Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

 "Our building is like a sick person who cannot stand up straight and has to lean on a neighbor for support."

Some residents in the Xinyuan West Community in Pudong New Area woke up Saturday morning to find their building was leaning to the point its roof was touching a neighboring building. A resident surnamed Qin said that cracks began to appear in the walls of her apartment shortly after she finished decorating it early last year. The work crew whom she hired to do the decorating told her that the shoddy quality of the building's construction was the source of the problem. However, Chen Tong, head of Xinyuan Real Estate, which built the compound, insisted that land subsidence was to blame and the building was safe to live in. The compound was built in 2012 for residents who had to be relocated to make room for the Shanghai Disney Resort. Specialists from housing accreditation institutions have inspected the building and will issue their reports soon.