The three-story house was demolished. [Cao Lei/For China Daily]

"I didn't take pride in being the one to live in the middle of the road," he said. "There have been three traffic accidents because drivers who were not familiar with the road were not able to make a sudden turn to avoid the building."

Xu said the family didn't want to inconvenience the public but remained in the house since 2003 because they didn't agree with the amount of compensation they were offered.

"In the 1950s when the houses were built, my father-in-law held two certificates to show that the family owned two pieces of land for farmers to build residences on. But the relocation authority said one of them had expired," Xu said.

In the end, family members thought they would not be able to get as much compensation as they had wished, so they agreed to be relocated on Aug 21.

Lu Hui, head of the relocation office of the Jiuliting subdistrict, said representatives talked to the family face to face and by phone dozens of times to try to persuade them to consider the safety and convenience of passing vehicles and pedestrians.

The family was awarded four apartments with a total area of around 400 square meters as compensation. The location of the apartments was not revealed.