Better description: Chinese asshole destroys apartment building, fucks other tenants.
Check out the above video about this construction in Beijing’s Haidian district. When Zhang moved into his penthouse duplex in 2007, Room 2605, there was a deck upstairs, and after getting the proper permits, he began renovating it into something… bigger. In December 2008, local authorities notified him that he had to stop, because his project was causing water and gas leaks. Did Zhang listen? Did he stop to think about others? Did he use a bit of rational thinking?
Nope, he expanded it to 800 square meters, and added rocks, a swimming pool, and private lifts.
“I think he just has money and do whatever he wants to do,” apartment owner Lee Xiaoming told Al-Jazeera. “One day, more people feel uncomfortable about it, we will stay together and get him to clean it up. And that’s all we can do.”
All the relevant chai (demolish) notices have been posted. If Zhang doesn’t turn up soon, authorities will go in and tear it down themselves.
“A culture of impunity for the wealthy and well-connected,” Al-Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett says. That’s Zhang. That’s the worst of your entitled expat friends. That’s fu’erdai like the yayaya girl. Don’t root for this.
And Al-Jazeera video (includes photos of another building with a couple of houses built on top):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT0Ca8CGQvI
This is going to end in tears.
Seriously.
Badly constructed new building that toppled over, I believe. No one inside.Context of that photo?
He put in a swimming pool and put his own elevators up there, too.
http://beijingcream.com/2013/08/wealthy-quack-beijing-rooftop-villa-is-an-asshole/
And Al-Jazeera video (includes photos of another building with a couple of houses built on top):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT0Ca8CGQvI
Not exactly (although the construction quality was more than a bit suspect). They were excavating an underground parking near the building, but the architects/managers were a bunch of dumb fucks and when heavy rains came, much of the ground from below the tower was washed out. http://www.hoax-slayer.com/13-story-buliding-collapse-china.shtmlBadly constructed new building that toppled over, I believe. No one inside.
Looks like he's not actually a professor, and owns a national chain of acupuncture clinics:
http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insi...-builds-illegal-rooftop-villa-apartment-block
Yep. If he can't come to the mountain i guess the mountain comes to him.This is like a super villains hideout.
That professor is coming back to earth.
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.
My first thought :lol
That mini neighborhood is crazy too.
In 15 days, it will be gone one way or another.
Haidian district urban management official Dai Jun said on Tuesday (local time) that authorities would tear the two-storey 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.
Is there a difference?lol wait has he made his money off alternative medicine scams? The AlJazeeraEnglish video says he makes his money as a private "Chinese medicine practitioner".
Is there a difference?
Magically, he'll have "legitimate" documents.
lol wait has he made his money off alternative medicine scams? The AlJazeeraEnglish video says he makes his money as a private "Chinese medicine practitioner".
This would be a good reboot for that series.
Many people in China still prefer Chinese traditional medicines. I was just in a hospital that specialized in traditional Chinese medicines and it was packed with a fucktonne of people. My mother in law had apparently thrombosis and the treatment they gave was acupuncture.
...
One day after local management officials posted a notice on the door of his top-floor unit demanding he either provide proof that structure is legal or demolish it within 15 days, Zhang Biqing on Tuesday told state media that he would tear down the fake mountain landscape (in Chinese).
The villa came to the attention of local media over the weekend and immediately went viral on Chinese social media sites, where Mr. Zhang has been crowned with the title most powerful apartment owner. According to the buildings property management company and urban management officials, it took Mr. Zhang six years to transform what was originally a 340-square meter (3,700-square foot) penthouse into the current 800-square meter mountain fantasy lodge, with neighbors complaining the entire time.
The story is the most recent, and arguably the most bizarre, example both of the extravagant spending on real estate in country with few other investment avenues and of the power of the elite to live outside the rules.
The building on which Mr. Zhang built his mountain is part of Renji Shanzhuang, a high-end development where apartments can cost upwards of 80,000 yuan ($13,000) per square meter, according to residents and realtors. Despite paying dearly for the right to live in the building, residents told China Real Time, they were forced to contend with refuse in the hallways and drilling noise as a result of the construction on the roof. Sometimes, a building manger said, residents were kept awake late at night by the sound of karaoke drifting down from Mr. Zhangs villa, but their complaints went unanswered.
A recent visit to the building revealed construction material and fragments of fake rock piled up in the corridors above the 26th floor.
Zhang Hong, head of property management at Renji Shanzhuang, said she had tried to relay complaints to Mr. Zhang (no relation) but was only ever able to reach the housekeeper. We have done all we can do, she said, adding that she had never been inside the penthouse.
Mr. Zhang is the owner of Qijingtang, a company that claims to have invented a new form of acupuncture. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, he was also formerly a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference of an unnamed district in Beijing.
The CPPCC is a legislative advisory body largely made up of businessmen, cultural figures and others who are politically well-connected.
On Monday, social media users reacted with disdain to an interview Mr. Zhang apparently gave over the weekend to the Beijing Morning Post, a local newspaper, in which he struck a defiant tone and refused to discuss details of what he had built on the buildings roof (in Chinese). On the popular Sina Weibo microblogging service, some users dug up and circulated videos of him claiming to be able to cure various diseases through acupressure.
On Tuesday, the Communist Partys flagship newspaper posted a message to an official social media saying the State Administration of Industry and Commerce was investigating Mr. Zhangs company, though it did not say why (in Chinese).
Mr. Zhang could not be reached for comment.
Tear it down! It should all be torn down! Guo Zhengdian, a resident on the 23rd floor, said on Tuesday, claiming that he could hear the sound of electric drills in Mr. Zhangs place despite living three floors down.
While Mr. Guo and other residents said they feared the weight of the fake mountain had compromised the integrity of the building, Mr. Zhang told state broadcaster China Central Television that the artificial hills were built with very light material and posed no threat to the building (in Chinese). He also said that the materials served as insulation and they would benefit the residents.
State Administration of Industrial and Commerce officers are also investigating his company, according to official media.
It wasnt immediately clear how much Mr. Zhang had spent on the villa. Real estate advertisements listed a 371-square-meter penthouse with 1,080-square-meter patio in the same complex at around 30 million yuan.
I could almost admire the absurdity of it if he planned it properly and had permission from his neighbors. I mean WTF did he use concrete rather than wood/fiberglass?
I could almost admire the absurdity of it if he planned it properly and had permission from his neighbors. I mean WTF did he use concrete rather than wood/fiberglass?
Some journalists did some fly-bys with drone cameras:
http://beijingcream.com/2013/08/neat-aerial-view-of-beijings-high-rise-villa/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDZe6fgNlw
Yeah, those are all fake rocks.
Still an awesome villain hide-out though.
State broadcaster CCTV reported through Sina Weibo that demolition work began at 8am on Thursday (in Chinese). The property management company in charge of Renji Shanzhuang said it did not know whether the demolition was ongoing.
Sina has set up a live feed of the villa that showed no demolition occurring when China Real Time checked it at 3:30 p.m. It did, however, appear to show a drone flying overhead, so perhaps there will be more videos forthcoming from Flycam.
Somewhat related, the phenomenon of illegal rooftop structures in Hong Kong:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/01/world/asia/hongkong-rooftop-slums
I bet he likes liver...
I bet he likes liver...
I... hope to god he involved a structural engineer to make sure that the building doesn't completely cave out under the weight.
How the hell did the government let this happen?