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

We are possibly in the strangest city on planet Earth.

A 100 billion dollar project planned for a million inhabitants,

but only a few thousand ever came.

But why?

Once built as a living paradise, >> virtually empty.

>> It's roughly $190 billion of outstanding debt.

Forest Garden that many now describe as a ghost town.

>> Just across in almost poetic contrast lies Singapore,

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

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

to find out.

For the next 50 hours,

we'll be living inside of this city

and exploring every corner of it in a way that's never been seen before.

With seeing the five main areas being our exploration objective,

our ultimate goal is to meet

and befriend one of the rare locals who actually ended up here.

It is hard to find up-to-date information online about the current state of the

city.

We're going in fairly blind with a driver taking us there with one question

in mind.

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

>> Country Garden for City, a dream paradise for all mankind.

Malaysia's ghost town.

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

We just left Singapore like 2 minutes ago.

And this is the ghost town.

>> I cannot believe how big that is.

That's an entire city and nobody lives there.

Barely anyone.

So we didn't realize

but when we were looking out into the water from Singapore we were seeing

these buildings but it looks like just another massive city

which it is though have you heard stories about this place >> my friend

most of them stayed around 20 plus floor above them there's nobody staying

but you can hear like a moving of furniture you see like a chair

or table >> like >> every single day

so they get used to it you

because of the cheap price down there to rent.

So, they just keep on staying

and just have this uh this kind of thing disturbing them every night.

>> What do you think it is?

Like a spirit?

>> Yeah.

>> Like a ghost?

>> Yeah.

>> Oh, >> yeah.

>> I have never seen anything like this in my life.

>> Oh, yeah.

Can you see the windows?

It's like pitch black in many of them.

And I keep on thinking that nobody lives there.

Almost.

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

to like one of the most isolated, haunted places.

>> Is that where we're staying?

>> Yeah.

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

We're staying in this building.

Oh god.

>> Well, we have to be honest.

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

This is going to be Can we uh >> This is going to be terrible.

>> Hi, how are you?

>> There's nobody here other than like four security guards.

>> Enjoy your adventure.

>> Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll need it.

>> Yeah.

>> Oh, it looks pretty nice here though.

>> We're staying on the 41st floor.

>> Hello.

>> I suppose.

>> Uh yes.

>> Hi, by the way.

Stefan, >> I'm Kevin.

How long have you been living here?

>> Um, just a little over a month.

>> And you rent the place here?

>> Yep.

It's quite It's really quite deserted.

>> That's exactly how I like it.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

>> Nice to meet you, neighbor.

>> You seem nice.

>> I think he liked the fact that no one lived here.

>> He's like, I like it that way.

>> It's kind of interesting.

This is an insane view.

There's just an empty beach down here.

What the?

And right across is Singapore.

Like one of the richest places on earth.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

>> We're the only ones on this entire floor, huh?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

There's like nobody else here.

Are there restaurants?

There must be restaurants in this town, right?

>> Are we allowed to be in here?

Is it open here?

>> No, this is only >> This is closed.

The security guy here.

I got super freaked out.

I didn't know what who it was.

>> There are some more inside.

Ah, >> in the building we're staying in that's behind us.

There is not a single light on.

>> You see the lights like on the tower

but not like inside of the apartment.

>> The only person that we said hi to works here,

but every single restaurant is completely empty.

>> It's fully built out.

That's the weird thing.

It's like it looks like it would be busy.

>> It's not like things are falling apart.

Like it actually is wellmaintained.

>> It looks beautiful here.

>> Volleyball volleyball courts.

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

With an episode like this,

we have no idea where it's going to take us.

Like it's very hard to predict.

The vibe is a little weird.

There's like a lot of security guards everywhere.

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

and told us we're not allowed to.

And it feels like we're being watched everywhere.

There's like a security guard around every corner.

which is a bit confusing cuz there's like there's more security guards than there

are people here.

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

A little creeped out to be honest.

>> Good morning.

Didn't sleep a minute.

>> You didn't sleep a minute.

>> I've been up all night so no ghost can take me.

>> That feels on brand.

>> On our first full day of exploration,

we knew we wanted to cover

as much ground as possible to see the neighborhoods

that were still on our list.

We heard that there were shuttles

that continually circled the island

that you could just hop onto.

So, we decided to use that to get around.

>> This whole trip I'm just been creeped out for different reasons.

First from ghosts and now from being watched.

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

I mean, it's a huge area

and the goal really is to like meet some people

that live here.

Can we stop here?

Thank you.

We've just entered an area filled with villas.

There are apparently 223 of these brand new villas

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

And out of those inhabited 10% villas, very,

very few are actually here full-time.

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

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

It's very strange because it's perfectly landscaped still.

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

but every single villa is just completely empty. an entire neighborhood expecting families to

arrive,

but not a single one ever came.

To think that billions can be invested into a project

that goes nowhere is just hard to fathom.

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

Who knows what the future holds?

At the moment, it seems quite uncertain

and there is quite a bit of space to fill

when you look around.

We are essentially where all the really tall buildings above us.

Here it looks uh pretty dead.

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

I wonder if there's anyone in the city

that actually believes this going to fill up.

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

>> It's very strange because it's perfectly maintained here.

The landscaping is perfect.

They have workers everywhere, but almost zero locals.

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

But working for who?

>> Yeah.

Hello.

How are you?

Yeah.

>> Can we quickly ask you how does it feel to live here?

>> I love to entertain, but we are in a hurry.

Maybe next time.

>> Not really getting that many more answers.

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

But little did we know,

we were just about to run into the local who could tell us about

the island.

But before we get to him,

I would like to take a moment to thank the sponsor

that helped us bring this adventure to life,

Viotor.

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

However, we've been so busy editing

and producing these videos

that we hadn't really had

that much time for exploration.

But with the help of Viotor,

which is a tool you can use to easily plan

and book travels all around the world,

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

>> Yeah.

That is >> so cool.

>> Never seen anything like this.

>> Since things can change fast for us,

we were relieved to know

that we had up to 24 hours to cancel for free.

And with Viotor's reserve now pay later option,

we could lock in our spot right away without stressing about payments on the

spot.

It feels like stepping into Jurassic World War.

I have to say that.

>> Instead of rushing through our trip, we got to slow down,

see Gardens like never before,

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

>> That is so realistic.

I speak.

>> We've been partnering with Vtor for a long time now,

and together we've created moments

that remind us why we travel in the first place.

There are over 300,000 travel experiences to find on Viaur, including guided tours,

activities, excursions, and more.

So, check it out to book an amazing experience for your next travel adventure.

>> Okay, that was all for now.

Back to the video.

>> Where you from?

>> From Sweden.

>> Sweden.

>> Sweden.

You come here to buy a house or what?

>> Maybe we exploring.

>> We're open.

We're open.

>> Sweden is rich.

You can buy the whole estate.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> Do you you live here?

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> Oh, okay.

Nice.

How long have you been living here?

>> I know.

>> Few years now.

>> Few years.

Okay.

Few years.

Yeah.

It's very >> It's a vacation home for me.

>> Okay.

How does it feel to live here?

Like how is the experience?

>> Surreal.

>> Surreal.

>> Yeah.

>> It's so quiet.

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

>> It is reviving.

>> Yes.

Of course.

You know, it was a big project

and then everybody thought

that you could rent it out

and uh you know,

make a quick buck out of it, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But in the end, nobody wants to rent it.

That's an obstacle now.

Okay, because the name is already tarnished.

So a lot of businesses right you know projects

that they had before they just you know golden block won't come in they

have all these partners all lined up to come in you know after co

nobody comes to understand why forest city exists in its current state we have

to look all the way to China

but there are many more cities like it in the 1990s despite being a

communist country China reformed its land use rights

so that citizens could own their homes just

As millions of people were moving into cities,

local governments could now sell land rights to developers who could sell properties to

citizens.

This suddenly became a major source of government revenue

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

One of these developers is Country Garden, the largest development firm in China,

who started Forest City

as a way for Chinese citizens to buy investment properties abroad at way cheaper

prices.

But soon things got out of control.

Developers started selling homes before building them,

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

Investors jumped in.

Prices soared.

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

From 2017, the Chinese government cracked down on foreign investing,

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

Further government restrictions on credit access for these developers,

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

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

Home to only an estimated 9,000 residents.

Yet, due to the developer legal obligations, the entire city is still completely maintained,

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

>> What What's your name?

>> Alan.

>> Alan.

Alan.

>> Alan.

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

>> But I am Singaporean.

I don't live in Singapore.

It's too expensive to stay there.

>> And the people sucks.

Okay.

I I disown them.

>> I progressed.

>> Too smish.

>> You're not as friendly as me.

Okay.

>> I'll give you a very good impression of Singapore.

>> Very friendly.

We like you, Alan.

You have good energy.

You're our first friend here in Forest City.

>> Oh, really?

Yeah.

>> There are some shops around.

>> Do you have a minute to show us around a little bit?

We're trying to explore a little bit

and we want to meet friendly people like you.

>> To the hub.

>> I think they're coming around.

Okay.

So, maybe we can take a buggy over there.

You know, >> Thomas and Cory.

>> Wow.

>> Nice.

Anna, you have a you have good positive energy.

You're very >> I'm old.

Okay.

Retirey.

>> Retired.

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

relax and then you be positive, right?

>> Yeah.

>> Good or bad.

Okay.

I would take it.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> And and I enjoy the bad more than the good.

>> So when something bad happens,

you see it as positive because you're learning from >> a chance to learn.

>> A nice make life better, right, for yourself or for others.

>> Now you have wisdom.

>> Yeah.

Well said.

I I live a long time so I should have some.

>> Yeah.

>> Do you have neighbors?

Like people that know?

>> No.

No.

No.

No.

>> There's like nobody.

>> I come in like a lone ranger.

No.

I roam around myself.

This is what I want.

>> Ah.

>> Not too crowded.

Okay.

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

Okay.

I can even go fishing

or walk in the park

or swim in the sea,

right?

>> Without anybody disturbing >> except for some guys from Sweden.

>> Once in a while.

Don't come back again.

>> Alan is giving us the full tour.

>> You should have less less, you know, shots on me.

Okay.

I'm camera shy.

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

Yeah.

>> Ah, these are like little restaurants or whatever.

>> Frankly, all the food sucks here.

>> What is your favorite area to hang out in Forest City?

Have you been to the beach?

>> Alan, what did you say?

>> Oh, we can have a drink.

Oh, nice.

Thanks for showing us around, Alan.

>> Yeah, sure.

>> Oh, did you just paid for it?

Oh, >> yeah.

It's okay.

Thank you.

>> We are on an adventure with Alan here.

I don't know what he was doing today.

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

He went on a road trip recently and his car is broken,

so he's just chilling.

I think >> he's not censored for one second.

Whatever comes out comes out.

>> Yeah, me too.

It's interesting because we keep getting stopped by security guards filming everywhere we go.

Security guards don't want us to film,

which makes us feel like we're like sneaking around.

It's a bit strange.

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

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

I don't know.

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

>> This part is sensor, right?

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

This is >> We're going to put a glass of milk here instead.

>> Okay.

>> Is that okay?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Cheers.

Cheers.

>> Cheers.

>> Cheers.

Shin.

Cheers.

>> This is a slow train.

>> It's like going to Disney World, >> but not so cool.

>> What did you think about the ride, Alan?

This is much faster than my sports car.

>> Okay, so we'll take a little goodbye.

Hopefully we meet again.

Okay, Mr.

Bre.

Bye.

>> See you.

>> See you.

>> We are taking this shuttle to a new place now.

>> Different area that we haven't been to yet.

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

but the more we look, the more confused we get.

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

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

As we once again shuttled across the island,

we stumbled upon something that stood out from the rest.

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

So, we decided to go explore.

>> Maybe we should get off here.

>> Yeah.

Marina Hotel.

Can we stop here?

Thank you.

What is this network school?

What is that?

Your name?

Thomas.

Thomas.

Gabriel.

Stefan.

Stefan.

What are you guys doing here?

>> Just exploring.

You guys actually just like walked in here.

You didn't intend to really come here?

>> No.

Like what?

Like I don't know where we are.

I don't know where where we're staying.

Like where this place is.

>> Just like kind of going from like digital communities to like physical long-term

community.

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

>> How long are you guys planning on staying?

>> Couple days >> in for city.

Planning on staying.

A couple days.

>> Really?

>> Yeah.

>> There's like nothing to do here.

I can probably give you a tour

as well if you guys want just to have a look around.

>> Yeah, that would be that would be very cool.

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

I think people are up to stuff.

People are creative.

We're going to have to explain this in voice over cuz it's like too

much to explain.

>> Global meritocracy is finally here.

>> This organization we' stumbled upon is called Network School

and could be described

as an experimental community living program.

This organization was set up within Forest City,

which with an agreement with both the Malaysian

and the Singaporean governments operates

as a special economic zone,

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

and other financial incentives aimed at attracting entrepreneurs from around the world.

Their hope is to utilize Johor's special economic zone

and mostly abandoned facilities across the island to grow their community

and some say to maybe eventually become their own nation. there's like a new

society kind of growing on this island.

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

>> So, there's a chance of this island like gaining independence to like um

potentially become its own state.

>> That's insane.

That's crazy.

>> And then there's maybe like a new passport

or like if we like live here like longer periods

then maybe we become citizen of this new state.

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

And one of them was so excited, he texted one of the founders,

Donovan Sun, to come down

and give us a bit more background on what they're building here.

>> Stefan.

>> Stefan.

Hey, Donovan.

>> Nice to meet you.

How are you today?

>> Good.

How are you guys?

>> Yeah, good.

Good.

Good.

>> Stumbled in here.

I did not realize this whole thing existed here.

>> You could say it's it's simultaneously like a new society.

It's also like a new school.

>> Uh it's also like a new sort of tech accelerator.

>> Is this the future?

>> Is this the future?

I I think it is.

I mean I mean you know first you don't you don't know till you

you try it.

>> What kind of reactions do you get when you say new society?

Like do people do you find skepticism around that?

>> I think when you do anything new um the average reaction tends to

be one of confusion.

>> So I think that's that's a very normal reaction.

>> How did this idea come to you in the first place?

>> Um so it really starts with our with our founder Bali.

He wrote this book called the network state

which he talks a lot about the idea

that um you know a lot of western institutions uh like the US government

um the US dollar the SEC the FDA uh they all are maybe reaching

end of life so maybe a lot of folks from the west a lot

of folks from Asia might want to go live in you know their own

communities around the world

and uh these these communities would be opt-in communities

so you choose if you want to come

or not welcoming to folks from around the world we thought it'd be pretty

cool to,

you know, see if we could find a place around the world to put

this society.

Huh.

There are many, many talented, hardworking, smart,

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

Just very bluntly, it's harder

and harder for some of them to get visas to enter the US.

Now, if you look at Malaysia,

uh 99% of the world can get in without visa. >> 99% >> all

countries except for for three,

right?

There are many many talented, hardworking, smart,

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

but they don't necessarily have the money

or the connections off the bat to be able to just jump into the

middle of Silicon Valley

or wherever.

>> But if you could provide the right channel

or the right place for them to come,

>> maybe you could accomplish a lot if they just have the right platform.

Would you expect that basically this whole place would eventually become populated

as like a new new society?

>> That's the goal.

That's the goal to move into a city

that is basically not populated

and to think about can we build a new thing that's going to fill

up the buildings that are already here

that people didn't show up for.

>> If you would take a wild guess, you know,

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

>> Oh, I' I'd say a few years probably.

We spent a few hours exploring what they were building here

and left feeling quite stunned to find new life in this city after assuming

it would be left deserted forever.

As we were exploring the last few corners of the island we hadn't seen

yet,

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

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

And will Chinese real estate projects like this ever happen again given the challenges

they ultimately faced?

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

one can only hope

that these perfectly inhabitable homes don't just sit here

and wait for time to swallow them.

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

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

And well, maybe 10 years from now,

the story here about Forest City will be very different.

Only time will tell.

All we knew, however,

was that there was one highlight on the island

that we had to see one last time.

What's up, bro?

What's up?

What's up?

>> We're here looking for a legend.

What legend?

>> Little fist bump.

Good to see you again.

>> Viking, huh?

>> Want to see the front?

>> We ordered a huge bottle.

>> This is a normal size.

Wow.

We appeared.

>> Come by.

>> Come by.

Come by.

>> Come by.

>> This is a lot of sushi.

>> Come by.

>> We're going to take the empty bottle.

>> Drink and drink and drink.

>> Get me into trouble.

>> No, you're not going to get in trouble.

>> I'm very good lawyers.

Okay.

Consumate.