Unreal Estates of China, as an extension of our research into lean planning, proposes an alternative reading of contemporary China. This specific project originated a few years ago in the Pearl River Delta region, and followed the path of a small travelling particle named Pixel. This fictional character becomes the medium through which spaces/places are explored. When Pixel comes in contact with real spaces, it can morph and take on any possible visual angle, form or role, and finally roughly delineate the contours of a new topography. In the port, inside the factory walls, underneath the highway, through the newly urbanised farmland, Pixel reflects the dramatic change of China’s reality. Therefore, the set of strategies collected in Unreal Estates of China, shifting through video, animation books, texts, drawings and architectural thought, is more a series of quirky, insightful and minimal documentaries than something revelatory.