The Shanghai Urban Planning Bureau stopped a tenant from pulling down a house along the Huaihai Road M. historical and cultural protection zone earlier this week.

The tenant who launched the illegal construction will face severe punishment, officials said without revealing details.

The house, which sits next to a group of protected villas, belongs to the district's Housing Management Office which rented it to the tenant, whom the bureau wouldn't name.

By the time the office discovered he was doing renovations, three walls, the roof, and a central beam had been demolished.

"As we learned from the neighbors, the tenant rented the house and began the illegal work to expand the house at first," said a bureau official surnamed Shi. "After we stopped him from building new rooms, he began to pull the house down for renovation without getting approval first."

The house, which was built in the 1920s, isn't protected, but buildings in the area can't be renovated without approval.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2007)