We shall not be moved! Chinese couple's home left on dust 'island' for FOUR years after skyscraper developers move in around them



Couple refused small compensation from developers to move

Home cut off from water and electricity for almost four years



Steadfast Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun now facing threats from gangsters



Encircled by a growing forest of high-rise tower blocks, a couple's home has become an isolated island of dirt - cut off from water and electricity for almost four years.

Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun dared to stand in the way of a local property developer in Zaozhuang, in the Shandong Province of China.

Now the resolute couple, both in their 60s, have been left stranded on their tiny spot of land, while all around them the ground is dug up and skyscrapers erected.

Isolated: Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun's home stands on a small parcel of land amid the growing skyscrapers

They became stuck after refusing, what they considered was derisory compensation, offered by developers to move from their home.



The distraught pair now face regular threats from gangsters and have had to fend over a number of attempts to illegally demolish their ramshackle home.

They were cut off from utilities in 2009 when a local developer started the enormous earthworks involved in building dozens of high-rise residential buildings in the area.



Niu says he has spoken with the developer many times in an effort to negotiate an agreement but they refuse to offer him more than half the market price of the land his house sits on.

Trapped: Niu, right, said he the developers offered them only a small amount of compensation to move, which they were unwilling to accept

Stranded: The couple were left without running water and electricity ground after real estate developers dug out the ground around it



