Exploring Empty Skyscrapers at Night

You can often see Lujiazui in Shanghai

from an aerial perspective.

At night, this skyscraper's incredible

interior lighting is really just as you imagine.

Even at eight or nine at night, so many people are still crammed

into these brightly lit skyscrapers, working,

having fun, and spending money,

creating a thriving scene.

Today, I'll take everyone on a random nighttime tour

of a brightly lit skyscraper

in Lujiazui

to see what it really looks like inside.

It's nighttime now, and I deliberately came

here after dark.

Look at this building, almost

every floor is lit up,

so I wanted to go take a look

and see whether this interior lighting is fake,

staged for appearances, or whether there really are lots of

people working inside. Right next door are the Oriental Pearl

and Lujiazui's three iconic towers.

This is a very, very prime location, right?

Come on, let's go take a look.

Oh man, this elevator,

really leaves a lot to be desired.

The doors opened, and it's completely empty inside,

and everything upstairs has been stripped bare.

This is the fifth floor, and even though everything upstairs

has been stripped bare, they still keep two lights on out front.

How did the fifth floor end up like this?

Aren't they planning to lease it out?

They've made the fifth floor look like this.

We're on the tenth floor now,

and this whole building is actually empty.

Look inside, all the lights are, are on.

They keep the lights on even in vacant units.

Look ahead.

All the lights are on.

Today, I just wanted to see how this building,

with such a high vacancy rate, could still have

such convincing interior lighting.

There's a company here,

but they're definitely off work.

But look, even after work, the lights are still on,

and that electricity bill must be huge, really huge.

This is the eleventh floor,

and the entire eleventh floor is empty.

But look, the lights are still on, making it seem like

the place is brightly lit at night,

bustling beyond belief. Look,

this is how skyscrapers fake it.

The lights look dazzling, right?

The interior lighting looks so convincing. But really,

they only turned on a few lights, that's all.

Oh my God.

There's nothing inside.

Seriously, at night,

homeless people could just come here

and sleep, having an entire floor

all to themselves. It'd feel fucking amazing.

Look across there, that's also a huge

vacant unit.

Yep, same thing, and the lights are still on.

You can even look out over the entire

Huangpu River from this building. At night, you could come

here to enjoy the night view or something.

Up ahead is Citi,

and look, its lights are also on all night.

Seeing the interior lighting, you'd think that

it was eight p.m. inside.

How many people are still working inside?

From outside, you have a great view

of the entire Bund waterfront.

Over there is that

cluster of international buildings.

We also went to see this cluster

of international buildings last time.

Actually, many of them are still unfinished

and haven't been rented out.

Let’s expose it again for everyone.

So don't assume that Shanghai,

the financial center, has skyscrapers

that really contain some kind of

prosperity that holds up to scrutiny.

It’s just superficial. And the lights that are on

are only the outermost ones,

the few lights right by the windows.

That way, you can very clearly see

that the inside of this building looks very,

very beautiful. The lights inside are off,

so you can't see

how vacant it is inside.

- A professional faker. You fucking really

- are a genius. This is the 17th floor,

and it's the same. Look, inside,

the lights are on too,

so it looks bright inside.

This is another big room, and it's empty.