During the COVID-19 pandemic, local governments have spent a huge amount of money on building “mobile cabin hospitals,” which are now being abandoned in large numbers. Recently, the largest mobile cabin hospital in Guangzhou—Nansha Mobile Cabin Hospital—is set to be demolished, with container houses and supporting facilities being dismantled and sold at low prices, prompting citizens to express their dismay, saying, “Taxpayers are heartbroken.”
According to a report on Caixin website, Guangzhou’s Nansha Mobile Cabin Hospital has announced its demolition, with the phased disposal of facilities beginning on April 19. The container houses are priced at 3000 yuan each. Residents who came to purchase these items mentioned that they are not only cheap but also almost brand new and sturdy in structure, suitable for conversion into warehouses or shops when taken back.
The internal facilities of the mobile cabin are also being sold separately at similarly low prices: 6-liter electric water heaters at 300 yuan each, standing fans at 40 yuan, stainless steel foldable clothes racks at 40 yuan, and a foldable chair is being sold for only 14 yuan. Transactions are made on the spot, with buyers mostly being local residents running small businesses, and even some citizens making a special trip to “treasure hunt.”
A salesperson mentioned, “These equipment items have basically never been used and were all uniformly equipped according to standards at the time. Selling them cheap now is quite cost-effective.”
In the comments section below the Caixin report, netizens expressed their dismay: “Seeing these, as a taxpayer, it hurts deeply.” “How much did the government actually invest in this process?” “The taxpayers’ money is being wasted like this…” “The current state of China’s economy is not without reason.”
Nansha Mobile Cabin Hospital was once the largest temporary quarantine and isolation site in Guangzhou, covering a total area of about 810,000 square meters with a building area of 547,000 square meters. It provided 21,870 isolation rooms and over 80,000 isolation beds. Construction began on November 14, 2022, and was completed and handed over for use in the early hours of November 25 of the same year. However, on December 7, the Communist Party authorities suddenly lifted the lockdown without prior notice, leading to the abandonment of Nansha Mobile Cabin Hospital just half a month after it was put into use, and it has remained vacant since then.
According to Caixin website, based on information from public resource trading platforms across the country, since 2024, many places have been advancing the disposal of mobile cabins, health stations, and other isolation sites.