16 illegal buildings on State-owned land in NE China demolished

Sixteen illegal buildings with an area of 3,118 square meters in the Gardens of Cao built in a State-owned forest area in Mudanjiang, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province have been demolished, CCTV reported on Sunday.

Land encompassing 6,453 square meters has been restored and authorities have asked that demolition waste be carried away as soon as possible, an official told CCTV.

The demolition was approved by an investigative team headed by senior officials in the province.

Simultaneously, evaluation of the other 35 buildings on the site has already started.

Experts from a third-party testing agency have begun to re-check the design and benefit of a small reservoir built in the garden without approval.

The Gardens of Cao is named after the family of Cao Bo, president of the Heilongjiang Caoyuan Culture Investment Co.

After a preliminary investigation, the team determined that the company's activities, including logging, land occupation and construction, were illegal. The inspection came after a report by China National Radio on March 19 saying that illegal private gardens had been built on Zhangguangcai Mountain.

The investigative team on March 26 ordered the company to demolish all the illegal buildings and restore the forest.

According to investigators, the State-owned Junmachang Forest Farm, where the gardens were built, is classified as commercial forest and can be developed only with approval.

The company received approval for 2.77 hectares of land in 2006 and the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Culture approved construction of the Heilongjiang Caoyuan Museum in 2009.

However, 19.05 hectares were illegally used for construction of the garden between 2006 and 2018 without approval.

Further, the company illegally removed 1,416 cubic meters of timber during the period.

The Gardens of Cao included three gardens and a museum built in the style of Huizhou architecture.

Cao announced on the gardens' website that he planned to build a scenic spot and a place to preserve people's health.

Earlier, Cao was punished several times for illegal land use associated with the gardens - in 2009, 2015 and 2018 - with combined fines of 75,000 yuan ($11,000). But he refused to demolish the buildings, according to CCTV.