I Explored China’s Failed $100 Billion City In Malaysia
this is Forest City in Malaysia a chinese-built city often labeled as a ghost town and a failed project but what's the reality like in this video we are here to uncover the truth about this place Forest City is located at the southern tip of peninsula Malaysia right next to Singapore it is built by China's largest property developer Country Garden with a budget of over $100 billion the city is planned as a futuristic echo-friendly and smart city designed to eventually be home to one million people but what's the reality according to the media it is a failed project and the ghost town but is that really the case let's explore Forest City and investigate two key questions is it actually an empty ghost town or is it a livable place that I would even consider moving to let's find out feel free to join so I arrived at the airport in johor bahru and then I took a grab taxi to Forest City the ride was about 40 minutes long and I booked myself a room in the only hotel that was available to book on booking.com thank you very much all right let's check into the hotel first hello good afternoon yes please I would like to check in yes first impression here in the hotel pretty good the lobby looked awesome let's see what the room will be like and I also have a sea view which I'm really looking forward to oh we can have a glimpse to the ocean already here and right over there that's the bridge going to Singapore and then we have Singapore over over there wow I think I am very happy with this room right here wow it is big is it's spacious I can see the ocean and the beach from here this is the bathroom a big mirror and then the shower the toilet so the main area is like this a big king bed a little seating area a desk right here and then have a look at this the ocean view from my balcony oh wow this is cool right and over there in the background you can see Singapore and everything here is green fitting to the seam of the city Forest City the Green City and yeah I am paying 85 US dollar here per night including breakfast which I think is a really good price but now let's start exploring the whole city to find out what's really going on here the staff of my hotel told me that I can rent electric scooters nearby so I headed to the shop and got one okay I got myself this electric scooter 1 hour electric scooter is 80 Wing which I think is a very steep price but nevertheless this will give us the opportunity to explore the whole city and yeah I do have a map actually let me find a place where I can actually show you the plan for now maybe right here okay so in my hotel uh there was this map which I have now and right here we have a map to explore around the sea front running and cycling track and if you can see right here we have a line This is the 8 km cycling route which goes all around the city basically so let's just follow the cycling round and explore the city and I do even see a sign here bike route so I think we just need to follow the signs all around the city ah here we have a first sign uh indicating that this city is far away from being finished land to be developed and yeah I actually read that only about 15 to 20% of the whole project is currently finished so whatever we are seeing today is far away from being what is supposed to be here in the near future so there's a lot more to come than what we can see right now I'm looking for the sales galleryes over there can go here yeah okay okay thank you so much all right yeah I'm looking for the sales Gallery uh which is like one of the main centers here where where they're actually um selling units here departments so I want to have a look at that okay and I found the entrance to the sales Gallery so let's have a look what we can find out here I would be curious to find out some actual prices for uh apartments or condos here okay so I had a look around the sers gallery and I found out some very interesting information so first of all they don't really speak English in there the only person that I spoke to spoke only uh Chinese so my whole conversation with her was with Google translate so might be not 100% accurate but uh she told me that uh currently there are 26,000 units available so condo units or apartment units to move in right away 26,000 are available at the moment but she also told me that many many are already sold out and there's actually a very big model inside which is huge you can see the huge City you can see what is already finished and then also what is planned and she told me that everything is supposed to be finished in about 20 years from now on and if they really finish everything that is uh displayed there it's going to be a really big city and it looks really really nice and yeah I also asked regarding prices so she told me that it's about 1,000 ring per square meter or you can buy a full two bedroom apartment right away for 1 million wing it which is about $200,000 us now I am not an expert when it comes to uh prices of uh conduit units or apartment units so I'm actually not 100% sure if 200,000 is a lot for a two-bedroom apartment obviously if you buy like a Studio unit or a one-bedroom apartment the prices will be a bit lower but she only told me the prices for the two bedroom apartments about 1 million Wing or $200,000 I later did some research about property prices in Malaysia in general and I found this website right here where you can purchase condos in Malaysia for example in joob baru which is actually the city right next to Forest City you can get a four bedroom condo for less than half a million Wing so that is about $100,000 or in the capital KOA loo you can get this beautiful looking condo with two bedrooms for about the same price so about $1,000 us so my impression is that the prices in Forest City are more expensive compared to the rest of the country and that is also something that I read a lot about uh the whole project here one of the biggest criticisms of Forest City is that the prices are supposedly too high for the locals to afford living here and to give you an example the food prices here where in my impression about double to Triple the price compared to other places in Malaysia so there might be some truth to it so we now found out that the prices here are probably higher compared to the rest of the country but are there actually people living here or is it really an abandoned Ghost Town let's Explore More and find out now to be honest I'm not 100% sure if I am legally allowed to drive an electric scooter that has a maximum speed of 28 km per hour uh on the road here but I also don't think that it bothers anyone here because as you can see the roads are pretty pretty empty but actually I think I can go even faster if I up the speed here let's see what's the maximum speed of this thing 25 28 31 oh my God we're breaking speed records here 37 oh wow but yeah the the guy who ented it to me told me I should go to number one speed to a safe battery otherwise it might not last for hour hello I want to go to the restaurant here over there okay thank youi so uh we do have a lot of gates here so I think uh you can probably only enter if you actually live here but yeah I want to check out what shops they have here so I don't really want to enter the residential area anyway okay ah I think here if I turn left here then I can access all the shops all right let's uh look what we have here so this is I think a post office so I think that everything that you need to live here is already here you have supermarkets here this one for example is a supermarket I saw a haircut place earlier we have a Hot Pot restaurant here post office and yeah something that I noticed already um everything here is Chinese like you see it right away here we have all these Chinese shops here there are Chinese characters everywhere also in my hotel all the signs are in English and in Chinese not in English and in the local language Bahasa malayu so you can see immediately who is the Target customer group here it's uh Chinese people Fresh Market and then something written in Chinese underneath which probably means the same let's have a quick look oh here everything in Chinese not even in English yeah we also have a lot of uh Chinese products here this is uh coming from uh mainland China I think so don't really find a lot of local products here I had a look earlier already in another Supermarket which is right next to my hotel and was basically the same lots of uh Chinese products yeah this is all Chinese here I'm not an expert when it comes to Chinese Brands but yeah since I spent some time in China earlier this year I recognize some of the things here like this one for example that's quite popular actually I think and then here yeah once again more and more Chinese signs Chinese uh noodle restaurant I think yeah hello to be honest I feel a little bit like I am not in Malaysia I feel a little bit like I'm in China everything Chinese everyone here speaks Chinese everything is a Chinese here so that is quite interesting right that we are actually in Malaysia but everything here is Chinese and if you know about Malaysia actually U Malaysia is a very Multicultural country there are basically three main ethnicities here the malaise the Indian and the Chinese so there are many Chinese people or people that have a Chinese background in Malaysia anyway so many people in Malaysia also speak Chinese but I think that the target group for the area here is not the Chinese people that are living in Malaysia it's uh Mainland Chinese people I don't think that the local Chinese are the Target customer group here there's a sign here we Galia Park which I think is a name of a hotel but that was not a hotel that I could uh find on booking.com so maybe there are more hotels here but you can't find them on booking.com or Agoda which are usually
websites that Western tourists are using um they definitely have other sites hotel booking sites in China so I could imagine that maybe if you go to a Chinese hotel booking site maybe you can find more than one hotel here CU yeah on booking.com uh at least for the for the dates that I am here now there was literally only one option for me the hotel where I'm staying now maybe if anyone of you has access to a Chinese hotel booking sites uh have a look what you can find and let us know in the comments that would be interesting I should add though that there were some options on Airbnb that I saw so some of the apartments uh in these buildings are actually listed on Airbnb okay and after just a 3 4 minute run right we came to the Northern end of Forest City so if I would have taken the road over there then that's where you leave the whole area already so this is now the last row of apartment buildings here and I want to mention something that I noticed here but let me find a parking spot first I'm famous right famous yeah I'm not famous I saw your video on Facebook Instagram oh thank you thanks for watching do you live here no no I live outside here just go fishing fishing here yeah oh this one you catch today yeah oh that's like your leg oh wow that's that's a good fish how is it here do you like Forest City yes a lot yeah what do you like about the place I think the view the view uh not a lot of people here not a lot of people here yeah what's your name fck okay nice to meet you nice to meet you too nice to meet you good luck with catching more fish thank you so much have a good day have a good day bye bye bye bye all right there you heard it local said it's actually not bad here he actually said uh he likes it here it's pretty good we might have another case here I don't want to say it too early but we might have another case here of Western media reporting very negative about something China related and then the reality is very different but let's not judge too early let's judge at the very end of this video okay I am at the very end now and there's a gate here so I can't pass here because I think this is leading into another purely residential area which is uh I hope you can see it uh the line right here but basically if we would follow here then we could go at least in theory back to my hotel which is right here but yeah I think these are all residential areas which uh you can see from above now from my drone shots and you can even see that some of the houses here are like proper houses and not just these condo skyscrapers so they also have proper houses here so you have a choice here you can either move into these uh High residential buildings or you can also get a proper house here and by the way this is the first episode of a series that I'm starting now where we are visiting Chinese related places like this one all around southeast Asia so each episode is going to be in a new country and this one is the first episode so feel free to subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet to follow this journey oh looks like the people that living here they also have like a shuttle service an electric uh how do you call that Tuk Tok mini Tuk Tok mini buus something like that which can take them all around the city also what I find interesting uh maybe you know the movie I Am Legend with Will Smith where he is uh kind of the the last man left on earth and the movie plays in New York City and in the whole movie the city is covered with a plant so nature takes back the city after all the humans are gone and it actually look looks very similar here because on all the apartments you see plenty of uh green plants like even here hanging on the side even on the balcony of my hotel there are plants hanging so everywhere here you see that and to be honest that also adds maybe a bit of the atmosphere of this place looks abandoned right because nature takes over the place again but here it's not like in the movie in the movie it is because the humans are gone and nature takes back the city but here it is made on Purp purpose to yeah make the city more green but I can imagine that that adds the effect of uh this city actually looking a bit abandoned because of all the green plants around and yeah once again we have another sign here land to be developed and this is actually I think the fourth or the fifth sign like this that I see here so yeah there is really more to come and to be honest I think I can already say that I am very curious how this place will look in let's say four or 5 years I think a lot of things will change here in the next years for City International School so they also have an international school here which makes sense of course if you want to be attractive to uh to people to families then you also need to have a school nearby so that of course makes sense it is a bit fun to be honest like the city is not that crowded with cars so just riding around with an electric scooter like this uh is actually quite fun how do I I go back to the other part of the town maybe let me ask the guy hello can I continue here yes City and then how do I go back to Marina Hotel Marina hotel yeah you go aray yeah uh my friend and then I can turn like this yeah like so I don't need to go here yes can here okay thank you so much my CFE I also have to say all the people here are so so friendly and welcoming like we have all these security guards all around here and they are always very friendly and helpful okay so this is now another part of a Forest City like I don't know if you drive by car maybe five 5 to 8 minutes away from the area where I'm staying my hotel area so this I think is purely residential area here and yeah once again I can't enter over there but it looks very similar like the area we have seen before we have some supermarkets and restaurants around the corner here but yeah The Impressions here are the same I mean just look at the amount of cars that is parked here these are all people either working or living here probably living here because I think this is not the parking area for the staff that works here so does this look so far like an abandoned ghost town to you like uh what all the media reports about this place but yeah I would say uh let me head back I also have to return the bike I already yeah I'm already 15 minutes over my time that means I have to pay uh extra which yeah this is actually quite I still think this is really pricey 80 wi it for an hour now I'm probably going to stay one and a half hour so I have to pay extra so I would say let me return the bike and then let's uh check out the main Beach area around my hotel that's the next plan but wow look at the buildings here that looks really really cool this is actually a place where I have the feeling of being in a city now what a place here I like big city so this is actually a very cool place for me all these high buildings here okay I'm back okay I am in the mall now which is uh right next to the beach of my hotel actually and does it look abandoned to you here actually quite a few people around here there are dutyfree shops here there's a supermarket here there are a few restaurants here which seem to be mostly Chinese like the one right here behind me but also down there there's a food court where you can get more like fast food style snacks and drinks smoothies but as you can see plenty of people around here so it's not like an abandoned place at all and then yeah when we go down here literally like 100 m over there we have the beach and the ocean also I have to mention that uh at the moment it is Sunday afternoon so I guess it is a bit busier here on the weekends because I can imagine that also on the weekends maybe people from Singapore come over it's like only half an hour drive from Singapore to reach Forest City so I can imagine that this is actually becoming a popular weekend destination trip for people from Singapore so maybe it is not as busy here uh on the week days as it is at the moment which is here Sunday afternoon now but also it looks beautiful here if you have a look at the the beach here we have the coconut trees here and yeah like I said before it's fairly busy here definitely not abandoned at all let's actually check out the beach properly there's a bar here called the light bar which is also restaurant oh I have to say the beach actually looks really really nice properly maintained clean reminds me a bit about santosa Beach which is over there in Singapore which I have visited about a year ago which is also like a man-made Beach very clean very wellmaintained and it's actually very similar here W look the restaurant is totally full with people we have lots of people here yeah so far I'm not really sure what to think uh this the first impressions here definitely not what I would have expected I was expecting an abandoned place I was expecting to be the only person around here based on all the reports I read or all the other videos from other YouTubers I've seen about this this place and now I'm spotting something German over there which is an old German Volkswagen I'm wondering what is that car doing here this is the first item I see around here the first thing I see around here that actually looks abandoned like something that you would expect to see here when you read all the negative reviews about this place so I'm actually wondering what this old German car is doing here right in front of the ocean hello hello Papa where are you from NE Nepal yes oh Namaste Nam you're from I'm from Germany Germany Germany yeah nice oh last year I was in Nepal yes I was in Katmandu oh and nagot bakur very beautiful thank you thank you yeah what are you doing here holiday Hol day you are you live in Singapore no no Malaysia are you you live in Malaysia oh come here for Holiday how do you like it nice nice nice oh very good okay enjoy oh some people from Nepal doing holiday here are you from Malaysia yeah yeah yeah you here for Holiday yeah how do you like it huh you like it here yeah are you from I'm from Germany Germany yeah coming for allay yeah yeah I want to I read about this place before and I read it's very empty and Abandoned and no people here but here got people but now I come here and so many people and beautiful looks nice let's actually see how scary it is to walk up here so you see it gets uh pretty narrow and more narrow and narrow the more you walk to the top and yeah it looks like maybe 2 m down there oh oh this is actually okay here we are you have to hold your balance to not fall down but then you can have a view over to Singapore right there okay okay we already saw the car which uh was or looked pretty abandoned and here's actually a boat that also looks abandoned so here and there we have a few things that actually do fit to the negative narrative that you can read about this place so this boat I think hasn't been in use for Riyal this by the way right here is the pool area of my hotel which I also really really like it's a huge pool here and what's interesting is check this out but I think this is a wedding venue looks like a perfect place to celebrate something FR a City Country Garden Pacific View and then imagine you're having your your wife or your husband here walking down this ale here and then all the guests are sitting there and sitting there oh this is a beautiful place to have a wedding right and this is where you're standing and saying uh yes I want do you say that in English in German it's I think in English it would be yes I want I want to spend the life with you you know what I mean right but there yeah beautiful place surrounded by all the the coconut trees here oh what a place and then actually one of the rooms there that's my room up there somewhere okay what's also interesting I'm like 200 300 M away from my hotel now and away from my hotel pool and there's a Forest City water park here which is yeah like a public pool and I think I I read over there you need a wristband in order to go swimming here so I guess you can probably purchase a wristband here and then just use the public pool here so you don't need to stay in the hotel over there to have access to a pool here and the area here looks yeah very similar to the pool area that I have in my hotel very nice wellmaintained a big pool uh some chairs to sit down we have the coconut trees around here pretty nice actually but yeah I'm actually on the way to a beach bar there's a beach bar over there where I think I can get dinner and well now it is 700 p.m. and the beach looks like this this is crazy wow once again here you hear all the news about this place this is an abandoned city a ghost town nobody is living here and have a look at this this is what the beach looks like at sunset time so fortunately the sunset is over there there so we can't see it from here but yeah this quite exactly 700 p.m. now and the beach is full with people okay I definitely see people having food here and also I see lots of beers on the tables which to be honest is quite untypical for Malaysia many restaurants in Malaysia don't even sell beer so it actually surprises me a bit actually I'm not really surprised because yeah this is kind of a special Zone made for tourists for Chinese tourists mainly ah check it out this is the deserted Ghost Town Place plenty of people at the beach I heard before that this place is a ghost town and nobody is here uh G to actually because the MCO coming and outside people cannot come in so was during yes so the seller may be very problem of but now I come here I was expecting everything empty and nobody here but now yes many because we open already now and we trying to build up this building all place so we we're trying are these people here all tourists or also people that live here also the people have lived here but uh here is very like uh how to say foreign not not local so most people here tourist maybe from Singapore yes yes yes yes how is it to live here I think very nice the views the people in here like Temple you know very slowly very true by the way while I'm waiting for the food uh I got a lemon te here as well already quite good and then look at the sky uh we have the the pink clouds there now that looks really beautiful actually and it's really Lively here now check it out so many people around me especially many families I feel like this is a very familyfriendly place I see lots of families all day actually around here already so I feel this is a like a holiday place for families okay and by now it's actually pretty dark around here and yeah I just had my dinner I ate the burrito the meat scoas were actually really really delicious so that was a good recommendation of the guy here and then also the mashed potato with cheese was interesting but also delicious and the vegetables on the side and what I really like here is the atmosphere sitting here right by the beach having the look over to Singapore fresh wind in my face so I'm really enjoying sitting here for dinner okay I paid 64 wing it for the full meal and yeah this is the name of the bar light bar which I think is actually the only bar here at the main Beach at least so that was a very interesting day I'm going to spend the night here now and then tomorrow morning I'm going to give you my final thoughts and my final review and I also want to show you the night view from my balcony actually now what's really interesting to see now is the night view here so these are the apartment buildings over there and as you can see quite a few apartments have light on now in the evening and I guess that these are all the apartments that are occupied or probably there are some more even occupied because not everyone is probably at home at the moment but as you can see quite a few lights are on over there so it can't be that empty and to also show you the night view from my balcony let's see how Singapore looks in the dark uh yeah we have the not really a Skyline but you see all the lights over there at the other side of the ocean I was hoping to see maybe the marina Bas s Hotel from here far in the distance but uh can't be seen from here unfortunately all right it is the next morning now and yeah what did we learn is this place an abandoned ghost town as described in many media reports definitely not but is this place a City full of life also not I also have to mention that the scene that you saw from the beach from yesterday evening with all the people around that was filmed on a Sunday evening and now it is Monday around noon and you can see almost uh no people around here so I think that uh during the week it looks a bit different here compared to what we can see here on the weekend but nevertheless I think what we saw here is far away from an abandoned ghost town now to answer the question would I personally move here at the moment probably not because I think for my liking it is still a bit too empty here especially I would like to have more choices of restaurants also more International choices I'm missing like like a big mall or something like that so I think personally at the moment I would not move here but I would definitely come again for Holiday In fact I actually just extended my stay here for two more days so I'm just going to chill here chill by the pool by the beach do some editing work here because I think for holiday this place is actually great at the moment and I definitely also see the potential of this place I think in like 3 to 5 years this place will be very different from what it's now so I think I will actually return to this place maybe in a year or two and then I will maybe also make another video so we can check out what this place has become then and yeah I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this place in the comments down below and then I am excited to visit another Chinese related place somewhere else in Southeast Asia but that is going to be the next episode so stay tuned for that and if you haven't seen the previous video where I stayed in a very unique hotel in Shanghai China then feel free to check out the video right here stay healthy stay positive and then see you on the next episode ciao guys
2024-08-05 13:40
