The shuttle bus from central Shanghai to Venice takes almost two hours. For investors like Wang Guili, that’s close enough to seek out a potential bargain.
At Evergrande Venice, named for the city which inspired it and the developer which built it, apartments in high-rise buildings that look out over the Yellow Sea can be found for as little as a fifth of the prices in her Shanghai neighbourhood.
“Very few residential projects allow me to buy a home without taking a mortgage,” says Ms Wang, a retired accountant. “Evergrande Venice is one of them.”