CHONGQING • Born into extreme poverty in rural China, Liu Chonghua amassed enough wealth selling cakes to the country's emerging middle class to build himself six European-style castles.

Five are tourist attractions, but the grandest of all was designed as a home: A grey stone structure resembling Britain's Windsor Castle, built on land the 65-year-old entrepreneur acquired from the government of the south-western city of Chongqing in the 1990s.