Pudong residents pray to gods for help against real estate company

Another day, another real estate dispute in Shanghai. This time around, it's residents in the Dong Cheng Community in Pudong fighting against the company that built their compound, according to this BBS thread on Sohu.

Allegedly, there was an open space for greenery that the company now plans to construct a hi-rise on. The community is complaning that it's a violation of the original community layout.

The real estate firm claimed that under its contract, it never said it would keep the original layout so its plans are within the law. But residents argue that the open green space shouldn't be modified without their consent, considering the reason they bought their apartments from the real estate firm in the first place was because of this park area.

Residents believe that the developers are tied to Shanghai gangs. To stop protests, the developers have hired people to look after the construction area 24 hour a day, allegedly beating anyone who tries to stop it.

So instead of fighting, the residents now gather near the construction area at 7:30 every night to appeal to... the Gods. They light candles, burn incense and offer prayers to the heavens to leave the place unmarred. They've even put up a sign "Gates of Hell" beside the construction area:

Well, we guess they realized it's not like they were going to get anywhere with the district bureaus. Might as well hope for some divine intervention.