00:00At some point, you've dreamed of designing your perfect home.
00:03Most likely, your vision included some surprises,
00:06like a zany, one-of-a-kind contraption that would make your house the talk of the town.
00:10One man in China had the same desire, but he might have gone a bit too far.
00:15A Beijing doctor named Zhang Beqing was determined to build the home of his dreams.
00:20While China may be known for its unique architectural structures,
00:24Zhang's completed vision managed to stand out more than usual
00:27and anger his neighbors for a pretty obvious reason.
00:30The self-proclaimed doctor named Zhang Beqing of Beijing, China
00:34had amassed a fortune thanks to his chain of traditional Chinese medicine clinics
00:38and in-home acupuncture sessions.
00:41Naturally, he set aside the equivalent of $4 million towards his dream home.
00:45Zhang bought the very top floor of a rather plain skyscraper,
00:49the 26th floor to be exact.
00:51At first, there was nothing spectacular about it.
00:54It was just a small attic when he bought it,
00:56one resident said,
00:58but Zhang had big plans for the space.
01:00Over a period of six years,
01:02Zhang's team of builders worked, largely at night,
01:05to renovate the penthouse apartment.
01:07Piece by piece, they carried materials,
01:09including rocks, trees, and bushes, to the top floor.
01:12They seemed to be building something unusual.
01:15See, Zhang's dream home wasn't going to be some swanky penthouse
01:19with gold floors and crystal-rimmed bathtubs.
01:21Rather, he was determined to fashion a mountain villa for himself
01:25that would be nestled into the rooftop of the Chinese skyscraper.
01:29But while it might have looked like a retreat of solitude for an early millennia monk,
01:34Zhang's villa was a bit more rambunctious.
01:36There, he partied hard,
01:38and perhaps no room in his retreat saw more attention than the karaoke parlor,
01:42which caused some problems.
01:44Residents of the building lived in a state of constant agony.
01:48They've been renovating for years,
01:50one resident who just wanted peace and quiet said.
01:53They normally do it at night.
01:54Was very arrogant.
01:55He couldn't care less about my complaints.
01:58Other building residents,
01:59haunted by the volume of Zhang's late-night construction and karaoke parties,
02:03cut their losses and moved away.
02:05Another man confronted Zhang in person
02:07and ended up getting physically assaulted for his troubles.
02:11When confronted by the property management,
02:13Zhang said,
02:14I'm not afraid of the complaints.
02:16You can't stop famous people from singing when they come here.
02:19But karaoke wasn't the only hardship his villa inflicted on the residents.
02:24The 8,000 square foot rooftop villa
02:26that was built into the side of an artificial mountain
02:29wasn't exactly a lightweight dwelling.
02:31Because of this,
02:32the steel beams and heavy stones Zhang used
02:35put some serious stress on the rest of the building.
02:38Thanks to the added weight,
02:39many walls in the building cracked and water pipes burst.
02:42Residents, understandably,
02:44feared the skyscraper was one more late-night karaoke party
02:47away from totally collapsing.
02:49Could anyone thwart Zhang and his obscene structure?
02:52Apparently, yes.
02:54Shortly after the construction of his mountain villa was finished,
02:57Zhang encountered another problem.
02:59It wasn't legal.
03:00Indeed, in building his dream home,
03:02the medicine magnate never bothered to secure the proper permits.
03:06Soon enough,
03:07building code enforcement officials paid a visit to Zhang,
03:10but he didn't answer the door for them.
03:11That complicated the inspector's job in a hopelessly bureaucratic way.
03:16If we can't calculate the scope of this illegal construction,
03:19the deputy head of the Purple Bamboo Park Urban Management District said,
03:23we can't issue a notice requiring him to dismantle it.
03:26Had Zhang managed to squeeze his way out of his troublesome situation?
03:30Sick of Zhang constantly ducking and avoiding them,
03:33the building code enforcers slapped a notice on his door.
03:36It explained to the doctor that he had 15 days to prove his structure was safe,
03:40or else he'd be forced to tear it down.
03:43Meanwhile,
03:44the media and local residents applied pressure to convince Zhang to tear it down.
03:48Locals hung a red banner outside the building that roughly read,
03:51we resolutely support the large media outlets
03:54in revealing this residential compound's illegal structures.
03:58Amazingly,
03:58Zhang defended his villa,
04:00which he refused to call his home.
04:02Rather,
04:02he referred to it as an ornamental garden,
04:05likely to net more lax legal constraints.
04:08The structure,
04:09he argued,
04:09had no permanent concrete attachments,
04:11and therefore,
04:12it was safe.
04:13Eventually,
04:14Zhang,
04:15perhaps persuaded by unbearable public and media pressure at his door,
04:18offered a little concession to detractors.
04:21Now I realize it was a huge mistake,
04:24he told CCTV.
04:25Would his mountain villa,
04:27er,
04:27ornamental garden,
04:28survive?
04:29In the end,
04:30authorities demanded that Zhang remove his villa from the top of the Beijing skyscraper.
04:35He was given just 25 days to begin tearing down his rooftop home,
04:39and mercifully,
04:39he complied.
04:41Still,
04:41for as much trouble as his home caused,
04:43some residents of the community were sorry to see it go.
04:47As one supporter put it,
04:48it really is a marvelous villa,
04:50atmospheric and luxurious.
04:52It was a shame that Zhang's dream home caused such a stir.
04:55His mountain villa truly was a work of art in an otherwise concrete jungle.
05:00If he had just acquired the proper permits,
05:02and exercised a little civility with his neighbors,
05:05perhaps it would have worked out.
05:07Despite how unique this rooftop villa was,
05:10the residents of the building were lucky that Zhang never got the required permits.
05:14Who knows what kind of problems the penthouse would have caused if it stayed.
05:18Who knows what kind oforders would have caused.
05:18He had to go for it.
05:18So,
05:18and he has to do that.
