Sawt Falasteen - Chinese authorities demolish villager's madcap 10-storey home

Chen Tianming spent almost eight years and 200,000 yuan ($29,402) turning his family's humble stone bungalow into a towering pyramid-shaped warren of rickety staircases, balconies and other add-ons.

The structure drew comparisons from media and tourists to the fantastical creations of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.

But local authorities took just hours to bring down all but the first floor on Wednesday, said 43-year-old Chen.

Officials have claimed for some time that the building lacked permits and was potentially dangerous.

"I don't feel regret, because regret is useless," Chen told AFP.

"I also don't blame myself for failing to protect it -- it's just that the force driving its destruction was simply too powerful."

When AFP visited last summer, the structure of faded plywood and contorted wooden beams was unmissable, soaring high above the surrounding farmland.

Videos filmed after the demolition by Chen and sent to AFP showed the structure was now mostly gone, with piles of building materials remaining around it.

Early Wednesday, around a dozen people from the local law enforcement and public security bureaus arrived at Chen's home, he said, before they escorted him and his parents away and confiscated his phone.

Chen said he saw dozens more people around his house as he was taken to a local government office, where he was kept until late in the evening.

- Legal battle -

Authorities razed most of Chen's home village of Xingyi, in Guizhou province, in 2018.

Their goal was to build a lucrative tourist resort in a region known for its spectacular rice paddies and otherworldly mountain landscapes.

Chen refused to leave, and after the tourism project faltered, he continued to build his family's bungalow higher and higher.

But even as he forged ahead, completing the fifth floor in 2019, the sixth in 2022 and the seventh in 2023, he constantly battled threats of demolition.

In August 2024, his home was labelled an illegal construction, and he was ordered to destroy everything except the original bungalow within five days.

He appealed that designation, which he claimed was "illegal", and has repeatedly petitioned the local government and courts.

On May 18, Chen received a final notice from the Xingyi City Bureau of Coordinated Administrative Law Enforcement, which told him to leave the "illegal construction" by 9 am on Wednesday ahead of the demolition.

Blocking the bureau's work would bring legal repercussions, the notice warned.

"I still want to defend my rights," Chen said a day after his unique construction was torn down.

"But my house has been identified as an illegal construction, and it's very difficult to overturn."

Chen is seeking legal help to have the forced demolition designated illegal.

"Then I will have a chance to restore it," he said.

N.Awad--SF-PST