The villa is the work of Kengo Kuma, famous Japanese architect. Nearby are 11 works by talented young architects from China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the Republic of Korea. These exotic houses, called "Commune by the Great Wall," are in an unconventional, avant-garde style. They are located in Beijing's suburbs near the Great Wall in Yanqing County. On September 7, 2002, this housing complex won the Venice Biennial Special Prize, an award for promoting architecture's artistic aspects. Its initiator is Pan Shiyi, general manager of the Redstone Industries Company.

"I Like Building Houses"

Pan Shiyi looks shy and unassuming, but is actually an extremely unconventional and dynamic real estate developer. He is a legendary figure within China's real estate circles.

Pan Shiyi was born in a small village in Gansu Province, northwestern China whose harsh environment nurtured his spiritual purity and perseverance. After painstaking study, he was enrolled in a Beijing university. Upon graduation in 1984, he was assigned a job in the Pipeline Administration Bureau under the Ministry of Petroleum. This was a turning point in his life. "To me, a rural boy, being able to work in the capital was a dream come true," says Pan. But in 1987, he resigned from his office and started his own career.

He first went to Shenzhen to work for the Shenzhen Asia-Pacific Management & Consulting Co., and then to Hainan, where he founded the Hainan Agro Hi-tech Investment & Development Co., predecessor to the Vantone Company.

In the early 1990s, Pan Shiyi returned to Beijing to establish the Beijing Vantone Company. At age 28, Pan had no idea that his brilliant career was just beginning.

"I obtained a piece of land at Fuchengmen, beneath which is the subway. Here I began to build the Vantone New Century Plaza," Pan Shiyi recalls. "When I choose a project, I make decisions on the basis of the quality of the product, its convenience and comfort, and development trends. It's that simple." Pan says that as he is from the countryside, his mode of thinking proceeds from the most basic and simple standpoint, which has benefited him a great deal.

In the early 90s real estate in Beijing was totally a sellers' market. Pan Shiyi adopted Hong Kong marketing methods regarding sales of his offices, and immediately created a real estate sensation in Beijing. His offices sold at US $3,600 per square meter, tripling the market price of the time. Within a week, Pan and his partners had sold HK $500 million worth of real estate from this project.

Pan Shiyi talks about the splendor of the Vantone New Century Plaza with obvious pride and satisfaction. "Can you imagine what HK $500 million meant to a new, small company like Vantone?"

Through this project, Pan Shiyi became famous in Beijing's real estate circles, but it was just at this time that Pan Shiyi left Vantone, his source of glory and fortune. His reasons were that his business partners wanted to engage in undertakings other than real estate. "I was not interested in anything other than real estate. I really like building houses," says Pan.

He wanted to build houses, but where would the site of his next project be?

"I once downloaded a map of the world from the Internet -- a photo of the earth taken at night from a satellite. It indicated that the extent of illumination matched the per capita GDP of an area." Inspired by this, one night Pan Shiyi drove his car from the west to the east of Beijing. He discovered that the west was dark, and the east brilliant with lights from offices, hotels and bars. Following the success of the Vantone New Century Plaza, Pan Shiyi chose almost all the sites for his projects in the eastern part of Beijing.

Facts have since shown that his choice was correct. His projects have been included in Beijing's Central Business District (CBD). "In future, the CBD will stand out as the most vibrant and dynamic part of Beijing, like La Defense in Paris and Shinjuku in Tokyo," says Pan Shiyi proudly.

Representing the Future

Within Beijing's real estate circles, Pan Shiyi's new concepts are the first word in consumer guidance. He once raised the slogan: "Are you ready to SOHO?" and his SOHO New Town project became synonymous with the latest housing trends. It has since become regarded as an ideal office and residential housing project, and its criticism in the media makes it even more popular. It seems that anyone who does not "Soho" is out of touch -- something quite beyond the pale to today's trend-conscious Beijingers.

Pan Shiyi's success lies more in his concepts than his actual housing. His avant-garde housing theories always draw attention, favorable or otherwise. He says, "I am looking at lifestyles of the future. In an industrial era, everything is distinctly pigeonholed. Activity space is divided into work, leisure, shopping, and recreational. The partitions in the apartments of my SOHO New Town are movable; they can be dismantled and installed at will. Various intelligent networks are incorporated into the apartments, so their occupants can work at home, thus combining the home and the workplace. This represents the lifestyle of the future." It is clear that the SOHO New Town is particularly suitable for people's needs in the Internet Era.

Pan Shiyi's innovative concepts bring him to the forefront of architectural style.

On August 31, 2002, when many real estate developers were considering their options in view of Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, Pan Shiyi's Bo'ao Canal Village -- the Second Home project announced its construction in Hainan. His second-home concept again became a media sensation. Prior to construction of his second home project, so many people expressed interest in buying his properties that Pan was obliged to confine sales to one consumer per unit.

Every new project taken on by Pan Shiyi in recent years has been preceded by a completely new architectural concept, which he promotes in a similar way as auto firms do their latest models. He says, "The charm of the projects, such as New Town, SOHO New Town, Jianwai SOHO, and Bo'ao Canal Village -- the Second Home, is that they represent not only a new design theory, but also a new lifestyle." Many people buy houses developed by Pan Shiyi's company specifically because they like their avant-garde ambience.

Wisdom from Joy

It has been said that Pan Shiyi is a forceful businessman. He is often seen at the center of controversy, but he nevertheless emerges from them a happy person, nevertheless.

To this, Pan Shiyi says, "I majored in engineering, which seems dull, but there is also joy behind the precision. Since 1990 I have made new friends, under whose influence I became interested in Buddhism and Zen. For a time I was obsessed with these philosophies, and there were books on Zen everywhere at home and in my office. One night I had a dream. In it a voice told me that enlightenment could be attained simply by being happy and maintaining a good humor. This had great impact on my character. I now believe that wisdom can come naturally in the course of being happy and humorous, and therefore, I appreciate Bora Milutinovic's coaching concept of 'happy soccer'."

In recent years Pan Shiyi has been doing two things; continually building houses, and reading books such as The Book of Changes, Diamond Sutra, and Laozi's The Scripture of Ethics. They contain thousands of years' accumulation of wisdom and profundity. When talking about reading these works, his face lights up, "When creating anything one needs inspiration, and the real estate industry is no exception. I get inspiration from reading ancient books, especially The Book of Changes. I get new ideas each time I read it." Pan says that as he is busy dealing with the temporal all day, he can get spiritual sustenance from reading these texts in the evening.

It is obvious that while building houses for others, Pan Shiyi also creates happiness for himself.

(China Today February 28, 2003)