This picture taken on May 20, 2025 shows Chen Tianming standing in front of his house labelled China's strangest -- nail house -- households that refuse to move in the face of development plans -- in Xingyi, in southwest Guizhou province. Chen, 42, has spent seven years and over 100,000 yuan ($13,900) defying authorities' demolition notices to turn his family's humble stone bungalow on the outskirts of Xingyi city into a bewildering 10-storey pyramid-shaped home that has drawn comparisons on Chinese social media to the fantastical creations of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. -- Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP
XINGYI, China (AFP): Surrounded by the rubble of demolished homes, Chen Tianming's ramshackle tower of faded plyboards and contorted beams juts into the sky in southwestern China, a teetering monument to one man's stubbornness.
Authorities razed most of Chen's village in Guizhou province in 2018 to build a lucrative tourist resort in a region known for its spectacular rice paddies and otherworldly mountain landscapes.
