Beijing cracks down on apartment-top ‘villa’
The craggy complex of rooms, rocks, trees, and bushes looming over the 26-story building looks like something built into a seaside cliff, and has become the latest symbol of disregard for the law among the rich as well as the rampant practice of building illegal additions.
Angry neighbours say they’ve complained for years that the unauthorised, 800sq m mansion and its attached landscaping was damaging the building’s structural integrity and its pipe system, but that local authorities failed to act. They’ve also complained about late-night parties.
“They’ve been renovating for years. They normally do it at night,” said a resident on the 25th floor, who said any attempts to reason with the owner were met with indifference. “He was very arrogant. He couldn’t care less about my complaints.”
Haidian district urban management official Dai Jun said yesterday that authorities would tear the two-story structure down in 15 days unless the owner does so himself or presents evidence it was legally built. Dai said his office has yet to receive such evidence.
The villa’s owner has been identified as the head of a traditional Chinese medicine business and former member of the district’s political advisory body who resides on the building’s 26th floor.
Zhang Biqing told the Beijing Times he would comply with the orders, but he belittled attempts to call the structure a villa, calling it “just an ornamental garden”.
Authorities took action only after photos of the villa were splashed across Chinese media on Monday.
The case has resonance among ordinary Chinese who regularly see the rich and politically connected receive special treatment.
Beijing launched a campaign earlier this year to demolish illegal structures, although the results remain unclear.
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