Beijing cracks down on bizarre apartment-top villa

[AsahinaKimi]

AP

BEIJING – A medicine mogul spent six years building his own private mountain peak and luxury villa atop a high-rise apartment block in China’s capital, earning the unofficial title of “most outrageous illegal structure.” Now, authorities are giving him 15 days to tear it down.

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 neighbors say they’ve complained for years that the unauthorized, 800-sq.-meter mansion and its attached landscaping was damaging the building’s structural integrity and pipe system, but that local authorities failed to crack down. They’ve also complained about loud, late-night parties.

“They’ve been renovating for years. They normally do it at night,” said a resident on the building’s 25th floor, who added that any attempts to reason with the owner were met with indifference. “He was very arrogant. He could care less about my complaints.”

more..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/14/asia-pacific/beijing-cracks-down-on-bizarre-apartment-top-villa/#.UgsNmaxELbp