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Chinese Entrepreneur Builds Himself A Floating Home On Water

By Akinwale Akinyoade

28 December 2020   |   11:53 am

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A Chinese entrepreneur nicknamed "Coastline" decided to turn his dream of having a home on the water into a reality after he got his architect friend Dong Xinmeng to build him one. It is gathered that the businessman spent a year and $61,000 to get the dream house on the coast of Fujian province. The…

Floating home

A Chinese entrepreneur nicknamed “Coastline” decided to turn his dream of having a home on the water into a reality after he got his architect friend Dong Xinmeng to build him one.

It is gathered that the businessman spent a year and $61,000 to get the dream house on the coast of Fujian province.

The floating house sits on 600-square-foot and is named Haixi. It offers a 360-degree view of the sea and is located in a calm bay, about 500 meters from the coast of Dongshan.

The building of the unusual home came about in 2018 when Coastline and Xinmeng were out drinking. Coastline started talking about how great it would be to have a floating home, so he could fish and drink beer all day. One drink led to another, and by the end of the night, they had decided to make his dream a reality.

He grew up near the sea and had spent most pf his time fishing and taking in the beautiful sunsets of Dongshan County, a large island in the South China Sea.

Dongshan County has a long history of sea fishing and aquaculture, so Coastline and his architect friend took inspiration from their large rafts to build the buoyant base of the mansion.

Floating home

The two friends originally planned to move together into the floating mansion and since land wasn’t a problem, they decided to make it 600 square feet in size.

It became too difficult to build on land as there wasn’t a large enough port. At first, they worked in the shallow waters of a dock, but the tide was giving them problems, so they dragged the platform to the open sea and started work on the home itself.

The project turned out more problematic than they anticipated. The platform bobbed up and down as workers moved on it, and the strong winds didn’t help things either. The sturdy structure was built using steel, and even though Coastline wanted to incorporate as much glass as possible into the design, he finally understood that he had to sacrifice looks for sturdiness and reliability.

Then came the problem of electricity. They originally hooked up the place to a nearby hydropower installation, but fishing boats passing by routinely unplugged the cables. Over time, the Coastline negotiated with the fishermen to pay attention to his cables, and even though his cables stretch for 3km all the way to a dock on shore, they haven’t been unplugged in a year now.

Floating home

Coastline’s amazing floating home is held in place by 16 metal anchors, each weighing about a ton. If the owners ever want to move it, all they have to do is raise these anchors and have a powerboat tow the mansion to its new location.

Since the completion of the house in 2019, Coastline started using it as a vacation place where he could be alone, fish all day and just reflect on his life and his future plans.

In a recent interview with Yit, Coastline said that whenever he came here, he just disconnected from the stress and turmoil of his daily life. He set himself a limit of checking his smartphone just 3 times a day, didn’t speak to anyone, and spent his time doing what he enjoyed most, fishing and cooking whatever he caught.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, they shared photos of the floating home on social media with many of their friends asking to come to experience it.

When the pandemic started in China, Coastline brought his wife and 2-year-old son to the house, and they isolated themselves from the rest of the world for 21 days. He and his son fished and drove around in a boat all day, and in the evening they watched movies together.

Floating home

In September of this year, Coastline opened his floating mansion as China’s first floating hotel. He didn’t partner up with any booking services, as he only wants to rent the place out to people that hear about it from his own acquaintances. Even so, he was so inundated with requests, that he now has to reserve a few days for himself months in advance, if ever wants to visit the place himself.