Beijing rooftop villa fully dismantled

The way they were. Beijing rooftop villa now is fully dismantled. [China.org.cn]

The owner of a spectacular but illegal rooftop villa in Beijing has been forced to completely remove the structure after a year of hard work and tribulations, which cost him US$1 million.

As China.org.cn reported in August 2013, a villa privately built on the rooftop of a residential building in downtown Beijing prompted complaints from neighbors living below. Pictures of the jaw-dropping villa were posted online and went viral, as many questioned the owner's identity and criticized his self-interested abuse of power expended on the extra construction.

Subsequently, the urban management department asked the owner, Zhang Biqing, to dismantle the villa within 15 days. However, it actually took Zhang a year to finish the huge task. Zhang said he didn't want to leave anything on the rooftop of the 26-storey building, and the slow progress was due to the many difficulties and challenges that arose in the process.

"We only have one elevator in the building to take away all the garbage step by step," Zhang said. 20-30 workers were working here every day. More than a hundred oxygen tanks were also used to cut steel beams. It was reported that there were restaurants, a gym, a TV room, a karaoke room, a sunroom, a swimming pool, wine racks, a medicine room, guest rooms and more hiding in the artificial rockery-style villa. While Internet users called it "the most awesome illegal building ever," Zhang's friends named it "Mountain of Flowers and Fruits," after the home of the Monkey King in the Chinese ancient classic "Journey to the West." But today, everything is gone, as Zhang showed the reporters whom he invited to examine the scene.

Zhang revealed that the villa cost him 3 million yuan to build and 3 million yuan to remove. "It's a total of 6 million yuan [nearly US$1 million]," he said, bitterly; "This amount of money can buy a real villa."

Zhang said the current job has turned to reinforcing, maintaining and repairing the damage done to the building while doing the dismantling work. After all this is done, Zhang will have urban management officials examine the results.

Angry neighbors have long complained that the construction has caused gas and water leaks that affected several apartments on lower floors. They are also concerned about safety hazards brought on by the construction.

Zhang Biqing, a former political adviser for Beijing's Pinggu District and head of a nationwide chain of acupuncture clinics, said he had spent 7 years building up the sky villa. Zhang said his initial idea was to build a rooftop green zone like the government encouraged, but he just could not stop, so he built it into a spectacle.

"I just wanted to build a typical example, build something like a piece of art," Zhang said, "I even taught myself garden building and planning, and went outside of Beijing to study garden design, and sought advice from landscape design experts. So the villa is something like my own child. When the government ordered me to demolish it, I was heartbroken."

Zhang suffered from heart attacks and fell ill when the dismantling work began, "I saw some pictures the workers sent me, and I fainted immediately," he said. He did not stay in Beijing when the work was underway, but instead went to Yunnan Province for a rest.

The 61-year-old former medical practitioner said he became a negative example in society, but many media outlets invited him to do TV programs. He turned them down all.

"During the past year, more hair turned white on my head," he said. "Yes, my villa is gone and I confess it's illegal. I regret it, I really do. The whole nation laid blame on me. I never want to go through something like this again in the rest of my life. If I can go on living for 20 more years, I would do something charitable, and help old men maintain their health. "