Owner of a 'magic' table adds some spin for potential buyers

A 'magic' spinning table that has mesmerised tourists and locals at the mountainous city of Dalat in Vietnam is now in Hong Kong seeking another buyer after it was sold to a Vietnamese-Canadian businessman.

The round table, known as the 'miracle table' to locals, is claimed to be two centuries old and to have magical properties which enable it to follow instructions, in any language, to spin left or right.

However, a Hong Kong scientist who has examined a similar 'magical' table from Taiwan says it is all a hoax for the gullible, even though he has not seen the table.

The dark wood table, which is about 80cm in diameter, used to be shown to tourists and locals at the home of an antiques collector, Nguyen Tai, who sold it to Duong Lap Chi the Vietnamese-Canadian, five months ago.

Mr Duong is now understood to be in the final stages of negotiating to sell the table to an undisclosed buyer, but he declined to disclose details about how much he paid or how much he is planning to sell it for.

'My friends told me about the table. I tried it and it really worked, so I bought it out of curiosity,' he said. 'I have no explanation for the phenomenon. I don't have a scientific rational explanation or a superstitious belief as to why it moves.'

At a private demonstration in a Wan Chai restaurant last week, a South China Morning Post photographer and this reporter experimented with the table.