There is no business like snow business, according to a group of Taiwanese investors. And to prove their point, they have opened a winter sports and entertainment centre featuring real snow.
At the heart of Snow Garden, which opened yesterday at the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, is a multi-million-dollar snow generator that its owners claim can create mountains of snow.
By maintaining humidity at 90 per cent, the machine makes use of liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius to turn the moisture into snow. Betty Keung Siu-lung, the director of Taiwanese firm East Lord International, said it was her mission to bring the joy of snow to Hong Kong.
The garden yesterday featured more ice sculptures than snow. The machine only managed to produce a sprinkling of snow, but the 100 or so children invited to be the first guests still enjoyed themselves.
Wong Ka-shing, 12, said: 'I have seen it in pictures but there's nothing like feeling the real thing.' The garden charges $100 for a visit.