r/nextfuckinglevel 18h ago

Nature has reclaimed an abandoned fishing village near Shanghai.

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u/dumbasPL 18h ago

Looks way to clean and uniform, no?

u/roadrunner00 18h ago

With AI who knows.

u/ZeroOptionLightning 18h ago

Not that it makes this video real, but apparently the town is now a tourist attraction. So maintained paths would make sense.

u/Pantarus 16h ago

Probably vines like kudzu.

Vines take over everything, cover EVERYTHING with at thick uniformed sun-blocking layer of green. Each vine can grow a foot a day and reproduce like crazy. Each single vine can reach up to 100 foot, kill all competing vegetation, and eerily move around looking for it's next purchase to grow on.

I'm in the eastern US in a very suburban area, and I have to battle vines all spring and summer to keep them from covering my backyard, doesn't help that the dude behind me thinks the vines "Are nature" and refuses to do anything about it on his side.

I fucking hate vines.

u/WorkingInAColdMind 14h ago

There are good vines and bad vines (just like witches!). Kudzu is most certainly a bad vine, and wisteria. If your neighbor is letting them climb trees, then you can inform them that it’s killing the tree and it’s a lot more expensive to take those down than to keep up with the vines.

u/leadpoem 10h ago

Of you do stem injection of the vines it might help. Get a Triclopyr based herbicide it is a broad leaf herbicide so will not harm grass. It is non persistent and is pretty safe for people and animals. 

In the spring time poke a hole in the vine. Angle it down best you can. Then inject the the herbicide. You can get big syringes.  At a farm/ranch store. 

Not going to stop them but might reduced the work you have to do.

This can be done in the summer too as the vines grow back. 

Oh and please wear gloves, and eye protection. Even the safe ones are not good to get on your skin. 

u/Downtown_Injury_3415 14h ago

If it was the vines then the town would look more disheveled. Im thinking moss since it only grows so large and looks more lawn-like.

u/Pantarus 12h ago

So as it pans by some of the houses you can see that there are clearly leaves.

I can't tell the shape or size of the leaves, but they are there, which rules out moss. The article does say it's become a bit of a tourist attraction, so it's possible that the locals are trimming it to give it that "wild yet manicured" look.

I'm just speculating either way here.

u/Downtown_Injury_3415 11h ago

We should go together and find out 👉👈

u/totally_not_a_dog113 14h ago

pet goats supposedly help, if you have the space.

u/Kyrthis 18h ago

Maintained paths. You right.

u/tatahaha_20 18h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houtouwan for anyone interested. I am from Shanghai yet have never heard of this. TIL

u/Hollowbound 17h ago

“Since its abandonment, the once-bustling village has been overtaken by greenery,[1] and it has become a "popular tourist attraction" which has resulted in some former residents returning each day to work at the village.”

Seems a little less abandoned!

u/LikeALizzard 16h ago

The word greenery leading to the Wikipedia page for "leaf" is insanely funny to me

u/CleverAmoeba 16h ago

I kinda wish it was a rick roll.

u/minai_ruo 13h ago

Interesting, but this is not the first time I see someone from China like: "Oh, turns out we have mad looking nature (or some 3000 years old, interesting af place) a 2-hour car drive away, guess I should visit"

u/ughwhat1592 18h ago

Fascinating.

u/JaySayMayday 16h ago

Because it's not in 上海

u/HardSleeper 7h ago

Because ‘near Shanghai’ = end of Line 16 + bus to Yangshan + 2 ferries, basically most of a days travel

u/Lazy-Field-1116 17h ago

Found this pre-AI article with photos showing how the village works and looks for anyone else that's as curious as I was!

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/06/travel-monday-a-photo-trip-to-the-abandoned-village-of-houtouwan/562529/

u/Affectionate-Mango19 11h ago

We are so cooked after we run out of "pre-AI articles" to prove current events/news/media.

u/Lazy-Field-1116 11h ago

I felt I had to include it as a lot of people were doubting whether the place was real in the comments, but I hated writing it!

u/Silent-Witness1888 12h ago

Awesome thanks, wish I could visit it.

u/LauraTFem 18h ago

That sidewalk looks very un-reclaimed. Someone is still living here (or it’s fake).

u/Ritik_reddit 17h ago

It's a tourist kinda spot so people often visit there, there are some shops and stores too.

u/LauraTFem 14h ago

That actually makes sense. Reclaimed nature is a near kinda tourism.

u/Nandikepandi 18h ago

Is there anything stopping me from moving into one of those houses right now?

u/Putrid-Builder-3333 18h ago

The magical big balled guardian raccoons

https://giphy.com/gifs/L6TilUE7VN4QM

u/Nandikepandi 18h ago

I think I can take them 💪

u/One-Bug-7784 16h ago

Legitimate question, someone please give real answer

u/skip-all 18h ago

It’s beautiful

u/caps1cum 18h ago

This place is called houtouwan and was abandoned in the 90s- Also no this isn't ai

u/_Permanent_Marker_ 13h ago

Am I allowed to go and unabandon one of those properties for free?

With the way my bills keep increasing I’d be happy to take one of those buildings over for the small some of nothing

u/Lobsterzilla 8h ago

I’d imagine you would have no electricity out running water, but otherwise a solid maybe

u/Jammy-Doughnut 18h ago

Last of Us vibes

u/Agitated-Prune9635 14h ago

Also kind of reminds me of Libertalia from Uncharted 4

u/kaizokuoni33 18h ago

That an advance civilization of hobbits

u/TheSpanxxx 18h ago

With AI today, we instinctively look for how it can't be real. Whether this example is real or not, it absolutely does happen. I've driven all over the US on backroads and you will absolutely see places left abandoned and nature reclaims them. It doesn't take that long really. Once the consistency of human interaction is removed, nature can kind of do its thing. Wooden structures are doomed. They don't last more than a few decades. Once plants get in, animals get in, water gets in, it's over. Brick and stone structures will last a very long time if they ate built well and there aren't large freeze cycles with water permeating into their mortar, or erosion of the foundation. But within a few short years, depending on climate, vegetation will absolutely start to get in, on, and around a structure in a way that it just sort of becomes part of the landscape.

u/404-skill_not_found 17h ago

When tourists claim an abandoned-looking fishing village 🤣

u/augsav 18h ago

The interesting thing about this is that the structures are maintaining their form.
Usually walls and roofs start collapsing pretty early once nature takes over.

u/mksavage1138 17h ago

In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.

u/TwiggyPom 17h ago

Spiders!

u/Strive-- 17h ago

If only there were some additional space for the 1.3B+ people to live.

u/aurrousarc 16h ago

central planning at its finest..

u/Own-Method1718 15h ago

Another example of what the planet will look like without humans.

u/whiskeytown79 15h ago

Kinda looks like what happens when kudzu gets into an ecosystem and takes over.

u/v0-z 15h ago

How many years would it take to just completely leave this looking like nobody ever lived here. Is there a time it would ever be zero ruins left? Is that a thing?

Basically I guess what I'm asking, if we all disappeared right now, how long would it take mother earth to make it look like we never existed?

u/jeremiahthedamned 1h ago

~5M years to remove all chemical traces of us..........

there would an almost microscopic layer marking our age in some lake sediments.

u/corrodedandrusted 14h ago

"We deck our halls with it and dye our linens.

But should it come creeping up the cobbles, we scrub it out, fast as we can. When it blooms beneath our skin, we bleed it out.

And when we, together all, find that our reach has exceeded our grasp, we cut it down, we stamp it out, we spread ourselves atop it and smother it beneath our bellies, but it comes back.

It does not dally, nor does it wait to plot or conspire.

Pull it out by the roots one day and then next, there it is, creeping in around the edges.

Whilst we’re off looking for red, in comes green. Red is the color of lust, but green is what lust leaves behind, in heart, in womb.

Green is what is left when ardor fades, when passion dies, when we die, too.

When you go, your footprints will fill with grass. Moss shall cover your tombstone, and as the sun rises, green shall spread over all, in all its shades and hues.

This verdigris will overtake your swords and your coins and your battlements and, try as you might, all you hold dear will succumb to it.

Your skin, your bones. Your virtue"

u/AtlasAeros 13h ago

There are thousands of spirits in there… I just know it

u/rhubarbzeta 9h ago

This gives me hope for the future.

u/louisvillejg 9h ago

Are we sure this isn’t where the sauna for spirits is?
https://giphy.com/gifs/IKvRdqp4xzNao

u/Kyrie_Blue 8h ago

We are so extremely temporary

u/lifeabroad317 7h ago

I live in SH and have been here. It's real. It's also a tourist site so it's maintained. Beautiful island

u/wedditwardrobe 2h ago

Studio Ghibli’s next adventure IRL

u/Cronon33 16h ago

Why would this only occur if it was abandoned, would living in the house really stop plant growth on the outer walls and roof?

u/bernpfenn 15h ago

Every sane fisherman would abandon a fisherman village without open water

u/Additional-Ball4825 14h ago

I bet it smells so good

u/masterhogbographer 11h ago

Future COD map?

u/Tool460002 3h ago

Is thst because it was just under water?

u/Mimi-lex15 4m ago

Is anyone allowed to live there? Like if they somehow just made a home out of the houses they’re just hidden? Or would it be trespassing somehow

u/pendrellMists 6h ago

chinese propaganda..

Winnie would not allow anything including nature to reclaim any part of China

u/Filthiest_Tleilaxu 18h ago

Why was it abandoned? Housing is so hard to find in China.

u/linorei 17h ago

Housing is hard in most of the major cities, but the countryside is a different matter and abandoned houses are not hard to find as a result of urbanisation and brain drain.

Also worth noting that while this village is part of Shanghai administratively, it's actually on an island many miles out, and involves a four hour ferry after a two hour bus ride from Shanghai itself. (I looked into going earlier this year.)

u/AprilVampire277 8h ago

95% of people between 20 to 30 are housed... there's plenty of housing and is currently in a pre 2015 prices rn