A Chinese man has spent six years building his dream mountain top villa in Beijing on top of an apartment block.
What would astound Australians is that he?s been able to complete it without intervention from the authorities. This is not a simple rock garden, it?s nearly big enough to quarry and features rock faces and boulders.
{{image2-a:R-w:200}}The eccentric Professor Zhang Lin shifted tonnes of rubble and rock onto the roof of the building to construct his hideaway that looks like it has been carved from a mountainside.
The property has a rocky mountain garden with rubble and shrubbery but his distraught neighbours are less than impressed with the project and fear the building is going to collapse.
The rooftop home didn?t received planning approval and has caused cracks to appear in the neighbours’ ceilings and walls while some have had to put up with leaks from broken pipes and drains. They have also been forced to live with the noise and disturbance caused from the significant building work.
A ?menace? as a neighbour
?This was originally a small attic when he bought it. But he tore that down and built this mountain on top of us,? a neighbour said. ?He’s broken drains so we’re always being flooded when it rains and there are huge structural cracks in our ceiling and walls.?
?He is a menace as a neighbour and he didn’t get any permission to build this monstrosity,? another neighbour argued.
Professor Lin could be ordered to tear down his mountain penthouse if it is deemed unsafe. In the Australian context, it would be torn down forthwith, safe or not.
China is known for its crazy design and architecture. The Tianducheng development in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province is filled with grand European buildings, ornate fountains and statues line the streets. In 2007, a replica of the Eiffel Tower standing at 108 metres was also built.
Sources: Mail Online, Herald-Sun