A farmer carries a shovel over his shoulder as he walks through an abandoned building, that was to be...
ATTENTION EDITORS -- THIS IMAGE IS 18 of 18 TO ACCOMPANY A PICTURE PACKAGE ON AN ABANDONED AMUSEMENT PARK NEAR BEIJING. SEARCH KEYWORD "WONDERLAND" TO SEE ALL IMAGES PXP201-218.
A farmer carries a shovel over his shoulder as he walks through an abandoned building, that was to be part of an amusement park called 'Wonderland', to tend his crops on the outskirts of Beijing December 5, 2011. Construction work at the park, which was promoted by developers as 'the largest amusement park in Asia', stopped around 1998 after funds were withdrawn due to disagreements over property prices with the local government and farmers. With local governments often dependent on land sales to fund payments on a staggering 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.7 trillion) of debt, Beijing worries that a collapsing property market will trigger a wave of defaults that in turn will hit the banks. More worrisome, the property market, which contributes about 10 percent of Chinese growth and drives activity in 50 other sectors, could drag the real economy to a hard landing. Picture taken December 5, 2011. REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA - Tags: REAL ESTATE BUSINESS SOCIETY CONSTRUCTION)