For the record, this isn't in China. It's a project in Malaysia near Singapore that is targeted at rich people. It's basically a "sustainable" gated community.

And by "sustainable" I mean that they destroyed wetlands to build it.

It was a project by a Chinese housing developer and was an extension of the real estate bubble over there. A lot of buyers were Chinese, however, according to Wikipedia:

initial strong sales from China collapsed after its leader Xi Jinping implemented currency controls, including a $50,000 annual cap on how much buyers could spend outside the country.

The developer responsible is one of the big shots that suffered when the housing bubble was forced to pop. I have no qualms riffing on this particular project.