About a five-minute-walk from the "ablest nail house" near the intersection of Shuguang West Road and Taiyanggong South Street in Chaoyang district, a few old courtyards stand in the middle of two construction sites, like a little wedge squeezed into a vast forest of high-rise buildings.

Zhang Fu (left) sits in front of his house on Thursday. His family has refused to move out, saying compensation offered by the developer is too low. Wang Jing / China Daily

These courtyards, which are on the side of Taiyanggong South Street, have been dubbed by netizens as "abler than the ablest nail house". They belong to Zhang Fu's family, who, like the Zhang Changfu and Zhang Changyou's families, were residents of the now nonexistent Shangjialou village.

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"We know the Zhang brothers (of the 'ablest nail house') well," said Yu Wenrong, Zhang Fu's wife. Although she is in her 70s, she is vigorous, talkative and eloquent. Each time she was asked a question, the mother of three daughters and two sons, gave a 10-minute answer, accentuating her words with lively body language.

Yu told METRO that the village was demolished in 2002 and 2003. Because they and the demolition office did not agree on the terms of compensation, however, her family did not move.

"Our land is more than 1,100 sq m. But they assessed it to be 316 sq m and were only willing to pay 1.68 million yuan as compensation," she said. Her family thought the compensation was too low and refused to relocate.

A few years later, shining high apartment and office buildings began to rise around the courtyards.

The life of Zhang's family has been greatly affected by the change, they say.

Noise from construction sites intrude on the quietness of the courtyards.

The walls of many rooms are cracked. Unknown people cut their power line last November, forcing them to find a new power source. Subway Line 10 runs right under their houses.

"Every morning at 5:30 am sharp, the shake of the first subway train interrupts our sleep," said Zhang Yanzhuang, Yu's younger son.

Yu said, due to the poor conditions of the houses, they wanted to relocate too, but they want reasonable compensation.

Zhang told METRO that officials in charge of demolition have contacted them several times in recent years. The latest time was around the Chinese Lunar New Year in February.

But they insisted on the compensation standard set in 2002, so no progress has been made, said Zhang.

Despite repeated calls to the urban planning division of the Taiyanggong township government, but the director of the division was unavailable for comment.

Zhang's courtyards are made up of around 50 rooms.

His family rents out more than 30 rooms, which brings in over 10,000 yuan per month.

The 17 members of the family live in the rest of the rooms.

The Zhang family wants compensation in line with market prices, if the courtyard houses are to be demolished.

"The cost of housing in a residential community around here is around 40,000 yuan per sq m," said Zhang.

Real estate agents said the average apartment price in the area is around 30,000 yuan per sq m.

Yu said that the local government should also compensate for property management, heating and car parking for 70 years.

"Altogether, we are asking for 60 million yuan (in compensation)," she said.

China Daily