A Chinese man's home is his castle: kung fu master keeps bailiffs at bay in the siege of Chongqing

A property dispute in Chongqing in south-western China has created a pair of folk heroes - a flamboyant restaurateur Wu Ping and her husband Yang Wu, a kung-fu teacher - a couple who for three years have resisted the bulldozers trying to drive them out of their house to make way for a shopping mall.

The developers have dug around the two-storey brick house, leaving it perched precariously on a small island of land in the middle of a 10-metre-deep pit. Reminiscent of a medieval castle surrounded by a moat, their house has come to symbolise individual efforts to fight the wrecking ball that accompanies development in all the major cities in China.

A castle under siege it is, and it comes complete with stout-hearted defenders. During the three years their fight has gone on Mr Yang, 51, has used his martial arts skills to fend off gangs of thugs sent by the developers to evict them, while his wife talks tough in the face of strong pressure to move.

"No one can force someone off their legal property. I am only protecting my own rights and interests," she said. The Chinese national flag flies on the roof and slogans adorn the wall, saying "Private property rights shall not be infringed". Ms Wu describes herself as a "a citizen fighting for her legal rights".

Mr Yang has moved back into the house to make sure there are no surreptitious attempts to flatten the edifice while he is sleeping, but there is no water or electricity and his wife has to send food and water into the house by rope and pulleys.

The couple have become heroes in the national press, showing how much anger there is in China against the way in which residents are often simply kicked out of their homes to make way for the country's massive urbanisation programme.

It is also an early test for China's landmark new property law, which promises to protect private title rights and was passed earlier this month. It is due to come into effect in October.

The house is called a dingzihu or "nail house", which is a pun on the Chinese phrase for troublemakers who stick up like nails and refuse to bow down. "I would rather die in my house," said Mr Yang, a former martial arts city champion. Property disputes and illegal land grabs have accelerated in recent years as farmland is gobbled up for industrial parks and skyscrapers.

Ms Wu and Mr Yang, who had planned to open a restaurant in the house, were among 280 households asked to make way for a redevelopment project in Chongqing, a booming city with a municipal population of around 28 million. "I never asked for too much, I was never stubborn," said Ms Wu. She was offered £131,000 in compensation or two higher floors in the planned complex, both of which she turned down because she wanted lower levels in the new building so she could run her restaurant. She is seeking £9,200 per square metre in compensation, which is high compared to the average value of slightly more than £650 a square metre in the area.

Pictures of the house have been splashed all over the Chinese media and there were 10 million hits on an internet posting on the house.

The online frenzy was silenced last week when the state propaganda department, which controls the media, ordered references to the case to be removed from all the major online news sites and bigger portals.

Numerous newspaper editorials, in party newspapers such as the Beijing Youth Daily, have addressed the issue. "The case reflects the urgent need to set up a mechanism to impartially settle disputes over property rights," said the China Daily.

China's new property law offers the same protections for private and public property, a fundamental change from the early years of communism.

Chongqing's Housing Authority says it would prefer to sort out the dispute by negotiation, but would resort to forced demolition if that did not work. That could prove an unpopular decision - the couple were backed by 86 per cent of those surveyed in a poll on the Sina website.