Shock over plans to make 14-year-old nunnery a Unesco world heritage site

Heritage advisers fired questions at officials yesterday for supporting a plan to turn a "fake antiquity" - a 14-year-old nunnery in Kowloon - into a Unesco world heritage site.

Members of the Antiquities Advisory Board expressed shock at yesterday's meeting that they had been bypassed by those seeking to promote the heritage value of the Chi Lin Nunnery, in Diamond Hill.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage last month included Chi Lin - at the nunnery's request - on an updated shortlist of potential heritage sites. Beijing chooses sites from the list and proposes them to Unesco.

The board was equally dissatisfied to learn that Hong Kong officials - without consulting the board - had endorsed the application and assisted their mainland counterparts' visit to evaluate the nunnery in June.

Historian and board adviser Ko Tim-keung said yesterday that he had been surprised to read about the national heritage list in a newspaper. "I could never imagine that this 14-year-old building, a fake antiquity, could represent Hong Kong. There are other sites in the city that deserve the status a lot more."

The Buddhist nunnery was completely rebuilt in 1998, in a Tang dynasty architectural style.

Grace Lui Kit-yuk, deputy secretary for development, said it "would not be a bad thing" if the nunnery won a place on the UN agency's heritage list.