Foundations of financial folly

China is wasting money and manpower by demolishing buildings and public projects long before they reach the ends of their designed service lives, report Zheng Jinran in Beijing and Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou.

Liu Huilian never imagined that the grand, green square, which seemed the perfect place for her small hotel, would be demolished just four years after it was built and become a giant construction site that would ruin her business.

The expansion of the woodland area in the eastern part of Chenjiaci Square, once regarded as one of the cultural calling cards of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, was a major part of an 800-million-yuan ($130 million) urban refurbishment project designed to celebrate the Asian Games, which were held in the city in 2010.