When members of a central environmental inspection team visited Dianchi in April, however, they found 1,107 buildings on Changyao Mountain, including 813 villas, though not all of them were located in the Grade-I protected area.

All the buildings belong to a real estate project by Northstar Group, a local private conglomerate, covering almost 230 hectares or roughly 92 percent of the mountain, according to a previous media release from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

With teams led by retired ministry-level officials, the inspection, launched in 2016, was staffed by officials from the ministry. The inspectors report to a central leading group headed by Vice-Premier Han Zheng. 

Liu said workers are also forging ahead to remove all buildings in the Grade-II protected areas. Local authorities are also carrying out assessments of all buildings in Grade-III protected areas and will decide whether approval will be given to them when the work is completed.