Exploring the World's Largest $100 Billion Failed Ghost City (why did nobody move here?)

0:00 [Music] We are possibly in the strangest city on planet Earth.

0:14 A 100 billion dollar project planned for a million inhabitants,

0:19 but only a few thousand ever came.

0:21 But why?

0:22 Once built as a living paradise,

0:25 virtually empty.

0:26 It's roughly $190 billion of outstanding debt.

0:30 Forest Garden that many now describe as a ghost town.

0:33 Just across in almost poetic contrast lies Singapore,

0:37 one of the wealthiest and most densely populated places on Earth.

0:41 So, how can such an ambitious plan end up in this state?

0:45 to find out.

0:46 For the next 50 hours, we'll be living inside of this city and exploring every

0:51 corner of it in a way that's never been seen before.

0:54 With seeing the five main areas being our exploration objective,

0:58 our ultimate goal is to meet and befriend one

1:00 of the rare locals who actually ended up here.

1:03 It is hard to find up-to-date information

1:05 online about the current state of the city.

1:08 We're going in fairly blind with a driver

1:10 taking us there with one question in mind.

1:14 Will this place survive or is it likely to fall into decay forever?

1:18 Country Garden for City, a dream paradise for all mankind.

1:22 Malaysia's ghost town.

1:23 Thriving, eco-friendly, a prime model of future cities.

1:29 [Music] We just left Singapore like 2 minutes ago.

1:44 And this is the ghost town.

1:51 I cannot believe how big that is.

1:53 That's an entire city and nobody lives there.

1:55 Barely anyone.

1:56 So we didn't realize but when we were looking out

1:58 into the water from Singapore we were seeing these buildings

2:02 but it looks like just another massive city which

2:04 it is though have you heard stories about this place

2:07 my friend most of them stayed around

2:10 20 plus floor above them there's nobody staying

2:13 but you can hear like a moving of furniture you see like a chair or table like

2:22 every single day so they get used to it

2:25 you because of the cheap price down there to rent.

2:29 So, they just keep on staying and just have

2:31 this uh this kind of thing disturbing them every night.

2:35 What do you think it is?

2:36 Like a spirit?

2:38 Yeah.

2:38 Like a ghost?

2:40 Yeah.

2:43 Oh, yeah.

2:45 I have never seen anything like this in my life.

2:49 Oh, yeah.

2:50 Can you see the windows?

2:51 It's like pitch black in many of them.

2:53 And I keep on thinking that nobody lives there.

2:56 Almost.

2:58 We're literally driving from like one of the most lively cities on Earth,

3:02 Singapore, to like one of the most isolated, haunted places.

3:07 Is that where we're staying?

3:09 Yeah.

3:11 I didn't look into this as much as I thought I had.

3:14 We're staying in this building.

3:17 Oh god.

3:19 Well, we have to be honest.

3:20 It is the most scared building out of all these buildings.

3:22 This is going to be Can we uh This is going to be terrible.

3:26 [Music] Hi, how are you?

3:30 There's nobody here other than like four security guards.

3:34 Enjoy your adventure.

3:35 Thank you.

3:36 Thank you.

3:36 Thank you.

3:37 We'll need it.

3:39 Yeah.

3:39 Oh, it looks pretty nice here though.

3:40 We're staying on the 41st floor.

3:44 Hello.

3:46 I suppose.

3:47 Uh yes.

3:48 Hi, by the way.

3:49 Stefan, I'm Kevin.

3:51 How long have you been living here?

3:53 Um, just a little over a month.

3:55 And you rent the place here?

3:57 Yep.

3:57 It's quite It's really quite deserted.

4:00 That's exactly how I like it.

4:02 Yeah.

4:02 Yeah.

4:03 Nice to meet you, neighbor.

4:06 You seem nice.

4:07 I think he liked the fact that no one lived here.

4:10 He's like, I like it that way.

4:11 It's kind of interesting.

4:15 This is an insane view.

4:17 There's just an empty beach down here.

4:22 [Music] What the?

4:36 And right across is Singapore.

4:38 Like one of the richest places on earth.

4:41 What have we gotten ourselves into?

4:45 We're the only ones on this entire floor, huh?

4:48 Yeah.

4:48 Yeah.

4:48 There's like nobody else here.

4:49 Are there restaurants?

4:50 There must be restaurants in this town, right?

4:54 [Music] Are we allowed to be in here?

5:01 Is it open here?

5:02 No, this is only

5:04 This is closed.

5:05 The security guy here.

5:05 I got super freaked out.

5:06 I didn't know what who it was.

5:08 There are some more inside.

5:10 Ah, in the building we're staying in that's behind us.

5:17 There is not a single light on.

5:20 You see the lights like on the tower but not like inside of the apartment.

5:27 The only person that we said hi to works here,

5:30 but every single restaurant is completely empty.

5:35 [Music] It's fully built out.

5:42 That's the weird thing.

5:44 It's like it looks like it would be busy.

5:47 It's not like things are falling apart.

5:48 Like it actually is wellmaintained.

5:50 It looks beautiful here.

5:53 Volleyball volleyball courts.

5:54 It It's like It has everything to be a great place.

5:58 With an episode like this, we have no idea where it's going to take us.

6:01 Like it's very hard to predict.

6:04 [Music] [Music] [Music] The vibe is a little weird.

6:23 There's like a lot of security guards everywhere.

6:26 They've come up multiple times, asked us if we're filming,

6:29 and told us we're not allowed to.

6:31 And it feels like we're being watched everywhere.

6:35 There's like a security guard around every corner.

6:38 which is a bit confusing cuz there's like

6:40 there's more security guards than there are people here.

6:43 Don't really know what they're guarding so closely.

6:46 A little creeped out to be honest.

6:48 Good morning.

6:50 Didn't sleep a minute.

6:51 You didn't sleep a minute.

6:52 I've been up all night so no ghost can take me.

6:55 That feels on brand.

6:57 On our first full day of exploration,

6:59 we knew we wanted to cover as much ground as possible

7:02 to see the neighborhoods that were still on our list.

7:04 We heard that there were shuttles that continually

7:07 circled the island that you could just hop onto.

7:09 So, we decided to use that to get around.

7:12 This whole trip I'm just been creeped out for different reasons.

7:16 First from ghosts and now from being watched.

7:19 We're going to start with trying to explore all the different areas.

7:22 I mean, it's a huge area and the goal

7:25 really is to like meet some people that live here.

7:28 Can we stop here?

7:30 Thank you.

7:35 [Music] We've just entered an area filled with villas.

7:50 There are apparently 223 of these brand new villas

7:56 and only less than 10% of them are actually inhabited.

8:00 And out of those inhabited 10% villas,

8:03 very, very few are actually here full-time.

8:09 Here you can see somebody's received some big package.

8:12 Looks like potentially a dishwasher, but never even unpacked it.

8:15 It's very strange because it's perfectly landscaped still.

8:19 It's like it's maintained as if people do actually live here,

8:24 but every single villa is just completely empty.

8:28 an entire neighborhood expecting families to arrive,

8:32 but not a single one ever came.

8:35 To think that billions can be invested into a project

8:37 that goes nowhere is just hard to fathom.

8:40 I think and I hope that this place will be repurposed, reinvented somehow.

8:45 Who knows what the future holds?

8:47 At the moment, it seems quite uncertain and there is

8:51 quite a bit of space to fill when you look around.

9:03 [Music] We are essentially where all the really tall buildings above us.

9:15 Here it looks uh pretty dead.

9:18 Most of the shops here were closed or never even open.

9:21 I wonder if there's anyone in the city

9:23 that actually believes this going to fill up.

9:26 I don't know if it's going to be empty forever.

9:28 It's very strange because it's perfectly maintained here.

9:31 The landscaping is perfect.

9:32 They have workers everywhere, but almost zero locals.

9:36 Every other person is from a different country that are here to work.

9:40 But working for who?

9:42 Yeah.

9:42 Hello.

9:42 How are you?

9:43 Yeah.

9:44 Can we quickly ask you how does it feel to live here?

9:46 I love to entertain, but we are in a hurry.

9:50 Maybe next time.

9:51 Not really getting that many more answers.

9:52 We were starting to wonder if we'd really get to meet a proper local.

9:56 But little did we know,

9:57 we were just about to run into the local who could tell us about the island.

10:00 But before we get to him, I would like to take a moment to thank

10:03 the sponsor that helped us bring this adventure to life, Viotor.

10:06 This past week, we actually surprised our editors with a trip to Singapore.

10:11 However, we've been so busy editing and producing these videos

10:14 that we hadn't really had that much time for exploration.

10:17 But with the help of Viotor, which is a tool you can use to easily

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10:22 we were able to book a team experience at Singapore's most iconic attraction.

10:28 Yeah.

10:29 That is so cool.

10:31 Never seen anything like this.

10:34 Since things can change fast for us,

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10:39 And with Viotor's reserve now pay later option,

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10:50 It feels like stepping into Jurassic World War.

10:52 I have to say that.

10:53 Instead of rushing through our trip,

10:54 we got to slow down, see Gardens like never before,

10:58 and recharge as a team before the next leg of our adventure.

11:04 That is so realistic.

11:05 I speak.

11:06 We've been partnering with Vtor for a long time now,

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11:24 Okay, that was all for now.

11:25 Back to the video.

11:27 Where you from?

11:27 From Sweden.

11:29 Sweden.

11:28 Sweden.

11:29 You come here to buy a house or what?

11:31 Maybe we exploring.

11:33 We're open.

11:33 We're open.

11:34 Sweden is rich.

11:35 You can buy the whole estate.

11:36 Yeah.

11:37 Yeah.

11:37 Yeah.

11:39 Do you you live here?

11:40 Yeah.

11:41 Yeah.

11:41 Yeah.

11:41 Oh, okay.

11:42 Nice.

11:42 How long have you been living here?

11:43 I know.

11:44 Few years now.

11:45 Few years.

11:45 Okay.

11:45 Few years.

11:46 Yeah.

11:46 It's very

11:47 It's a vacation home for me.

11:48 Okay.

11:48 How does it feel to live here?

11:50 Like how is the experience?

11:52 Surreal.

11:53 Surreal.

11:55 Yeah.

11:54 It's so quiet.

11:54 I mean, as is it's is it's like slowly reviving.

11:58 It is reviving.

12:00 Yes.

12:00 Of course.

12:00 You know, it was a big project and then everybody

12:02 thought that you could rent it out and uh you know,

12:05 make a quick buck out of it, right?

12:07 Yeah.

12:07 Yeah.

12:07 Yeah.

12:08 But in the end, nobody wants to rent it.

12:10 That's an obstacle now.

12:11 Okay, because the name is already tarnished.

12:15 So a lot of businesses right you know projects that they had

12:18 before they just you know golden block won't come in they have

12:23 all these partners all lined up to come in you know after

12:26 co nobody comes to understand why forest city exists in its current

12:30 state we have to look all the way to China but there

12:35 are many more cities like it in the 1990s despite being

12:38 a communist country China reformed its land use rights so that citizens

12:43 could own their homes just As millions of people were moving into cities,

12:47 local governments could now sell land rights

12:49 to developers who could sell properties to citizens.

12:53 This suddenly became a major source of government revenue

12:56 and property became the main way Chinese households invested their savings.

13:01 One of these developers is Country Garden,

13:03 the largest development firm in China,

13:06 who started Forest City as a way for Chinese

13:08 citizens to buy investment properties abroad at way cheaper prices.

13:12 But soon things got out of control.

13:15 Developers started selling homes before building them,

13:18 using that money to buy even more land and take on more debt.

13:22 Investors jumped in.

13:23 Prices soared.

13:24 And before long, the whole market had turned into a massive bubble.

13:28 From 2017, the Chinese government cracked down on foreign investing,

13:32 making it harder for Country Garden to keep expanding for a city.

13:36 Further government restrictions on credit access for these developers,

13:39 followed by the pandemic in 2020, led to Forest City becoming stuck in limbo.

13:44 Today, only one of the four plan islands has been partially developed.

13:48 Home to only an estimated 9,000 residents.

13:51 Yet, due to the developer legal obligations,

13:54 the entire city is still completely maintained,

13:57 making it feel eerily pristine with hardly anyone around to enjoy it.

14:03 What What's your name?

14:04 Alan.

14:04 Alan.

14:04 Alan.

14:05 Alan.

14:05 We love the name Alan, but you live in Singapore.

14:08 But I am Singaporean.

14:09 I don't live in Singapore.

14:11 It's too expensive to stay there.

14:14 And the people sucks.

14:15 Okay.

14:16 I I disown them.

14:21 I progressed.

14:23 Too smish.

14:25 You're not as friendly as me.

14:26 Okay.

14:27 I'll give you a very good impression of Singapore.

14:30 Very friendly.

14:31 We like you, Alan.

14:32 You have good energy.

14:33 You're our first friend here in Forest City.

14:36 Oh, really?

14:36 Yeah.

14:37 There are some shops around.

14:38 Do you have a minute to show us around a little bit?

14:40 We're trying to explore a little bit

14:41 and we want to meet friendly people like you.

14:43 To the hub.

14:44 I think they're coming around.

14:45 Okay.

14:46 So, maybe we can take a buggy over there.

14:48 You know, Thomas and Cory.

14:54 Wow.

14:54 Nice.

14:54 Anna, you have a you have good positive energy.

14:57 You're very I'm old.

14:59 Okay.

15:00 Retirey.

15:01 Retired.

15:02 It's like, you know, got be contented with yourself,

15:04 you know, relax and then you be positive, right?

15:08 Yeah.

15:08 Good or bad.

15:08 Okay.

15:09 I would take it.

15:10 Yeah.

15:10 Yeah.

15:10 Yeah.

15:10 And and I enjoy the bad more than the good.

15:15 So when something bad happens,

15:16 you see it as positive because you're learning from

15:18 a chance to learn.

15:19 A nice make life better, right, for yourself or for others.

15:23 Now you have wisdom.

15:25 Yeah.

15:25 Well said.

15:25 I I live a long time so I should have some.

15:31 Yeah.

15:31 Do you have neighbors?

15:32 Like people that know?

15:33 No.

15:33 No.

15:34 No.

15:35 No.

15:35 There's like nobody.

15:36 I come in like a lone ranger.

15:38 No.

15:38 I roam around myself.

15:39 This is what I want.

15:42 Ah.

15:41 Not too crowded.

15:42 Okay.

15:42 For a retiree, it's a perfect place for me.

15:44 Okay.

15:45 I can even go fishing or walk in the park or swim in the sea, right?

15:49 Without anybody disturbing

15:52 except for some guys from Sweden.

15:54 Once in a while.

15:55 Don't come back again.

15:59 Alan is giving us the full tour.

16:01 You should have less less, you know, shots on me.

16:04 Okay.

16:04 I'm camera shy.

16:05 So, these are the places that they have some eeries here.

16:09 Yeah.

16:09 Ah, these are like little restaurants or whatever.

16:12 Frankly, all the food sucks here.

16:15 What is your favorite area to hang out in Forest City?

16:19 Have you been to the beach?

16:20 Alan, what did you say?

16:21 Oh, we can have a drink.

16:22 Oh, nice.

16:23 Thanks for showing us around, Alan.

16:26 Yeah, sure.

16:28 Oh, did you just paid for it?

16:30 Oh,

16:30 yeah.

16:30 It's okay.

16:31 Thank you.

16:34 We are on an adventure with Alan here.

16:37 I don't know what he was doing today.

16:39 I think he's just retired and enjoying his life and traveling.

16:41 He went on a road trip recently and his car is broken, so he's just chilling.

16:44 I think

16:45 he's not censored for one second.

16:47 Whatever comes out comes out.

16:50 Yeah, me too.

16:51 It's interesting because we keep getting stopped

16:52 by security guards filming everywhere we go.

16:55 Security guards don't want us to film,

16:56 which makes us feel like we're like sneaking around.

16:59 It's a bit strange.

17:00 Like, what is it that they don't want us to film?

17:02 Like, wouldn't it be good for the town to show?

17:04 I don't know.

17:05 I don't understand why they're so strict about it.

17:06 This part is sensor, right?

17:08 Yeah.

17:08 Yeah.

17:09 This is

17:09 We're going to put a glass of milk here instead.

17:13 Okay.

17:12 Is that okay?

17:12 Yeah.

17:12 Yeah.

17:13 Okay.

17:13 Cheers.

17:14 Cheers.

17:16 Cheers.

17:15 Cheers.

17:15 Shin.

17:22 [Music] Cheers.

17:36 This is a slow train.

17:37 It's like going to Disney World, but not so cool.

17:44 [Music] What did you think about the ride, Alan?

17:48 This is much faster than my sports car.

17:53 Okay, so we'll take a little goodbye.

17:54 Hopefully we meet again.

17:56 Okay, Mr.

17:56 Bre.

17:57 Bye.

17:58 See you.

17:59 See you.

18:00 We are taking this shuttle to a new place now.

18:02 Different area that we haven't been to yet.

18:04 We're trying to understand really the structure of this place,

18:07 but the more we look, the more confused we get.

18:10 Allan was a great first insight into what this place is,

18:14 but ultimately there's so much of it that we still haven't seen.

18:39 As we once again shuttled across the island,

18:41 we stumbled upon something that stood out from the rest.

18:44 The only hotel on the island actually seemed to have some people in it.

18:48 So, we decided to go explore.

18:50 Maybe we should get off here.

18:52 Yeah.

18:52 Marina Hotel.

18:53 Can we stop here?

18:54 Thank you.

18:55 What is this network school?

18:56 What is that?

18:59 Your name?

18:59 Thomas.

19:00 Thomas.

19:00 Gabriel.

19:01 Stefan.

19:02 Stefan.

19:03 What are you guys doing here?

19:04 Just exploring.

19:05 You guys actually just like walked in here.

19:06 You didn't intend to really come here?

19:08 No.

19:08 Like what?

19:08 Like I don't know where we are.

19:09 I don't know where where we're staying.

19:11 Like where this place is.

19:12 Just like kind of going from like

19:13 digital communities to like physical long-term community.

19:16 We have 100 people that are staying here for the next year.

19:18 How long are you guys planning on staying?

19:20 Couple days in for city.

19:21 Planning on staying.

19:22 A couple days.

19:23 Really?

19:25 Yeah.

19:24 There's like nothing to do here.

19:27 I can probably give you a tour as well

19:28 if you guys want just to have a look around.

19:30 Yeah, that would be that would be very cool.

19:31 So, they're building like semi-independent like country here inside this place.

19:38 I think people are up to stuff.

19:40 People are creative.

19:41 We're going to have to explain this in voice

19:43 over cuz it's like too much to explain.

19:45 Global meritocracy is finally here.

19:47 This organization we' stumbled upon is called Network School

19:50 and could be described as an experimental community living program.

19:54 This organization was set up within Forest City,

19:58 which with an agreement with both the Malaysian

20:00 and the Singaporean governments operates as a special economic zone,

20:04 which means they're able to operate legally with large tax breaks

20:07 and other financial incentives aimed

20:09 at attracting entrepreneurs from around the world.

20:12 Their hope is to utilize Johor's special

20:14 economic zone and mostly abandoned facilities across

20:17 the island to grow their community and some

20:20 say to maybe eventually become their own nation.

20:23 there's like a new society kind of growing on this island.

20:26 It's like kind of in between Singapore and Malaysia.

20:29 So, there's a chance of this island like gaining

20:31 independence to like um potentially become its own state.

20:35 That's insane.

20:36 That's crazy.

20:37 And then there's maybe like a new passport or like if we like

20:41 live here like longer periods then maybe we become citizen of this new state.

20:46 As we walked around, we surprisingly ran into many Yes Theory subscribers here.

20:50 And one of them was so excited, he texted one of the founders, Donovan Sun,

20:53 to come down and give us a bit more background on what they're building here.

20:57 Stefan.

20:57 Stefan.

20:57 Hey, Donovan.

20:58 Nice to meet you.

20:58 How are you today?

20:59 Good.

20:59 How are you guys?

21:00 Yeah, good.

21:01 Good.

21:01 Good.

21:01 Stumbled in here.

21:02 I did not realize this whole thing existed here.

21:04 You could say it's it's simultaneously like a new society.

21:07 It's also like a new school.

21:09 Uh it's also like a new sort of tech accelerator.

21:12 Is this the future?

21:13 Is this the future?

21:14 I I think it is.

21:14 I mean I mean you know first you don't you don't know till you you try it.

21:18 What kind of reactions do you get when you say new society?

21:20 Like do people do you find skepticism around that?

21:23 I think when you do anything new um

21:25 the average reaction tends to be one of confusion.

21:28 So I think that's that's a very normal reaction.

21:31 How did this idea come to you in the first place?

21:33 Um so it really starts with our with our founder Bali.

21:36 He wrote this book called the network state which he talks a lot

21:38 about the idea that um you know a lot of western institutions uh like

21:43 the US government um the US dollar the SEC the FDA uh they all

21:48 are maybe reaching end of life so maybe a lot of folks from the west

21:52 a lot of folks from Asia might want to go live in you

21:55 know their own communities around the world

21:57 and uh these these communities would be

21:59 opt-in communities so you choose if you want to come or not welcoming

22:03 to folks from around the world we thought it'd be pretty cool to, you know,

22:06 see if we could find a place around the world to put this society.

22:10 Huh.

22:10 There are many, many talented, hardworking, smart,

22:14 dedicated people in a lot of these countries around the world.

22:16 Just very bluntly, it's harder and harder for some

22:18 of them to get visas to enter the US.

22:20 Now, if you look at Malaysia, uh 99% of the world can get in without visa.

22:26 99% all countries except for for three, right?

22:28 There are many many talented, hardworking, smart,

22:32 dedicated people in a lot of these countries around the world.

22:35 but they don't necessarily have the money or the connections off the bat

22:39 to be able to just jump into the middle of Silicon Valley or wherever.

22:43 But if you could provide the right channel or the right place for them to come,

22:48 maybe you could accomplish a lot if they just have the right platform.

22:50 Would you expect that basically this whole place would

22:53 eventually become populated as like a new new society?

22:56 That's the goal.

22:57 That's the goal to move into a city that is

23:00 basically not populated and to think about can we build

23:04 a new thing that's going to fill up the buildings

23:06 that are already here that people didn't show up for.

23:10 If you would take a wild guess, you know,

23:12 what day or what year could uh this u city be full?

23:17 Oh, I' I'd say a few years probably.

23:22 We spent a few hours exploring what

23:24 they were building here and left feeling quite

23:26 stunned to find new life in this city

23:28 after assuming it would be left deserted forever.

23:31 As we were exploring the last few corners of the island we hadn't seen yet,

23:35 a part of us felt that we were leaving with more questions than answers.

23:39 What will truly happen to this place a few years from now?

23:42 And will Chinese real estate projects like this ever

23:44 happen again given the challenges they ultimately faced?

23:47 As we inevitably take in the scale that was built here,

23:51 one can only hope that these perfectly inhabitable homes don't

23:54 just sit here and wait for time to swallow them.

23:57 Whenever we step foot into abandoned places, we always end up thinking,

24:01 why did nobody come here and find a use for this place?

24:05 And well, maybe 10 years from now,

24:06 the story here about Forest City will be very different.

24:09 Only time will tell.

24:11 All we knew, however,

24:12 was that there was one highlight on the island that we had to see one last time.

24:17 What's up, bro?

24:18 What's up?

24:19 What's up?

24:19 We're here looking for a legend.

24:21 What legend?

24:25 Little fist bump.

24:26 Good to see you again.

24:29 Viking, huh?

24:31 Want to see the front?

24:33 [Music] We ordered a huge bottle.

24:42 This is a normal size.

24:46 Wow.

24:47 We appeared.

24:48 Come by.

24:49 Come by.

24:49 Come by.

24:50 Come by.

24:51 This is a lot of sushi.

24:53 Come by.

24:54 We're going to take the empty bottle.

24:58 Drink and drink and drink.

25:01 Get me into trouble.

25:02 No, you're not going to get in trouble.

25:04 I'm very good lawyers.

25:05 Okay.

25:06 [Music] Consumate.

25:14 [Music]