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Chinese farmer’s forest of cameras fails to bear fruit in compensation bid
Man in Hubei province raised eyebrows after covering a hillside with surveillance cameras in the hope of increasing a land purchase payout
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Zhang Tongin BeijingPublished: 6:30am, 29 Jun 2026
A Chinese farmer has generated a buzz online by planting a forest of more than 170 surveillance cameras on his land in the hope of boosting his compensation under a land purchase scheme.
Footage circulating on social media – which showed the poles standing almost shoulder to shoulder on a hillside in Badong county, Hubei province – prompted rampant speculation about what could possibly warrant such heavy security for an ordinary orchard.
On Friday, the local village committee explained the man was trying to increase his payout under a compulsory purchase scheme to build a new highway.
Under Chinese land acquisition policies, residents can claim compensation for all assets on the site – for example fruit trees, sheds, fences or security cameras.
But because such projects often take a long time to come to fruition, residents often add structures or plant trees in the hope of inflating their compensation.
In this case, the local authorities said the farmer had installed the cameras in his orchard 12 months after construction in the area had been banned and insisted he would not be paid for all the cameras.
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