G-Dragon’s most outrageous birthday gifts: BTS’ Army has nothing on this K-pop idol’s fans, who once decorated an entire Beijing building and even planted forests in his honour …

Nobody shows love to their idols quite like K-pop fans. They splash their appreciation on ads, shower their favourite artists with gifts, and get songs charting just because they can … So when an idol has a birthday, you can bet the celebrations will be big. For BTS member Jimin’s birthday last year, the band’s official fan club – Army – in Indonesia honoured the occasion by raising funds to plant and maintain mangroves in his name. In Vietnam, fans even composed a song just for him. As G-Dragon – OG hip-hop star, leader of Big Bang and long-rumoured romantic partner of Blackpink’s Jennie – turns 33 on August 18, let’s take a look back at the most outrageous birthday gifts and celebrations his fans have planned for him over the years. 4 K-drama reunions that drove fans wild The “G-Dragon building” in Beijing Jimin’s Chinese fan base, Park Jimin Bar, placed an ad in the world’s biggest mall in Dubai for his birthday last year. But G-Dragon’s Chinese fans actually did one better four years prior: they turned a building in Beijing into a “G-Dragon building” for the week leading up to his birthday, by posting huge photos and birthday messages all around the structure, as well as hosting an exhibition. Pressna reported that, as his birthday is August 18, there were 818 different photos and messages from fans filling the building. Meanwhile, its exterior was emblazoned with a huge screen featuring a birthday celebration video – which was played at midnight on August 18, of course. The front page of Sports Seoul newspaper You might usually expect the front page of a newspaper to be dedicated to breaking news, but in 2016, Chinese fan club G-One decided that their idol deserved to grace the cover instead. And they didn’t just put him on any newspaper, but bought a cover ad for Sports Seoul, one of the most popular newspapers in South Korea. The group posted photos of the project on their Twitter account. 4 Korean stars who found fame … with a little help from celebrity friends Forests in Jeju Island and Seoul G-Dragon had an extravagant birthday in 2016 indeed! The same year, G-Dragon’s official fan site Always-GD and Seoul-based crowdfunding site Tree Planet joined forces to get him a gift. And it wasn’t a designer outfit or flashy bling – but a forest bearing G-Dragon’s real name, Kwon Ji-yong. According to The Korea Herald, plans were made for the fruit of the forest’s 50 citrus trees to be harvested and donated to charity. But that wasn’t G-Dragon’s first forest. Another was actually named after him back in 2014, also for his birthday. This forest consists of 50 citrus trees as well, and is located in Seoul. According to Daily K-pop News, fans who took part in the project shared, “[We are] so happy that we could have a place to share memories with G-Dragon.” Donations, donations, donations K-pop fandom loves making donations in their idols’ names, too – sometimes taking cues from the music artists themselves. Remember when IU’s fans celebrated her 2017 birthday by donating 1,000 trees to northwest China? G-Dragon’s fans were not to be outdone. According to Always-GD’s Twitter account, his supporters donated around US$100,000 (130 million won) to good causes between 2013 and 2016. For his birthday in 2016, donations were made to charities that he supports, such as Unicef, reported Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sean (@jinusean3000) Another memorable occasion was his birthday in 2015, when fans donated around US$7,000 (8.18 million won) to SeungIl Hope Foundation, which was established to help ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) patients. Sean of Jinusean – a hip-hop duo signed to YG Entertainment like Big Bang – posted an Instagram photo of the donation certificate. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 권지용(權志龍) (@xxxibgdrgn) The donations were made just two months after G-Dragon posted an Instagram photo of his ankle bracelet promoting the ice bucket challenge, a viral 2014 challenge conceived of to promote awareness of ALS. BTS burns: 4 times the K-pop supergroup struggled on their way to the top Birthday messages on public buses If the goal is to let as many people as possible know about your idol’s special day, taking out ads on public transport is a great option. Just as fans of BTS’ Jungkook are planning an advertisement at a Korean bus stop for his upcoming September birthday, according to Sports Kyunghyang, G-Dragon’s fans opted to put birthday messages on public buses back in 2016. One of his fan clubs, Baidu G-Dragon Bar, chose Seoul public bus number 271, which travels through the centre of the city, around the Hongdae area, according to KMIB. Always-GD, on the other hand, actually booked an entire bus – without passengers – to use as an advertisement. Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.