For his $540 million, Wong got a 28,000-square-foot property with 10 bedrooms, less than one-third of a hectare of land and an inordinate amount of animal skin and marble. The house - rechristened Genesis not only for its Biblical definition 'creation of a new world', but because it can be translated into 'creation of a new century' using similar-sounding Cantonese words - was described by The New York Times as a Carrara bunker. The Italian marble is everywhere and accounted for a good proportion of the $116 million Heung spent on the interior design when the house was built in 1990 (he flew in workers from Italy to install it). The rest went on two-metre elephant tusk floor lamps, enormous chandeliers, jade sculptures, hand-painted trompe l'oeil walls, tiger-skin rugs complete with snarling heads, a gold baize billiard table and a 24-seat dining table. Wong describes it as 'a big contribution to good taste'.

The Genesis deal was struck when, on the strength of a rumour, Wong turned up on the doorstep of the house's owner, Singapore-based stock-trader extraordinaire Heung Chik-kau, took him out to dinner and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, putting down a $20 million cheque during dinner as a deposit. 'My first offer was $520 million; his counter-offer was $530 million. But I wanted everything. I wanted the culture, the taste, the furniture, carpets, even the knives and forks,' he said. Wong had learned about the house and its extraordinary interior during lunch with a friend and reckoned Heung had spent about $50 million on the contents. 'He said, 'For $10 million, I'll give you everything.' I thought it was a good buy ... I wasn't nervous, I've done lots of big deals.' But Wong has no plans to call Genesis or Skyhigh home. Genesis is a 'strategic investment' for which he claims to have already been offered $900 million. He believes the property is worth $1.1 billion and feels he will have no problem in obtaining it. 'There are only 187 houses on The Peak. More and more rich, successful entrepreneurs are coming to Hong Kong from China so there's going to be a huge demand for this type of high-end detached house.' His investment in Skyhigh will be realised far more quickly. The 20,000-square-foot house at 10 Pollock's Path, owned by Hongkong Bank, was considered too extravagant by chairman John Gray and was sold in 1991 for $85 million to Kazuo Wada, chairman of Yaohan International. Last October, after Yaohan hit financial trouble, he decided to sell the house. Wong was waiting with chequebook in hand. Today, the tastes of its two former occupants are visible in the empty house, an arresting combination of Japanese minimalism in the undulating sculpted ceilings and refined Englishness in the manicured topiary and lawns. Its most notable feature is the tiny dome-shaped conservatory, accessed via a precarious spiral staircase, which has the only 360 degree view of Hong Kong Island. Few will get to appreciate it, though: the bulldozers are scheduled to move in this summer.

Wong plans to tear down the mansion and build five 6,000-square-foot villas in its place. All five were pre-sold in March for $918 million, a profit to Wong of $468 million after an estimated $75 million in demolition and construction costs are deducted. Four were purchased on the day they went on the market for $180 million each ($30,000 per square foot); the last, slightly bigger than the others, went for $198 million, or $33,000 per square foot. Wong refuses to name the buyers ('a chairman of a public listed company, an entrepreneur, someone from a famous family'), apart from the proud owner of House A, the last to be sold, former chairman of the Regional Council, Cheung Yan-lung. The three-storey, four-bedroomed, glass-fronted houses - differentiated only by their swimming pools; round, square, rectangular, polygon and kidney-shaped - are scheduled for completion in December 1998.

IN THE mould of those he admires like Li Ka-shing, Wong's story is that of rags to riches. He was born in Shenzhen, the son of a market fishmonger. He had his heart set on going to university to study a science-based subject, but like so many others, his hopes were quashed by the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned, he left to find work in Guangzhou where he found a job on the cargo trains which carried cattle and pigs on a seven-hour journey to market. 'We had to feed them, even had to take charge of their excrement,' laughs Wong. 'There was so much of it, the whole train really stank. It was extremely hard but I really enjoyed it because it was my first job. I was making my living.' After six months, he was fired for leaving school without permission and refusing to participate in the revolution. He decided to sneak across the border into Hong Kong in 1967 where his brother had arrived 10 years earlier and was working in a machinery factory. Wong rented a bunk bed in a worker's hostel in Lai Chi Kok and started casual work at small shops, trading companies and factories but after a year decided he needed a technical skill. He became an apprentice chef at the now defunct Empress Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui for a meagre $70 a month, plus bed and board. He rose rapidly through the ranks, eventually winning a prestigious Chaine des Rotisseurs award for his culinary skills.

He spent eight years as a chef, being successively poached by the Lisboa Hotel in Macau, the Sheraton, the Excelsior and the Hilton. Each time he was offered a higher position and a 30 per cent pay rise. 'He was outstanding in the kitchen,' recalls Richard Yung, executive chef of the Harbour Plaza in Hung Hom and previously a section head in the Hilton's cold kitchen in 1973 when Wong was the sous-chef in the Old Vic. 'He was quite famous because in those days few Chinese chefs could get to that position. Other people would play mahjong during breaks but he would stay in the staff room, reading his books as he was studying English at night school.' In 1976, Sir Kenneth Fung asked Wong to join The Nautilus Club, an exclusive club being opened in Repulse Bay, as executive chef on $4,700 a month, the equivalent of $50,000 today. In 1983, with financial backing from mainland financial group China Everbright through an introduction to the company's former chairman and now vice-chairman of the Chinese Executive Committee, Wang Guangying, he set up a hotel management subsidiary, Pearl River Hotel and Catering Ltd.

In 1985, he formed his own company, Pearl International Hotels. Though he gradually signed five hotel management contracts in China over the next three years, Wong wasn't satisfied with the company's modest income. He decided to focus his efforts on finding investment opportunities in Hong Kong and soon found the two-star Lido hotel in Happy Valley with an asking price of $55 million. The company didn't have the $5.5 million deposit required to secure the deal, so he turned to David Wong Wai-chi, now chairman of Kong Tai Holdings, not only for financial backing, but also to lend him his 30 per cent share of the investment.

Although this was Wong Kwan's first major investment, David Wong didn't see the project as a risk. 'I didn't worry at all,' he says. 'I knew of his capabilities. He had experience in hotels and good contacts.' Quick was an understatement.

Wong bought the hotel at 10 am and sold it four hours later for $65 million, making an instant profit of $10 million. Wong then invested in a former love hotel in Kowloon Tong, redeveloping and renaming it the Pearl Oriental Inn.

With similar lucrative investments over the past nine years, he has accumulated enough capital to expand into small shopping centres, office buildings and now luxury housing. The hotel management arm of Pearl Oriental Holdings is still going strong with eight contracts in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, contributing around 15 per cent of the company's income. The Pearl Garden Hotel opens later this month in Yau Ma Tei and The Pearl Island Hotel in Western is scheduled to open before the handover.

Pearl Oriental Holdings was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 1994 and its stock has gained about 22 per cent since the beginning of this year. The company recently rewarded its shareholders with one share for every share held, after a 74 per cent increase in net profit last year to $714.56 million. Wong himself holds 65 per cent of the $13 billion company, ranking him among Hong Kong's richest men.

Wong himself sees his success as a result of simple hard graft. He typically works a 15 hour day, six days a week, starting with a breakfast meeting at 8 am, leaving the office around 11 pm. He reads at least four or five newspapers a day and devours biographies or books on politics and economics. He cites as his biggest inspiration his wife Susanne, a former Cathay Pacific air hostess whom he courted for eight years before marrying in 1988. 'She is a great, great wife,' he gushes. 'After our first baby in '89, she resigned from her job and put her whole heart into looking after the family. She's absolutely not a tai-tai.' They have three children; two daughters aged eight and five, and a son aged two. Wong takes his daughters to school before going to work and tries to pop back to his 'small' 4,800-square-foot house on The Peak to see his children before the inevitable dinner meeting. His Sundays are devoted to family. Despite his prestigious address and annual salary of $5.5 million, Wong claims to lead a relatively simple lifestyle. He still drives (or more accurately is driven in) the car he bought on hire purchase for his wedding, a 10-year-old Mercedes 280. He still hangs out with his buddies from his chef days and takes his family to dine at dai pai dongs and teahouses.

He admits to owning two yachts in which he takes the kids out at weekends and occasionally plays golf at The Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club. He owns three horses but insists that he doesn't like gambling, doesn't go to the races unless his own horse is running and never wagers more than $2,000 at a time.

The only aspect about himself in which he displays conspicuous pride is his humble background, stressing just how hard his hard times were. He opts to slip off his gold Rolex and suit and slip into a denim shirt-corduroy slack combo for our photos. And when the photographer requests an open-armed shot in front of Genesis he almost falls into the fountain in objection. 'No, no!' he shouts. 'I'm not Donald Trump!' 'I KNOW these prices seem staggering,' says David Faulkner, a partner with property consultant Brooke, Hillier, Parker, 'but we've had quite a flow of activity in this area,' - activity largely caused by Wong Kwan. 'These prices will obviously affect prices of similar properties,' he says, 'but they aren't a real barometer for the rest of the market. There are so few of these houses available that when they sell, they attract a premium. In the past, you'd be lucky if there was one such sale a year. I think it's obvious there are a few people reshuffling their portfolios prior to the handover. It's just people taking the chance to sell out and reinvest elsewhere.' Jackie Langridge, director of Prestige Homes, a division of First Pacific Davies which handled the sale of Skyhigh and Genesis, says the prices will certainly push the market forward again, though there is surprise that the Hotung house fetched the price it did. 'We're in a very good situation in Hong Kong at the moment, we're hoping the market doesn't move too quickly, we'd like to see a reasonable steady growth to keep the market moving forward.' Recently, Langridge sold 15 Bowen Road, a 5,200 square foot house owned by gym owners Eddie Phillips and Deborah Sims for $121.80 million, and a Big Wave Bay home went last December for $220 million.

'People just don't want very large houses here anymore. The days are gone when the extended family all lived in one house with an army of servants,' says Faulkner. 'And if you're thinking about selling on The Peak and you see figures like Wong's and Hotung's, you'll start thinking about it a lot harder! I think there must be one or two people up there who are thinking, well, if I can sell mine for US$100 million, maybe I'll do it.' 'Solo buyers like Wong may be as rare as the properties they buy,' says Langridge, who describes him as a 'small player, an opportunist. He's careful not to overstretch himself which is a mistake quite a few people make. He's a median player, a very aggressively bright man with a very good reputation in the industry.' But Langridge concedes that the big players like Sun Hung Kai Properties, Cheung Kong (Holdings), Sino Land, New World Development, Henderson Land 'would perhaps be a little more conservative on their prices' when going after luxury properties.

WONG is convinced he got a good deal on Skyhigh and Genesis. What's more he doesn't buy into the story that the Hotung property has superceded Genesis as the most expensive house in the world. The property, which covers 69,535 square feet and includes a house with a gross floor area of about 12,000 square feet and an extensive garden, is actually an amalgamation of two sites. 'Hotung sold his own house and another site connected to it, so really the deal is only 50 per cent of that final figure - it's only $390 million.

'Of course the Hotung house is a good location but it can't compete with Skyhigh and Genesis. Genesis is the number one deluxe house. And of course we also have redevelopment potential. They must redevelop on the Hotung site or there will be no more capital appreciation.' But Wong did put in a bid of $580 million for the Hotung house. 'I didn't want to pay more because I didn't think the site was worth it. The location cannot compare with Skyhigh and Genesis - the harbour view isn't as good,' he says. 'I wouldn't have paid that price. Our investment decisions are always carefully calculated - we don't want to pay too high.'