It's been said that even China's population of 1.4 billion couldn't fill all the empty homes. Many are high-rise apartments in gleaming new financial districts that initially failed to take off. Others are rotten-tail homes, half-built properties in developments abandoned in the middle of construction – casualties of the nation's property crisis. Amid a turbulent economic landscape, we take a closer look at China's ghost cities and investigate whether their fortunes have changed.

Click or scroll to explore the causes, contradictions and potential solutions to these urban phenomena...