The sprawling Dayong Town complex was supposed to be a game-changer for the central Chinese city of Zhangjiajie.

The vast tourist area, which reportedly cost over 2.2 billion yuan ($300 million) to build, encompasses an entire town designed to evoke ancient China, with ornate pavilions, stone ramparts, and cobbled streets lined with stores.

But three years after it opened, Dayong Town has become a monument to waste and excess, its faux-historic buildings practically deserted.

The project has reportedly incurred losses exceeding 500 million yuan since it opened its doors in 2021. During the first half of this year, only 2,300 tickets to the site were sold — an average of less than 20 per day.

On many days, the site resembles a ghost town. The main square sits empty, apart from one or two merchants. The stores lining its cobbled streets are vacant. The red lanterns hanging from the east gate tower are torn and faded.

Its failure has been so spectacular that even senior Chinese officials have taken note. On Nov. 11, Shen Xiaoming, party secretary of Hunan province, the region where Zhangjiajie is located, took part in a study tour of Dayong Town.

During the visit, Shen reportedly stressed the need for Hunan to explore new models for tourism development and enhance the quality and efficiency of tourism-related investment.

Wild dreams

Occupying a prime site in the center of Zhangjiajie, Dayong Town was intended to be a new landmark for the city — a comprehensive tourism and leisure area that recreated the splendor of Zhangjiajie’s ancient past.

The city of over 1.5 million was originally named Dayong when it was founded over 2,200 years ago. Its name was changed to Zhangjiajie only in 1994.

The company behind the Dayong Town project is Zhangjiajie Tourism Group Co., the city’s largest tourism company. Founded in 1992, the company is famous in China for being the first domestic tourism firm to become a publicly traded company, debuting on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1996.

Zhangjiajie Tourism Group made a huge commitment to Dayong Town, and construction on the project was completed in 2021. But its timing couldn’t have been worse.

The scenic area began trial operations on June 21, 2021. A month later, Zhangjiajie went into lockdown to contain a local COVID-19 outbreak. Sporadic pandemic controls would plague the site for the next 18 months, severely impacting its ability to attract visitors.

But experts told Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper that Dayong Town was always a deeply flawed project. Its awkward blend of faux-historical and modern architecture failed to attract tourists. And its downtown location, just three kilometers from Zhangjiajie Railway Station, wasn’t much of an advantage in practice.

By far the most popular tourist attraction in Zhangjiajie is the Wulingyuan Scenic Area, a spectacular mountain range around 60 kilometers from the city center that was once featured in the Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar.”

Wulingyuan receives millions of visitors each year, and the local travel industry is built around transporting tourists to its jagged peaks. Many travel agencies don’t even bother including Zhangjiajie city center in their itineraries, making it hard for Dayong Town to generate footfall.

With the site practically deserted most days, the businesses based inside Dayong Town have reportedly refused to pay their rent. Many no longer even bother to open their stores.

“They united to refuse to pay the rent,” one source familiar with the matter told The Paper. “The leaders of the merchants argued that the scenic spot was not well-managed and that no one came.”

The park’s gates are often left open these days, and the site is coming to function as a public park. Small groups of local residents can often be seen taking children and pets for leisurely strolls along its streets.

The intermediate people’s court in Zhangjiajie has ruled that the Dayong Ancient City Development Co., Ltd entered the reorganization process.

(Header image: A view of Dayong Town in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, October 2024. From The Paper)