Man and nature are often portrayed at odds with each other: As skyscrapers go up, trees come down. But sometimes the world has different plans. After a tiny fishing town in eastern China was abandoned, greenery took over.
Now the hillside town has become a tourist attraction for what appears to be a garden of architectural topiary.
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“Giving birth, children going to school, when old people got sick - all we had was that small path. It took too much effort,” a former local resident told the Daily Mail. These days, she returns to the island only as a safety officer.
Reaching the abandoned town is a time commitment. It takes hours (up to 36) to reach the town from mainland China. Travelers can take a series of ferries, buses and taxis to reach the town of Houtouwan.
But, despite the difficult journey, travelers who have visited describe Houtouwan as a magical place, “the scenery of a dreamland” that “captures the beauty of that which is no longer there.”
