An estimated $30 million is needed to save one of Hong Kong's best-known tourist attractions, it was revealed yesterday.
The 10,000 Buddhas Monastery in Sha Tin was badly damaged by a landslide in July and has been closed since. Now it has been removed from the Hong Kong Tourist Association's (HKTA) list of top 10 recommended sights.
A report due out in February will determine the extent of remedial work needed and the cost to restore the monastery.
Ho Shu-fun, a structural engineer with the Buildings Department, said: 'It is hard to know how much damage has been done until the proposal comes out. There is a danger the slope will slide again. So, for the time being, we have closed it for safety reasons.' An HKTA spokesman said it had no option but to remove the temple from its 'must-see' list. 'We have stopped recommending the temple as a tourist sight to overseas operators because it is too dangerous,' he said.
A Chinese Opera fund-raising concert next month will be the first of many initiatives aimed at raising the estimated $30 million needed for repairs, according to the monastery's Reverend Ng Sing-tai.
Woo Hiu-fon, one of the fund-raising organisers, said: 'I started visiting the monastery when I was just a kid so I feel quite sentimental towards it.' A member of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association said the HKTA should continue to promote the monastery to tourists.
