Dragon Garden not worth saving, says family letter against rezoning

Dragon Garden is not worth preserving, according to family members who will sell the historic landmark to a developer today.

In a letter opposing a rezoning proposal that would limit the site's development potential, the grandchildren of Lee Iu-cheung, the tycoon who built the garden in Sham Tseng, said the character of its buildings was not unique, with structures 'copied from books of Chinese architecture'.

Yet eight years ago they wrote to the Highways Department opposing a road-widening project on Castle Peak Road that would have encroached on the garden, which they called 'one of the last remaining treasures in Hong Kong', saying that to alter it would 'destroy a part of Chinese culture and heritage'.

The latest letter reads: 'While the built form of existing development on our land is in the traditional Chinese style, neither [is] its built character unique in Hong Kong nor does the site history generate any curiosity in the past that warrants preservation.

'Some of the designs of the structures are copied from books of Chinese architecture, which are not even replicas of structures of any especially exciting character that deserve preserving.'

The letter was filed by owner Hongland Investment with the Town Planning Board two weeks ago. The firm's chairman is John Lee Yuen-hong - the tycoon's eldest grandson - who initiated the sale.