Recent torrential rains in Shenyang, China have caused damage, with a retaining wall in an underground parking garage of a residential community collapsing. Inside the collapsed wall, a large amount of household waste was exposed instead of the expected reinforced concrete, leading to suspicions of a “cut corners” project.
On July 13th, a video circulating on social media showed Shenyang being hit by heavy rainfall, causing a large amount of rainwater to flood into the underground parking garage of the Rongsheng Heyue Mingdi community. The wall separating the underground garage from the adjacent area collapsed, leaving behind a large hole in the wall with scattered bricks everywhere.
Footage from the scene revealed that behind the wall was not normal soil or building structures, but a significant accumulation of household waste. Homeowners present at the scene mentioned seeing plastic bags, discarded items, and various types of rubbish mixed together through the gap, with some garbage even flowing onto the garage floor along with the rainwater from the collapsed area.
According to the mainland media, Sanxiang Metropolitan News, after the incident, many residents of the community rushed to the underground parking garage upon hearing the news. Some homeowners expressed anger and concern, finding out that the wall of the underground garage was made of hollow bricks with garbage buried next to it. Questions were raised about the quality of the project, as the community was handed over about five years ago and already facing such severe quality issues in the underground garage. Some residents are worried about the risk of a larger scale collapse if the entire wall is made of hollow bricks and faces another heavy rainfall.
Public information shows that the Rongsheng Heyue Mingdi community was developed by Shenyang Rongsheng Jinxiu Tiandi Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. The community was completed and delivered in 2021, consisting of over fifty buildings.
The source of the large amount of household waste has also raised concerns.
Property staff at Rongsheng Heyue Mingdi community stated that the collapsed area was originally a garbage processing site. When the real estate market was good, there were plans to build apartments here. However, due to the downturn in the real estate market, the area was filled and leveled, and these waste materials were buried here. The collapsed section was originally the entrance and exit of the garbage processing site, and it was sealed with hollow bricks. The heavy rain this time led to the collapse of the wall, exposing the buried garbage.
Currently, the property management and developers are studying repair plans, with the preliminary approach including waste removal and reconstructing the wall using a concrete structure. Local authorities claim to be investigating the matter, but have not provided clear answers regarding why hollow bricks were used in the wall, whether burying garbage was compliant, and how to handle penalties.
Mainland netizens commented: “Natural disasters have caused man-made disasters! Deceiving and exploiting the common people may be acceptable, but deceiving the heavens is not!” “Shoddy construction.” “Where did all the money go?” “Isn’t this normal for them? They’ve been doing this all along, it’s just that this time there was an accident, a rare occurrence.”
A netizen on an overseas platform remarked: “When we criticize the construction parties, we should also understand another thing. The supervisory agencies in the Communist Party of China, including the owners, acceptance parties, and even the construction parties themselves, all have various layers of obstruction, so there is very little money left for construction in the end.”