Claim:
Photographs shared online in September 2024 show an apartment building in China that has a population of 30,000 people.
Rating:
What’s True:
The photo shows a real building, called Regent International Center, located in Qianjiang Century City, the central business district of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, China.
What’s Undetermined:
The claim that 30,000 people live in the building lacks confirmation from credible sources. While some reports estimate between 10,000 and 20,000 residents live there, the figure of 30,000 may reflect the building’s maximum capacity, rather than its current occupancy.
For years, photographs have circulated on social media allegedly showing an apartment building in China that houses 30,000 residents. A Reddit post from September 2024, featuring a collage of three images, claimed: “The Regent International apartment building in Hangzhou, China, has a population of around 30,000 people.”
“China has buildings that houses 30,000 people,” another Reddit user wrote.
These images spread across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Threads, Facebook, YouTube, VKontakte and TikTok. One TikTok video showcasing the building garnered significant attention, with more than 780,000 views and 15,000 reactions as of this writing.
This claim also appeared in various online outlets, such as The Sun, Oddity Central and UNILAD Tech.
According to these sources, the Regent International apartment building was located in Qianjiang Century City, the central business district in the city of Hangzhou.
While the building shown in the photographs does exist and is indeed in Hangzhou, discrepancies remain regarding how many residents live there and whether the figure of 30,000 is accurate. Therefore, this claim is rated as a mixture of both true and undetermined information.
Does This Building Exist?
The full Chinese name of the building is “新世界·丽晶国际中心,” which means “New World Regent International Center” in English, according to Google Translate.
The building’s shape and structure in the social media photos aligned perfectly with the image available on the Chinese equivalent of Google Maps, Baidu Maps (see image below).
(Reddit u/HORROR_VIBE_OFFICIAL, Baidu Maps)
On Baidu Maps, the building was labeled as “Regent International Center,” whereas on Google Maps, it appeared under the name “Lijing International Center.”
(Baidu Maps)
However, in Google Maps, the building labeled as “Lijing International Center,” which featured photos of the building in question, was found in a slightly different location.
Nearby on Google Maps, the distinctive S-shaped Regent International Center was present but not explicitly labeled as such. This misalignment is a result of a well-known issue in China, where street maps and satellite imagery on platforms like Google Maps are deliberately offset to comply with Chinese law (see screenshot below).
(Google Maps)
Finally, the building in question was also visible from the nearest park on Google Maps (shown near the center of the screenshot below).
How Many People Live There?
The claim that 30,000 people live in the building lacked confirmation from credible sources. While some reports estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 people reside there, the figure of 30,000 may reflect the building’s maximum capacity rather than its current occupancy.
For instance, UNILAD Tech reported that Regent International “is home to over 20,000 residents and has room for a further 10,000.” In contrast, a segment from Galileo, a German science TV series, stated the building could accommodate up to 20,000 people. However, neither of these sources is definitive.
Multiple Chinese-language articles have also addressed the building’s population. A 2023 article from Hangzhou Network Media (translated using Google Translate) said: “During the peak period of the population moving into the shared housing, Regent International had more than 30,000 residents.”
However, a 2021 report cited in the article noted that only 10,000 permanent residents were officially identified at the time:
Starting from May 2021, the local police station, community and property management team worked together to conduct a large-scale investigation of the complex business formats and personnel of Regent International. They obtained information on the more than 10,000 permanent residents of Regent International through building scans and phone registration, and used “Ding Guanjia” for real-time classification management to strictly control the number of group rentals. The original business formats in the building were also standardized, and bars, etc. were cleared out.
Yang Weiwei, district manager of Hangzhou Vanke Property Services reportedly said that, according to property statistics, 25% of Regent International was occupied by companies, many related to live-streaming.
“On weekdays, if you stand at the entrance of the building, you will see a surge of people,” Yang was quoted as explaining. “The peak flow of people every day is at 7 or 8 in the morning and 5 or 6 in the afternoon. … Some of these people come to work in Regent, and some go out of Regent to work.”
Meanwhile, a 2021 article by Finance Sina mentioned that estimates vary:
Some say that at least 10,000 people live in this building, while others say 20,000.
I made a rough estimate.
There are 50 rooms on each floor of Regent International. Assuming that each room is divided into 6 rooms, half of the building has 36 floors and the other half has 39 floors. So the number of rooms is 25*6*(36+39)=11250.
Each compartment houses 1-2 people, so the total number of people is about 11,000 to 22,000.
According to an article published by Chinese news outlet Daily People in mid-October 2024, police at the local station reported that the building “once housed nearly 20,000 people.”
Therefore, due to the inconsistent figures and lack of official confirmation, it was not possible to confirm whether the apartment currently houses 30,000 people.
Snopes was unable to find an official contact for the building, but we have reached out to the Hangzhou City Public Security Bureau to ask if they have any information regarding the number of people currently living in the block.
For further reading, Snopes debunked a false rumor in November 2001 that the Great Wall of China is the only human-made object visible from the moon. We also looked at claims in 2023 that TikTok is banned in China.
Sources:
– YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgVXPEORuA0. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
“Chinese Town under ONE Roof with 20,000 Residents – and You Never Need to Go Out.” The Sun, 5 Feb. 2024, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25720434/regent-international-building-hangzhou-china/.
LaMagdeleine, Izz Scott. “Is TikTok Banned in China?” Snopes, 23 Mar. 2023, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/is-tiktok-banned-in-china/.
Mikkelson, David. “Is the Great Wall of China Visible from the Moon?” Snopes, 12 Nov. 2001, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/great-wall-from-moon/.
This Colossal Apartment Building Is Home to Around 20,000 People. 14 June 2023, https://www.odditycentral.com/architecture/this-colossal-apartment-building-is-home-to-around-20000-people.html.
“This Is What inside Looks like of ‘dystopian’ Apartment Complex Home to 20,000 Residents That Never Need to Go Outside.” UNILAD Tech, 2 May 2024, https://www.uniladtech.com/news/dystopian-apartment-complex-regent-international-743795-20240502.
“Types of People Who Live inside ‘dystopian’ Apartment Block with 20,000 Residents Who Never Need to Go Outside.” UNILAD, 6 Feb. 2024, https://www.unilad.com/news/world-news/china-the-regent-international-apartments-residents-542822-20240206.
Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
拉满横幅的丽晶国际,藏着什么秘密? https://cq.news.fang.com/open/40179433.html. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
“新世界丽晶国际中心.” 维基百科，自由的百科全书, 31 Aug. 2024. Wikipedia, https://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E6%96%B0%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E4%B8%BD%E6%99%B6%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E4%B8%AD%E5%BF%83&oldid=84040470.
潮声丨丽晶国际，杭州网红大楼，城市里的秘境-杭州新闻中心-杭州网. https://hznews.hangzhou.com.cn/chengshi/content/2023-02/21/content_8475262_0.htm. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
百度地图. https://map.baidu.com/poi/REGENT%20INTERNATIONAL%20CENTER/@13386471.99,3513489.9799999995,17.85z,50t?uid=11f09063d2b964fb8c1a890f&ugc_type=3&ugc_ver=1&device_ratio=2&compat=1&pcevaname=pc4.1&querytype=detailConInfo&da_src=shareurl. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VrskBLRvj1EMTEzCA. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
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