The wufenglou, the mansion of five phoenixes, boasts a history of 600 years and was recently renovated.

On an open, almost deserted stretch of land in his hometown, Zhang, 64, together with a team of “dab hands”, has been rebuilding houses with numbered bricks, wood panels and pillars. It usually takes at least three to four months for the team of 10 craftsmen to patch up the houses, which, when they arrive, are as scattered as "a biscuit falling from six-floor-high apartment building", as Zhang says.

Middlemen like Zhang will charge 10 to 30 percent of the sale price of the house to reassemble the structure. The house is then shipped from the remote construction site that has neither name nor address, to the gardens of the country's richest people.

"It's undeniable that we are making a living from them, but there is nothing wrong with it," says Zhang, in response to criticism that the houses lose their roots when they are dismantled and shipped around.

"What we are doing now is definitely better than leaving them suffering from harsh weather and daily wear," he added.

In 2012, the government of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, introduced a series of new regulations regarding the protection of old houses and villages, allowing private capital to be invested in local historically important sites.