空房子 Kōng fángzi — Empty Houses

After the signing

Once enough households have signed and the agreements take effect, a lane empties over a few weeks or months. Families move on dates they arrange with the expropriation office; as each leaves, its house is usually sealed — doors and windows bricked up or boarded — to prevent anyone moving in, and hoardings go up around the site before demolition begins. For those who stay longest, the last weeks can be strange: a familiar lane with fewer voices each day, sealed doors on either side, and the sound of birds where there used to be talk. Holdouts who sign late sometimes ask, as 老孙 does, to be the last to leave. Documentary makers often film this period with fixed cameras and time-lapse, letting the lane's emptying show itself without commentary.