中國蛋糕大亨造夢幻城堡大綱
As the greatest urbanisation drive in history swells China's cities with ranks of identikit apartment blocks, one culinary businessman is indulging his architectural appetite with a visual feast of extravagant, outlandish castles.
"I don't have any hobbies, except for planting trees and building castles," said Liu Chonghua, standing on a crenellated turret atop the largest of the six he has constructed.
Liu, who made millions from feeding China's growing appetite for cakes and bread, now plans to make his home in the grey stone structure, which resembles Britain's Windsor Castle and towers above the surrounding rice fields.
His others include a red-brick fairy-tale edifice stacked with soaring spires, which seems to have emerged from Disney's version of Aladdin, and a white confection with candy-coloured towers reminiscent of Neuschwanstein, the hilltop fantasy built by Bavaria's 19th century 'Mad' King Ludwig II.
"When I was a child I heard stories about princes and castles," said Liu, 59, adding that he grew up "with an empty stomach every day" in China's countryside and was sent to dig ditches during the political upheavals of the 1960s.
After making his fortune, he said, "I wanted to turn the castles of my dreams into something real."
Liu is one of several Chinese millionaires channelling their wealth into eccentric projects, but his designs have led to death threats and put him on a collision course with local officials in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing.
His designs were stimulated by buildings in Munich and the chateaux of France's Loire Valley, he said, citing maverick Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia cathedral, as an inspiration.
One of his construction workers, former soldier Ma Wenneng, tinkered with a fountain on a balcony and dismissed the challenges of recreating foreign designs on Chinese soil.
"Actually, European castles are really easy to build," he said. "The boss has a book of castle pictures in his office and we use that as a reference."
China's building boom is unprecedented in human history, with the country's urban population growing by an average of over 20 million people a year for more than a decade -- resulting in hectares of utilitarian, cookie-cutter developments.
Urbanisation has raised living standards for millions, but Liu says he is taking a stand against miles of identical apartments.
"China needs castles, because it needs a more pluralistic culture," he said. "A city needs people who have dreams, to help society develop."
Liu is not the only person chafing at China's homogenous urban then vice minister of construction Qiu Baoxing complained in 2007 of "a thousand cities having the same appearance".
Tom Miller, an expert on China's urbanisation, said: "If you were parachuted in blind to almost any Chinese city, and you were looking around, you would have the same uniform buildings.
"When you are building at that kind of enormous speed, you don't worry about aesthetic niceties," he added.
But daring new projects from Chinese developers, often employing star international architects, and state-led efforts to renovate historical districts suggest a gradual shift in attitudes.
"People are realising that it's not good for everything to look identical, and are realising tourists will pay to see something different," Miller said.
Liu says he spent more than 100 million yuan ($16 million), some borrowed from friends, on the buildings, which are free to visit.
"I think the castles are very romantic," said a woman surnamed Gao, posing for pictures in a white wedding dress outside a castle beside the headquarters of Liu's firm, which manufactures pastries, biscuits and a product described as a "dreamlike cake."
Some local officials feel differently, and two years ago they brought a section of Liu's dream crashing down, sending diggers to knock over a 16 metre high castle gate. "That was my lowest moment," he said.
"The government has never appreciated me, they said I've offended local officials," he complained, adding: "I got anonymous calls from someone threatening to run me over with a car."
Other newly-minted Chinese magnates have also engaged in bizarre construction projects -- one businessman has built imitations of both the Great Pyramid of Giza and the palace of Versailles on his corporate campus -- but Liu has ambitions for more.
"I have achieved half of my dream," he said. "The next part is building better and more awesome castles, the kind that will astound people."
Staring wistfully into the distance, he pointed towards a forested mound. "I will build another, bigger castle on top of that hill," he said.在中國的發展史中，私人豪華住宅區是城市化發展的一大推動力。如今，有一位烹飪商人正沉迷於一場由奢侈的、異國風情的城堡構成的視覺盛宴。
“除了種樹和修建城堡之外，我沒有其他業餘愛好。”劉崇華站在他修造的六座城堡中最大一座頂端的鋸齒形炮臺上，這樣說道。
劉崇華曾經靠製作迎合國人口味的蛋糕和麪包躋身百萬富翁之列，而如今他打算在灰色石結構建築中安居，這座建築凌駕於周圍的稻田之上，看起來就像是英國式的溫莎城堡。
他建造的另外一些城堡還包括：一座迪士尼版本的“阿拉丁古堡”，它有着童話般紅色的牆磚、高聳的塔尖；一座有着繽紛糖果色的塔樓的“蛋糕城堡”，它使人們聯想到了19世紀巴伐利亞的“瘋子國王”路德維希二世建造的奇幻建築——天鵝堡。
“我小時候常常聽有關王子和城堡的故事。”59歲的劉崇華說道，他在中國農村“每天餓着肚子”長大，而且在六十年代政局動盪之時會被送去挖溝渠。
他說在他發家致富後，“想要把夢裏的城堡變成現實”。
劉崇華是中國爲數不多的幾個將財富用於獨特愛好上的富翁。但他的設想曾爲他招來了他人的恐嚇，並且使他與重慶西南幾個大城市的當地官員發生了衝突。
他說，他的設計受慕尼黑建築和法國盧瓦爾河谷城堡的影響，同時也引用了巴塞羅那聖家族大教堂的設計者——善於創新的西班牙建築師安東尼·高迪的理念作爲設計靈感。
馬文能是劉崇華的建築工人之一，他是一名退伍軍人。他在城堡的陽臺上修補噴泉，並否認“用中國的泥土重塑外國建築非常困難”。
“事實上，建造歐式城堡很容易。”他說，“老闆有一本有城堡圖片的插畫書，我們以此作爲參考。”
如今中國的建築熱潮在人類歷史上前所未有。近十幾年來，城市人口以平均每年超過兩千萬的速度飛速上漲，由此導致了功利主義爲導向和千篇一律的發展。
城市化改善了數百萬人的生活水平，但劉崇華卻難以忍受那些完全相同的住宅樓。
“中國需要城堡，因爲它需要更多元化的文化。”他說，“一座城市需要有夢的人來推動其發展。”
並不是只有劉崇華不滿千篇一律的城市環境。前建設部副部長仇保興在2007年也抱怨道“一千座城市擁有相同的面貌。”
湯姆·米勒是一位研究中國城市化的專家，他曾說：“你從中國任何一所城市的上空跳傘然後環顧四周，你會發現城市建築就像制服般整齊劃一。”
“當人們以如此高速建造房屋時，他們從來不考慮美學問題。”他補充道。
然而如今也出現了一些新的工程項目，中國房地產開發商聘請知名的國際建築師，並在政府的幫助下翻新一些古舊街區，這意味着人們的態度開始漸漸轉變。
“人們開始意識到，所有建築同形同狀並不是一件好事，也發現了遊客們會爲新奇不同的東西掏腰包。”米勒說道。
劉崇華說，算上自己支出的和從朋友處借的，他已經在這些建築上花了超過1億人民幣（約1600萬美元）。
劉崇華的公司主要生產糕點、餅乾和“夢蛋糕”。而現在，高女士穿着白色婚紗，站在劉崇華公司總部旁的城堡前拍攝婚照。“我覺得這些城堡非常富有浪漫氣息。”她說道。
一些當地的政府官員並不這麼認爲。兩年前，他們破壞了劉崇華的部分夢想。他們派挖掘機毀掉了一扇16米高的城堡大門。“那是我人生的最低谷。”劉崇華這樣說。
“政府從來都不理解我，他們說我是在與當地官員作對。”他抱怨道，並補充說：“我甚至接到了一則揚言要開車撞我的匿名電話。”
其他一些中國新貴也紛紛參與到獨特的建築項目中來。一位商人在他的公司園區內，模仿胡夫金字塔和凡爾賽宮建造了兩棟建築。但劉崇華的抱負不止於此。
“我已經實現了大部分夢想。”他說，“下一步就是建造出更好的、更了不起的城堡，讓人們爲之震撼。”
他滿懷希望地凝望遠方，指着一座樹木叢生的山丘說道：“我打算在那裏的山頂建造一座更大更壯觀的城堡。”
