After only 30 years without people, this is what “civilization” looks like. Only 50 years ago, Houtouwan was a busy fishing village on an island in China. But by the 1990s, all the fishermen who couldn’t compete with the corporate fishing industry had to move back to the mainland.
Only 30 years later, a thick layer of greenery has almost completely covered the village. When it was at its best, the island village had about 2,000 people living in about 500 homes. Many of these houses have walls that have fallen or roofs that have caved in, or they are buried under thick brambles, creepers, and ivy growing up. The dirt roads that connected the houses can no longer be seen.
