they could build something amazing. They had plans for luxury homes, parks, shopping centers, and even a high-speed train to Johannesburg. Sounds cool, right?
But here’s the kicker: local officials wanted affordable housing for the folks already living there. Zendai only wanted to build for the wealthy. After two years of back and forth, the whole project got scrapped.
Now, the site is just a quiet area with a few scattered homes. It’s a bit sad, really. And it’s not just Modderfontein; there’s a similar story in Malaysia with a Chinese-made city that’s just sitting empty. It’s like a ghost town over there too.
China has even tried to recreate Paris with a place called Tianducheng, but that didn’t work out either. It’s got a fake Eiffel Tower and everything, but only a couple thousand people live there. It’s wild how these grand plans can just fizzle out.
