On the heels of the announcement that Disney has purchased LucasFilm for $4 billion (hooray for that, Disney can be overly cute at times but I’ll take that over Lucas’ schlocky delivery any day), it seemed appropriate to share these images by Reuters’ photographer David Gray.
Gray visited China’s abandoned construction of Wonderland, a Disney themed park that would have brought visitors from nearby Beijing to Chenzhuang Village. The project was squashed when local government and farmers would not relent over property prices. The farmers had good reason to be protective of their fields. Despite China’s size, it has a lack of arable land to support the agricultural needs of its population.
The structures draw curiosity seekers and photographers. When able, local farmers dismantle structures to reclaim the fields for crops, but many of the structures, eerie in the fog that sometimes blankets the area, remain in their half finished and slowly decaying state. The newest additions are warning signs for the unsupervised visitors.
- via The Atlantic, all photos copyrighted
