Top Biz News
Beijing's first professional 'nail' scores
By Xu Fan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-05 07:48
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It has been only a month since Lu Daren, once a demolition team leader, started working as Beijing's first professional anti-demolition protester. Already he has scored a victory.
A leasing company has agreed to negotiate to pay Qin Rong, 28, more of the compensation she says she deserves for her Fish Castle Restaurant, which is scheduled to be imminently demolished.
Last month, Qin hired Lu to protect her restaurant from demolition crews.
The job description: Sit in an empty building around the clock and make sure, no matter what it took, that no one came to tear it down.
Lu was paid a monthly salary of 1,000 yuan ($146.45) and promised 2 percent of the compensation his employer was owed if he could help her get it from the leasing company.
Qin signed a three-year lease with the company in 2008. Shortly after investing 600,000 yuan in her new restaurant, she learned the property would be knocked down a year later.
Developers only offered her a fraction of the money she had invested, Qin said.
The lights and electricity soon went off, and Qin decided to wage a war against the demolition crews by hiring a former demolition crew member of her own.
As expected, mysterious men came, trying to force Lu to leave his new job post. But he fought back. And they left.
Then finally on Dec 28, leasing companies relented and agreed to pay Qin more money.
Qin is now looking for another location to open a new restaurant.
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"Two sponsors invited me to join their new company, which will offer help to anti-demolition owners," Lu, 45, said.
Last month, Lu said he also was contacted by another businessman who praised him for his braveness.
"He told me an entrepreneur sponsored him to open a company helping nail houses and accompanied me to select the new office near Jianguomen area," Lu said.
He also has been contacted by a film director and offered his own blog on tianya.cn, one of China's most popular community websites.
"I'm not very good at typing, but I will start practicing," Lu said.
