Man Must Tear Down Beijing's Wildest Illegal Structure

Most people would be content to occupy the penthouse apartment atop a 26-story building in Beijing. Not, apparently, a man identified as Zhang Biqing. The South China Morning Post reports that the "eccentric resident"—a "medicine mogul" who owns a chain of acupuncture clinics—has spent the last six years constructing an illegal structure above his top-floor apartment, and it's a bizarre one. The Post describes it as equal to the height of a two-story structure and the width and depth of the entire building (and then some), an 8,600-square-foot mansion complete with rooms, trees, grass, and bushes. Now, he's been given 15 days to take it all down.

This after photos of the "villa" were splashed across Chinese media yesterday, emblazoned with the headline, "Beijing's most outrageous illegal structure." (Zhang, for his part, calls it "just an ornamental garden," reports the AP.) Residents for years have complained—about construction noise, leaks, and potential structural damage to the building as a whole. The story gets weirder from there, at least according to local papers, which say Zhang has beat up a 77-year-old man "several times" after he complained about it. (More Beijing stories.)