It has also been built on sandy ground which cannot support the weight of the high rises constructed in contravention to the recommendation of some architects. The more money the officials spend the bigger the kickbacks. This why Zhu has announced he will hire foreign experts to ensure standards are met. Zhu has ruled out hiring outside experts to supervise the resettlement process and instead will engage Chinese experts. At Fengjie, another major town destined to be submerged, local officials may have wasted up to 50 million yuan in public funds by building the new city where the ground has proved too soft to support any of the buildings.
Work has to be suspended and recommended at another site.
Construction is now running two years behind schedule. The new city, some 13 kilometres away, is being built over a thousand feet above the river by leveling the steep hillsides and filling in gorges. The costs of building new housing on such precipitous hillsides has pushed up the average cost forcing local governments to demand that individuals make up the difference. Among the 300,000 in the town, many work for government units which lack the means to pay their wages on time while others work for state-owned enterprises which have gone bankrupt. Average costs per square metres has risen from a maximum of 320 yuan to 450 yuan.