Chinese Farmer Refuses to Move Old Barn; Highway Gets Built Around It

Farming requires resilience — even if that means, say, defying both your government and a large construction company and forcing them to build an enormous highway around your property.

Ye Tan, 72, and wife Shen, 71, owners of a small barnyard plot in Dongying, China, refused to sell when developers came knocking. The city’s ruling body didn’t want to see the project sidetracked, however, and so came up with an easy-not-easy solution: build around the land. Cut to today, and the farm stands alone like cheese, smack in the middle of a large multi-lane highway.

The farm stands alone like cheese, smack in the middle of a large multi-lane highway.

We’ve seen this before. Back in 2012, Chinese duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife similarly refused compensation for the demolition of their home. So around went another highway, and soon images went viral of a half-demolished, multi-story brick building sitting smack in the middle of a blacktop. There’s even a term for such social resistance: Dingzihu, or “nail house,” a home that stands out like an errant spike amidst the county’s unrelenting urbanization. (Because land in China is state-owned, residents have relatively little recourse in such cases and usually receive a pittance for their property.)

Here’s the big difference between the two cases, though. Whereas drivers could scoot around Baogen’s home with relative ease, no such luck exists for those attempting to traverse Tan’s property. There’s but a single dirt pathway that wraps around the grassy knoll where ducks and chickens roam; smaller cars have so far managed the detour, but all larger vehicles are forced to backpedal. Exacerbating woes: the new highway shows up on GPS navigation systems but the road-blocking farm does not, thwarting many a shortcut.

Eminent domain battles are often the stuff of legend. For pure humor value, nothing beats Atlantic City resident Vera Coking, who famously fought and prevailed against Donald Trump when he sought to tear down her boarding house, calling him “a maggot, a cockroach, and a crumb” in the process. (A crumb!) Alas, as any Trekkie knows, resistance is (sometimes) futile. Soon after his story went viral, Baogen gave in and sold the property, which was quickly demolished; speculation is that Tan will do the same when the price is right.

Until then, that highway will remain a road less traveled.

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