I still feel as though I’m living in a ghost town

When I bought my small apartment in Chongqing’s University City in 2013, people told me the area was going to be one of the most-populous sites because the government had invested 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) as part of a plan to attract 15 universities and 500,000 people.

Now, three years have passed and I still feel as though I’m living in a ghost town. Because there’s no convenient bus route, the nearest supermarket is a 60-minute walk away, and the hospital is also quite far away.

The public transportation system hasn’t been developed, so people in our community travel by electric-tricycle taxis operated by famers who live in the area.

Universities have come to the city, bringing an army of students and teachers, but during the summer and winter holidays, the town is still quiet. It’s like a school city, but with a poor infrastructure.

Compared with rising housing prices in other parts of Chongqing, the price of my apartment has fallen from 300,000 yuan to 250,000. I tried to sell it last year, but the real estate agency said it would be difficult unless I reduced the price to less than 250,000 yuan. Sometimes, I feel I’m stuck in the “new city”. The community next to my apartment has a fancy name — Taipei City — and a famous actress from Taiwan starred in the ads they used to sell the apartments.

Chongqing has a lot of communities with names such as Little Hong Kong or Chongqing Manhattan, but they have nothing to do with Hong Kong or Manhattan. The Taipei City development is still empty and quiet.