This Is Probably The Closest You Will Ever Get To The Bizarre 'Mountain Villa' Built Illegally Atop A Beijing High Rise
YouTube ScreengrabIt's a strange and sort of beautiful sight, but the mountain villa built illegally atop a high-rise in Beijing may not be long for this world.
The Associated Press reported this week that Zhang Biqin, the Chinese medicine mogul who built the bizarre looking villa, has been given 15 days to tear down the structure sitting on a 26-story building.
The villa, apparently designed to look like it was carved out of the mountainside, had long drawn complaints from neighbors in the building, who feared the 10,000 square feet structure could collapse on them. The structure had apparently evaded the attention of authorities for six years, but once pictures appeared in the Chinese press this week they decided to get involved.
It's understandable that the villa has to go, but still, we'll be sad to see it go without ever actually seeing it. As such, we're thankful to FlyCam who made this aerial drone video of the structure, providing us a glimpse of the villa, and Beijing Cream, who ripped the video to YouTube.
We should also be very thankful to Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, who managed to get as close to anyone has got to filming the interior of the villa (which isn't that close, but still admirable):