But a drop in sales over the past six months has pushed it to the edge and in August, it threw up its hands. Country Garden skipped two small interest payments on bonds, something that has pushed it to the edge of default. If it fails to make those payments by early September, when a grace period for the interest payments ends, it will join a long list of private companies that have defaulted. “Such apartments have run out; we can’t get them,” said Han Tao, a manager at a landscaping company that is owed $1.4 million from property developers. For Mr. Han, apartments wouldn’t have been that useful anyway; no one is buying them right now.

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Persons: China Evergrande, ”, Han Tao, Han Organizations: Garden, behemoth Locations: China