There are many stories of Chinese building everything from temples to entire farms on their rooftops, but one man took it to a completely different level. 63-year old Meng Ni is a farmer in the Guangdong district of China, and he has built the replica of a space shuttle on the roof of his home.
Ever since he was a small child, Meng has dreamed of being an astronaut, but as an inhabitant of the remote village of Xiapu, Jiexi County, he realized that his dream had little chance of becoming true. He decided to follow in his family’s footsteps instead and took up farming, until his farmlands grew in size and he sold them to the government for a small fortune.
But no matter where life took him, Meng never gave up on his dream. He sold a part of his estate, after some success as a businessman, and built a life-size replica of a space shuttle on his roof. The replica does not have a NASA logo, but the American flag on the side does give it a somewhat authentic look. It is even possible to enter the structure, which offers a breathtaking view of the countryside.
Meng has went all out in constructing the realistic replica. He has even made arrangements to illuminate the spacecraft at night, by installing an expensive network of spotlights that are sure to capture people’s attention in the dark. Meng may not have visited space, but he did not give up on his dream and pursued it in a different way.
