Beijing man builds illegal rooftop villa on apartment block
Monday, 12 August, 2013, 9:48pm
Vicky Feng [email protected]
A rooftop villa is seen on top of a 26-storey residential building. Photo: Simon Song
When it comes to illegal structures, a rooftop villa built by an eccentric Beijing resident on top of a 26-storey residential building puts Henry Tang’s wine cellar to shame.
The house features elaborate fake rocks, real trees and grass, and covers the entire top of the building. Parts of the structure look as they could spill over the edge of the roof at any time.
The two-storey illegal construction is located in a high-end residential compound called Park View in Beijing’s Haidian district, an area of government institutions and universities.The house features elaborate fake rocks, real trees and grass. Photo: Simon Song
The bizarre structure has bothered the building’s residents for years. Neighbours say the owner, whom they know only as “Professor Zhang”, has spent six years building the rooftop house.
Disturbed by constant noise from heavy construction machinery working on the roof, occasional water leaks and worried about structural damage, neighbours have complained repeatedly to the building management company, local urban management officials and even the police.
When confronted by reporters from local newspaper Beijing Morning News, Zhang, whose full name was not known, said, “Since I dare to live here, I am not worried about complaints.
“Famous people come to my place and sing. How can you stop them?” the newspaper quoted him as saying about the noise at night.
The community’s property management office declined to comment and phone calls to the Haidian district urban management office went unanswered on Monday.
The “rooftop garden villa” might not be the only illegal construction in this community, Chinese netizens have found out.
A property agent posted photos of another apparently illegal rooftop house online in late 2011, featuring a blueprint of a three-storey structure with more than a dozen rooms and a bird’s eye view of a nearby lake.
The structure, which the agent also called a “rooftop garden villa”, had a total indoor area of more than 590 square metres and an asking price of 15 million yuan (HK$19 million).
When contacted by phone by the Post on Monday, Sun Jianchao, a Beijing real estate agent who posted the pictures, denied the structure in the pictures was the same one in the news this week, but declined to give more details.
Some Chinese netizens mocked the rooftop house. “Even the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are overshadowed by this hanging villa in Beijing,” said one Weibo user.
While others were angry at the owner with one internet user saying, “How can this guy be a professor? He gained his happiness by torturing others.”
Almost all add-on structures or alterations to residential buildings are illegal in China. However, this hasn’t stopped thousands of owners of top-floor or ground-floor properties from adding rooms, and even floors, to their homes, or encroaching into public space by putting up additional walls or fences.
The rooftop home built on top of the apartment block in Beijing Photo: CEN