People Are Very Confused By This Chinese Apartment Building With Fake Windows

Do you notice anything strange about this building in Qingdao, Shandong province? The building, recently completed, houses low-cost apartments created by the government.

Here's a clue. Look at the windows:

Yes, earlier this month, Chinese Internet users noticed that a number of the windows on the building were not actually windows - they had been painted on. What could be behind the decision to include fake windows on a government-funded building filled with low-cost apartments? Netizens wondered if the government had been cutting corners, or scammed by a building contractor.

Now, according to People's Daily, the government has come forward to explain - the painted windows are for purely aesthetic reasons. Apparently, the fake windows are on an area of the building that houses a staircase where it would have been impractical to have real windows, the government said.

Still, locals have to wonder if painting on the fake windows was really worth it. Qingdao's local government later posted a message to their Weibo account saying that they had asked the contractors to remove the fake windows, explaining that they had created an "adverse social effect."