‘It’s the most unique thing’: Beijing-based urban explorer Greg Abandoned on his 4-year quest to record dereliction and hidden sites in China
- ‘It was like a light switch,’ says Polish-born urban explorer of a visit to Chernobyl in Ukraine. Since then he’s moved to China and found abandoned sites there
- From rusting steam engines to an empty glass factory to a lot full of dumped cars, he has recorded four years of his urbex adventures in a book, Abandoned China
Urban explorer Greg Abandoned has spent the past four years in China searching for hidden, and often derelict, places.
Polish-born and now Beijing-based, he trawled through more than 100 cities in almost every part of the country, and documented his discoveries in his book Abandoned China, which was published in May.
Greg Abandoned is not his real name, of course. Since urbex, or urban exploration, often involves trespassing and flying drones illegally, he, like most urban explorers, pursues his passion under a pseudonym.
There is a note to the readers at the beginning of the book pointing out that it does not reveal the location of the abandoned places featured, but seeks to explain why they were abandoned.
“I understand that the locations are not ‘mine’, I don’t own them but regardless I do feel a degree of responsibility to protect them,” Greg writes.
