Watch out for that first step; It's a dooozy.

This looks like a picture from a children's story book. When I was little we had a storybook about a steam engine that dug a hole for a new building but then found that it hadn't left itself a way to get out. Of course it was given a nice, cushy new life as the heating plant for the new building because children's tales should have happy endings. That's the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this photo.

This two story building belongs to a Chinese couple who don't think they were offered fair compensation for their property and refused to sell. The developers called their bluff and started excavating around them. They're now thirty feet above the floor of the pit. While the individualist American has to admire their pluck, I also think they're fools for not taking the amount they were offered.

"Wu was offered 20 million yuan ($2.6 million) in compensation or two higher floors in the planned new building -- both of which she turned down because she wanted lower levels in the building so she could run her restaurant." Link