Chinese man defies demolition orders to build madcap rural home

Surrounded by the rubble of demolished homes, Mr Chen Tianming's ramshackle tower of faded plyboards and contorted beams juts into the sky in south-western China, a teetering monument to one man's stubbornness.

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Six months later, like many ill-considered development projects in highly indebted Guizhou, the resort was cancelled.

Virtually alone among the ruined village, Mr Chen was now master of a "nail house" — a Chinese term for those whose owners dig in and refuse to relocate despite official compensation offers.

A quirk of China's rampant development and partial private property laws, nail houses sometimes make headlines for delaying money-spinning construction projects or forcing developers to divert roads or build around shabby older homes.