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A Tang dynasty garden is to be built next to Chi Lin Nunnery in Wong Tai Sin.

It will be completed in three years, providing a new tourist attraction.

The nunnery, which is also built in Tang dynasty style, is helping to develop the Hammer Hill Road Park, which will cost the government about $245 million.

Karen Yuen Chau Oi-wah, a chief executive planning officer with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, said the 33,000 square-metre park would provide much-needed open space for Wong Tai Sin residents and provide a new tourism spot.

'We will take over the park upon completion and it will be a public area. We want to turn the area into a landmark of Chinese culture and heritage as well as a tourist attraction of strategic value to Hong Kong,' she said.

The executive director of the Travel Industry Council, Joseph Tung Yao-chung, believes the park and the nunnery will be attractive to European and American tourists.

'Tourists from the west will be interested in seeing more Chinese features, something we do not have much of in Hong Kong,' Mr Tung said.

Architect Chris Law, who is also a spokesman for a non-profit-making urban revitalisation taskforce, said he was worried the tranquillity of the park would be damaged by the roads surrounding it.

'The nunnery, which is supposed to be a very quiet and peaceful place, is disturbed by the noise of traffic since it is surrounded by big roads. The government should figure out some ways to protect the tranquillity of the park,' he said.

Featuring Tang dynasty architecture, the park will have a podium, multi-level buildings, chambers, rooms, square and hexagonal pavilions and a pavilion with a thatched roof.

There also will be pools, ponds, streams and springs, wells and waterfalls, as well as a large collection of unusual rock formations dotted around the park.

Surrounding them will be vegetation ranging from mature trees to bonsais, shrubs, bamboo and flowering species.

Ms Yuen said the design of the park was based on a famous Tang dynasty garden in Shanxi called the Jiangshouju Gardens and Ponds.

'Tang dynasty gardens are characterised by beautiful mountains and natural water flows; this park will be very similar to Jiangshouju in terms of layout and with the pond as the centrepiece.'

The gardens and ponds in Shanxi are among the oldest and most famous on the mainland.



$245m Tang dynasty garden to complement Wong Tai Sin nunnery