Well, the nail-houses have never gone anywhere, it’s more a matter of where the media has gone when they don’t cover them. I’m not saying
there ought to be round the clock coverage, just that the phenomenon is and always will be there. Here’s a picture of a store in Guangzhou:
Here’s another picture of a place in Guangzhou where the developers supposedly dug a moat around the place–on purpose we know not. Of course you can imagine what both sides are saying, it’s the stock answers and rhetoric.
Lastly, here’s a picture from an article about another niubi nail house in Luoyang, where the old man is holed up without water and electricity because of his conviction that the demolition is illegal. He has some proof, but none of us out here without access to the documents and knowledge of the intricacies of Chinese law are not going to be able to really make a disinterested judgment on this matter.
However, kudos to him just for sticking it to the Man.
These nail houses allow one to imagine local authorities going after them with seige towers and battering rams at night while both sides trade flaming arrows.
Bad China.