[Photo/China Daily]

The house is the first house he rented from the villagers. He uses the first floor as a gallery. He used to live on the second floor. Now he has transformed it into a storeroom. He lives in another house rented from the villagers.

Hamlinton visited the town and county governments to ask permission before starting his project.

He was surprised at how easily they approved his proposal. But that wasn't the end of his dealings with the authorities.

Officials found problems with the building during inspections. Villagers also took issue with his work, says Zhang Weifei, Hamlinton's business partner in the hotel they later opened in the village. Zhang says Hamlinton "drank his way through" these disagreements, lubricating the social friction with boozy banter.

Upon completing his first renovation, Hamlinton started reincarnating four other dilapidated buildings in Jiuxian. These became the Secret Garden hotel he and Zhang run.

His work has made him something of a local celebrity - especially among the opposite sex.

"He's famous around here," Zhang says.

"And there's no shortage of women chasing him. We didn't understand at first why a hardworking man like him decided to remain single. Gradually, we came to see he enjoys his life working on buildings, gardens and mountains."

Hamlinton says he wants a "free life".

"All of my Chinese pals are married, and they complain to me about their lives when they are drunk," he says.

Secret Garden now employs 11 villagers. Zhang runs the business, while Hamlinton is in charge of the buildings.

Hamlinton built sewer lines for them that run to rice paddies at the foot of a mountain. They pass through gravel paths, aquatic flowers and grass that cleanse the wastewater before it reaches farmlands.

While he follows feng shui indoors, the garden is very natural - a departure from traditional Chinese gardens' formality. "I like using my own hands to make things - but not money," he says.

While locals consider Hamlinton eccentric, they've accepted him as one of their own.

Kang Niansheng, a driver for the hotel, says: "He's a little different from other foreigners. He's crazy. Few foreigners treat Yangshuo as home. But he does. He drinks, argues and works with us. He's no different from other villagers."

Tang Xiaozhen, a waitress in her 20s, says: "Crazy Ian has never stopped adapting to Chinese culture with an open mind, just like he has never stopped rebuilding old houses. He always wears a smile."

Hamlinton says he doesn't see what all the fuss is about.

"What I did is quite normal in my country," he says.

"I don't understand why the media come to me every week and ask me again and again what my dream is."

Long Yanxiu contributed to the story.