China's financially beleaguered property developer Country Garden promised "five-star living" to the masses in less popular, smaller cities but focusing on those areas has come back to haunt it. China's largest developer by sales value before this year, Country Garden's debt crisis has raised fears that its contagion will spread through the already sputtering economy, the world's second-largest. In 2022, Country Garden made 62% of its sales in smaller, less well-known areas that include so-called tier-three and tier-four cities such as the northern city of Dezhou and Maoming in the south.