The concrete cows are not as much of a problem as the size of the gardens for many Hong Kong families who have moved to the most unfashionable town in Britain.
Milton Keynes, a new town just an hour's drive from London, is sucking in Hong Kong migrants attracted by the open spaces and clean environment while the British turn up their noses at a development largely thought to be a soulless mass of concrete.
Just as Hong Kong began developing new towns in Sha Tin and Tuen Mun in the early 1970s, the British government started to develop the green-field site in Buckinghamshire north of London, in 1969. A grid-work of streets built across 85 square kilometres now provides homes for 200,000 people in mostly free-standing houses.
But despite the low crime and unemployment rates, the carefully planned suburban environment has gained a reputation as being the most boring town in England. The BBC's Radio 1 popular music channel regularly broadcasts jokes about the town and stories about residents suffering 'new town blues'.
Probably Milton Keynes' most famous feature is a small herd of concrete cows perpetually grazing in a park to the north of the town. The sculptures are the work of a resident artist who shaped the livestock out of chicken wire covered in cement to try to create a rural atmosphere.
But for newly arrived Hong Kong migrants the town's unfashionable image is as irrelevant as the park's sculptures. 'For us Milton Keynes is the perfect place, there are modern houses and trees, lots of open space and so much greenery,' Pauline Leung, who left Hong Kong in June last year, said.
