he okay, come out, we terrified to see what we have here. we don't even know what to do. everything has been shattered. look at the state of this a hung fione tobacco farms in the western, pina del rio region. where much of the tobacco for cube is iconic and economically important, garza produced has been devastated. that's it from me and the didn't seem fun. i'll have an update for you at the top of the hour. don't go way up next. d, w 's asia with parish manager. thanks. sometimes books are more exciting than real life. raring to read. ah. what if there's no escape? w literature list laundry german ma street law has

no limits. love is for everybody. love is live with love matters and that's my new podcast. i'm evelyn sharma. and i really think we need to talk about all the topics that more to live and united this i have invited many deer and, well, i guess, and i would like to invite you to an end fisher did up the news asia coming up today. china's homeowners facing uncertain future is there's those who paid for a home, but didn't get one. and now china's dep written property market is forcing some to move into unfinished houses, plus those that have

a home. but don't want to give it up. these homeowners refused to move despite huge property development coming up around them. why? and later in the program and our feet story, also from china, a heating touch of paths, traditional chinese medicine is now being offered to fits and their polos sway bites curated to perfect. ah, ah, i'm british manager, welcome to the dublin years, asia, glad you could join us. it's a terrible situation for many prospective home or nose in china. having invested their savings in their dream home. they are now faced with the possibility that it may never be built and being a part of the cost of a new home is how the majority of homes are sold in china. the idea is that builders use this money along with lawns from other sources to build the house. but

instead, most builders have used this money to keep investing in new projects without finishing the ones they already have. and in the past 2 years, with access to easy lawns drying up due to government regulations. builders are out of cash and saddled with huge depths. but the eventual price has been paid by homeowners with their savings dried up, many have no choice, but to move into unfinished properties. they have paid for this has been misused home for the past 6 months. she bought this apartment off plan 3 years ago, but the property developer went into financial difficulty in construction and the project started with the deposit paid in advance and monthly mortgage payments going out miss. she eventually had no other option than to move into her unfinished flat it,

it feels like suddenly crushing from paradise back to the ground. all my family's assets are invested in this place. oh, living conditions here at dia, shoe, and about 20 other buyers who live in the unfinished tile blocks. sharon made shift outdoor toilet yet said actually there is no electricity or heating and no running water. so residents have to fetch it from a top in the communal court yard. cool, now when we buy water to drink, we saved the bottles. so we can fill them up here. we had no choice. when we moved in here, we had to set up a water pipe for all of us. we fuck tone is washed our clothes, and our hair here. mentally therapy was see you. miss shoe and the other homeowners are hoping that their presence here will put pressure on the building company. it's not easy for older people like us to buy

a house in the lifetime. so we have to fight for our rights and interests. they're not alone in their fight. in the 1st half of 2022 stone building projects accounted for nearly 4 percent of the countries housing market. after recent mass protests, the chinese government announced measures to pay allowed, failing property firms. ms shoe and her fellow homeowners can only hope that this may help get construction on their properties. started again. randy, double china analyst, cliff acumen jones, be in the studio for more. clifford welcome. how likely is it vert, mrs. true, will ever get her home finished? well, i think in this particular case, she probably will get her project finished because she's made a fuss and she's been quite high profile. but i am, i don't think she's in any way typical. and we're talking about stalled projects that are meant to 4 percent of a housing markers which itself accounts for 30 percent of china's total economy.

these are massive numbers and 90 percent of all plans in charge of all housing and china is bought off the plan before it's even built. so you're talking about a massive problem and the idea that all of these on finished buildings are going to be on finished houses are going to be finished anytime soon is, is very, very difficult to imagine. i think she's really, she's not going to be typical. i think it depends who you are. i think depends where you are, cuz regional issues play a big factor here and it depends on what kind of ability you have to push your to push your case. so i don't think she's going to be in any way typical, but what about the building companies themselves to leave and have the cash to be able to try and complete a project? well, that's it, that sure in short answer is no, and that's where a lot of the problem is they've, they pledged all this money. they pre sold all these apartments, and they've been pledged all this money to, to build these apartments and another in a position where they, they can't deliver. so when we seen the government has said that it will lend

$30000000000.00 towards helping these projects get finished. but that really is a drop in the ocean and they haven't paid suppliers, they haven't paid all the way down to the chain that is involved in creating a finish department. there's no missing money. so it's, it's a, it's a myriad problem that is spreading across the whole of the real estate sector. and they don't have any access to new money as well because the economy is slower. and you've got a da 0 called coven policy, which means that the chinese economy is now growing, am slower than the rest of asia. for the 1st time in 30 years. we have all these new factors that play which didn't exist when, when all of these sam, when all of these plans were made. so you have a situation in richer firms appear over leveraged in debt. they don't have the cash to complete projects and some 2000000 unfinished homes across china. though the communist party see this as a potential problem. and i think it does on one level,

it recognizes that, and when people are doing things like not wanting to pay their mortgages and that that this could be potentially destabilizing am. on the other hand though, i think there is a belief am in a way that china has become kind of addicted to growth that it's been growing for so strongly, so strong for so many years that a kind of believes is going to be enough. dynamism, india, economy at to keep things going and that eventually that this problem will kind of work itself out, that the project may not be finished this year, but maybe next year. now there are precedents for why this could happen. we had maybe 10 years ago when the housing boom was really taking off, you had huge, you had whole cities that were go cities beside new port facilities or whatever. and you know, and i visited those places, am and everything was even money in the atm machines. and there was nobody in the, in the whole build in the whole city. those cities filled up, but that was a different period. that was when the economy was growing, double digit percentages every year. so they're gonna have a problem there. different, let's talk about another aspect of china's

a housing market one, where unlike what we're seeing here, home owners do have some control over where they live. even if it means quite literally in the middle of a car park to houses like islands, set in a sea of a shopping mall compact. what looks like a scene from us, a real movie, is not an uncommon sight in china. whether it may look strange to you, but these houses have been here for ever. it's nothing extraordinary. why the owners of these homes are protected by a law that stipulates that it's illegal to demolish a house by force without the owners agreement. and they seem undeterred by the concrete jungle that sprung up around them. you think this year we didn't plant anything? normally, there are flowers everywhere. the owner has no intention of leaving was in there. i'm in my sixty's. i've always lived here. i was born here. nail houses,

as they're known in china, have become symbols of resistance against large scale developments and china's rapid organization. they can be found all over the country sandwich between highway fly of as all, surrounded by high rise apartment blocks like this home in hung chew. you certainly have been waiting for every location of a for 3 years now. in the meantime, they're happy to remain on their little island in the midst of a mega city, to for reporting projects in china, where once the government decide something has to be done. individual choice, a homeowner's choice is irrelevant, they just essentially have to go. what explains then these nail houses? well, people are very attached to their properties and perhaps more so than in other countries because there's no other way of saving money. you know, other ways of saving money for your pension, for health care, for education, it's all tied up a property because it's the main investment vehicle for the ordinary person in

china. so people become very attached to it. and as we've seen in the report, reluctant, reluctant to give it up, increasingly the government is less likely to, to push people out because of it's, the optics are bad, and it's d stabilizing. and the days where they were backing the real estate companies without an e. m. without any qualms, are probably gone because the real estate companies have shown themselves to be a lot less reliable than they appear to be 10 years ago when the real estate companies were driving all growth in china. so i think i did the whole notion of the nail houses these, these individual bizarre looking at scenarios is very, it's very easily explained when you see how people are attached to these properties . it's actually interesting what you're saying. so moving forward, we are seeing lesser influence, if you like, from the real estate companies and driving china's growth and more government control is that we'll be looking at. i think so. i mean,

i think the days where the real estate companies can do what they want, and it's not just in real estate, we've seen it in the technology sector. we've seen us in education. we see lots of different sectors where the government is saying that the days of untrammeled growth, the days of you are, you have a free hand to do whatever are over. we leave a burglary of it. good, and thanks so much for coming into the studio and break them down for us. ah, now for something completely different. traditional chinese medicine with its range of treatments has its adherents the world over. but lately, it's found a nuclear intel in the country of its origin, china pets are now being offered treatment for elements. it sounds strange, but not if you ask pet owners and their pets. a deep relaxation treatment for tides it to day, the dog is getting moxy bastion a traditional chinese therapy that some pat owners believe is better than western

medicine. they give their full trust to dr. lee, who says his methods a less invasive and more effective a yard hung for some pets with inflammatory bowel disease and are specialize in doctors of western medicine, cider, incurable. or if i don't take hormones for the rest of their lives, all have constant diarrhea. but i used acupuncture to cure them that hearing from you so with our shall me, has problems with his legs and as a regular patient here. doctor lee makes a thorough examination before planting needles and acupuncture points specific to docs. oh no, ma lee was told, shall, may, would become paralyzed. but after several treatments, she says her dog can walk normally. and sometimes even bron heading out his apple, he's in jail her all wondering if he feels uncomfortable. he'll refuse to come. now every time i tell him we're going to visit doctor les for treatment, he gets very excited. i do. every year dr. lee treats around 2000

animals in all shapes and sizes. and many of the sick pads seem to leave the clinic with new found energy. one good reason for their owners to keep coming back and that's it today as mo, from the region on our website, t w dot com, forward slash asia. and as ever, you can follow us on facebook and twitter back tomorrow at the same time, or 2 of them. good bye. a vibrant habitat and glistening place of longing. the mediterranean sea. it's waters connect people with many cultures. all inclusive holiday. bless, venerable master. enjoys creek with surprising views of the landscape

and the look into it, the cultural history next on d. w. for what people have to say. matters to us. got it. mm. that's why we listen to their stories. reporter every weekend on d w. ah, ah, the mediterranean was once a major crossroads at the heart of the ancient world. today it has become a barrier separating europe from africa. is there anything left of a.