Chinese couple lose battle with developer

Updated 07.16 Wed Apr 04 2007
Keywords: Chongqing, Tang Wu, Wu Ping, destroy, demolish, house, China

A Chinese couple has ended a three-year standoff with a developer seeking to relocate them to make way for local reconstruction project.

Their struggle turned them into celebrities, symbols of resistance to breakneck development that is sweeping across China.

This house became a symbol of resistance to fast paced developments sweeping across China

Wu Ping and Yang Wu's house was toppled just moments after the couple moved out of their two-storey brick home in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

The house had stood isolated on an earthen mound in the middle of a huge, ten-metre-deep pit.

Wu and Yang had rejected the developer's compensation offers, instead demanding 5 million yuan (£300,000) and a house of the same size and height as their old one in return for moving.

The offer represented a small fortune in this impoverished country where bulldozers rarely have respect for people's wishes.

In the end, the pair accepted an apartment of the same size as their demolished one.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.