The Malaysian ghost town, backed by China at a value of $100 billion, was alleged to house 700,000 people. After few people moved in, developers tried unsuccessfully to show it right into a tourist destination.
Currently, this large-scale project serves as a set for several reality shows and documentaries.
The desolate town, just outside Singapore’s western border, served because the setting for an episode of the second season of Netflix reality show The Mole, which premiered last week.
The competitive reality show follows 12 contestants as they complete challenges while certainly one of them secretly sabotages the opposite players. They race to extend the prize pool and discover the traitor of their midst.
The second season of the series, consisting of 10 episodes, was filmed entirely in Malaysia and includes Forest City, Kuala Lumpur and Tioman Island. Filming began in July 2023 and lasted six weeks, in line with local media.
Participants, from a wide range of skilled backgrounds, participate in treasure hunts, free dives and abseils from a 38-story constructing in Forest City.
In the season’s third episode, host and former NPR journalist Ari Shapiro introduced Forest City: “The perfect place for a luxury vacation home for many who can afford one. And they sit empty many of the 12 months.”
The city has also appeared in recent programmes.
South Korea’s KBS filmed an episode of the travel reality show “Battle Trip,” while Germany’s ProSieben TV filmed a brief documentary about Forest City. An Austrian documentary titled “Hungry: Tipping the Scales” was filmed there.
Announced in 2006, the luxurious housing development was to incorporate apartments, a water park, and hotels. The entire project cost developers $100 billion.
But eight years after construction began, only just a few thousand people live there. The project has develop into a ghost town—and a serious liability for its developer, China’s Country Garden, which is facing serious financial problems elsewhere.
Last 12 months, only about 15 percent of the planned properties were accomplished, and many of the finished apartments were probably never inhabited.
Netflix and Forest City didn’t reply to requests for comment.
