This video is sponsored by Babbel. This is ocean flower island, the largest artificial island in
the world. This $25 billion dollar development is planned to be a tourist destination off the coast
of Haikou china. But 2 years after the island was scheduled to be completed, the parts of the
project still sit completely abandoned. The developer, CHina Evergrande Group,
has more than 300 billion dollars in debt and is expected to go bankrupt by the end of 2022.
But all of this raises the question, will the world’s largest artificial island ever be fully
completed, and what was the reasoning behind building this massive development project.
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This is Hainan CHina, a province off the coast of mainland china. Home to more than
9 million residents, it is known for tourism and entertainment. Off the coast lies Ocean Flower
Island, a massive infrastructure project being developed by the Chinese government. The large
development is being built by the Evergrande Group and is planned to be a resort located off the
coast. Project planners had envisioned that the island would attract millions of tourists per year
and boost Hainan’s economy, similar to other artificial island projects around the world.
The first plans for the project were announced back in 2010 and early signs of the island
appeared in 2012, when satellite imagery captured the first leaves of the flower appearing from
the ocean floor. By 2014, the main flower shaped island began to take shape and in 2020 all of the
land reclamation work was completed. The island is broken into 3 different sections that all branch
off from the center. These different sections are all for different uses ranging from entertainment
to residential. The middle section of the island is mainly for tourism and entertainment,
with attractions and hotels spread throughout the island. From satellite imagery you can see many
hotels and tourist attractions. Branching off on the left lies a residential zoning section on the
island which is connected to the main flower by a land bridge. This section of the island is still
not completed. On the top right section of this land mass you can see the outline for many more
buildings and structures which have not been built yet. THis is a key point for later in the video.
Now to the right side of the island. THis was planned to be another residential zone
of the island, but instead be connected to the main land mass. On this side of the island,
the developer continues to build large apartment complexes that will cater to tourists and
everyday residents who want to live on the island. Rouyghly 50% of this land mass is fully developed.
Panning outwards, we can see the entire island and its true scale compared to the
coastline. As you can tell, this project is nearly identical to Dubai’s palm Jumeirah,
being split between a tourism location and a residence for people to live at, although Ocean
Flower Island is nearly 1 and a half times larger than Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah. The project is planned
to bring in tourists from all over the world to visit the island, similar to other man-made
island projects we have seent taking shape in the past few decades. But building this island
has brought along a large amount of controversy, regarding the environmental impacts it may have.
Throughout the past 12 years of developing this island, the Evergrande group has faced widespread
backlash for the environmental impact this project would have. In order to build these islands,
millions of tons of sand had to be reclaimed from the sea and placed in the area where the
islands planned to be built. Destroying any marine life that laid in its place.
This became clear in 2018, when the Chinese government temporarily suspended construction
at the islands due to concerns about damage to coral reefs and marine ecosystems. But at this
point it was too late, most of the main island had already been reclaimed with sand and construction
had started on top of the land mass. After time, these issues were resolved and construction did
end up resuming on the islands. But even after one major setback in the construction of this island,
one of the biggest problems is the financial state of the developer, CHina EVergrande Group.
The developer of the islands is not in the best financial state to continue constructing
this project for a long list of reasons. For one, Evergrande is the second largest property
developer in all of china, and is responsible for some of the biggest projects in the country.
WHile they have been in charge of this project, the company has gotten themselves into more than
300 billion dollars in debt. And this is mainly their own fault. The company has nearly 800
unfinished projects all across china and they are known for practicing unfair business practices.
For example, EVegrande has pre sold millions of apartments that have still not been completed,
leaving as many as 1.6 million people waiting to move into their new homes.
The company has 350 billion dollars in assets and 310 billion dollars in debt. The problem is
that they are struggling to sell assets fast enough to keep up with the payment on their
massive amount of debtAnd this large amount of debt has many experts estimating that the
company will file to bankruptcy by the end of 2022. This is bad news for ocean flower island,
as there are still large sections of the island that need to be developed.
Adding to the list of problems the developer is facing, the company now has to demolish a
39 building resort complex on the island due to violations in urban planning law. This totals to
3,900 of the island's homes that need to be demolished. These buildings are located here,
on the right side of the island. The company did not state when the buildings would be demolished
and how it would impact the rest of the project. Recent reports have stated that the developer is
working with the local government to strategize a way to avoid demolishing all these buildings.
2 years after the project was planned to be fully completed, there are still large sections of the
island that still need to be developed. Now that a large section of buildings will be demolished,
it only adds to the long list of projects that are still unfinished on the islands.
While the Chinese government created this island to rivail Dubai, and the tourist market
it possesses, the uncertain future of the development makes this plan
unpredictable. WHile the center island is nearing full completion,
the financial state of the developer makes the rest of the project very uncertain. Today,
Ocean flower island is open to the public with a large amount of attractions already in operation.
While the project has faced multiple setbacks and backlash regarding its environmental impact, it
truly is incredible that this massive development project was actually brought to a reality. If you
enjoyed the video, please consider subscribing and thanks again to babbel for sponsoring this video.