Focus: The rise and fall of Bo Xilai
After heady years spent climbing the party ladder, the colourful life of Bo Xilai will be judged by what happens in a grim Shandong court
No 36 Zhongshansi Road, a compound of rust-coloured villas secluded behind thick foliage in downtown Chongqing, is easily ignored from the street. And that is just the way the people who live there like it.
There are no names on the brick houses and the armed soldiers at the gate ensure what goes on inside stays there.
There is good reason for the secrecy. No 36 Zhongshansi Road is where the power is.
Inside, Bo Xilai, one of the Communist Party's highest-flying officials, was the king of his domain.
He was sometimes referred to by local officials as "building No 3", after the house in which his family lived. Bo rode a wave that swept him to the top of the megacity of 32 million people and onto the national stage.
Had he clung on a bit longer, the 64-year-old would very possibly have joined the Standing Committee of the Politburo at the 18th party congress, and perhaps climbed even higher.