******************************************
Following the official opening of the Lai Chi Kok Park "Lingnan Garden" this (November 11) morning, local residents and the people of Hong Kong are able to enjoy the beauty and facilities of the first unique and classical Lingnan-style garden ever built in the territory.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Acting Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Isaac Chow Yiu-nam said:"The 'Lingnan Garden', built at a cost of $75 million, is Hong Kong's first theme garden of its kind. It occupies an area of 1.25 hectares with about 2,600 square metres covered with water features. The streams, galleries, berms and pavilions built in unique architecture add to the beauty of the garden."
Managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), the "Lingnan Garden", which opens daily from 7am to 11pm, was designed by the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) in Lingnan style featuring the traditional layout of yards and winding corridors which are spacious enough for a great number of visitors.
The layout and design of the pavilions, kiosks, water features, and rockeries in the Lingnan Garden all follow the Lingnan style. The architectural structures are mainly built at the corners and linked together by porches and corridors.
The Director of Architectural Services, Mr Pau Shiu-hung, who also officiated at the opening ceremony said: "Up to now, public gardens built and designed by ArchSD using traditional Chinese landscape design include the Jiangnan style, Yangzhou style, and Royal Garden style of landscaped gardens. This garden at Lai Chi Kok Park is designed in Lingnan style and is therefore named the 'Lingnan' Garden."
"ArchSD has built more than ten traditional Chinese landscaped gardens in the past ten years to provide the public with theme parks of a leisurely nature; to present Chinese culture, history, literature, art and even health care in the context of three-dimensional landscaped gardens; and to enrich the resources for tourism in Hong Kong," Mr Pau said.
Architectural ornaments of the garden, such as pottery sculpture, tile and plaster decoration, stone carving and woodwork, also come from Lingnan. The rockery is made of stones mainly from Tai Hu in Yingde.
Couplets of works from Guangdong masters since the Qing Dynasty, such as Liang Qichao, Kang Youwei, Li Wentian, Ye Jiangying, Li Jian, Liu Huadong, Gao Jianfu and Chen Pu, are everywhere in the Garden.
Mr Chow said:"LCSD has been committed to providing quality leisure and cultural services for the public since its establishment on January 1 this year. The 'Lingnan Garden' will definitely be well received by the public as it is really relaxing and pleasant to visit such a beautiful Chinese garden.
"Besides, with its unique features, the "Lingnan Garden" will be a new attraction with local residents and overseas visitors. They will certainly be impressed by the distinctive traditional Lingnan style of the garden."
Lying at the centre is a pond covering 2,600 square metres which takes up 20 per cent of the total area from which all buildings and structures radiate in all directions. Blending into the overall design, the Garden is divided into ten scenic spots, along which the moon is the common theme since one-fifth of the garden devotes to water features. The colourful optical fibre light festooning the eaves from the Eastern Gate to the corridor-type bridge adds charm to the Garden.
On soft landscape, there is a total plantation area of 10,300 square metres inside and outside the Garden with different species of plants. They include 720 trees, 970 conifers, 5,800 bamboos, 52,500 shrubs and 40 bonsai; as well as a turf area of 6,100 square metres.
Occupying a total area of 17.65 hectares, the Lai Chi Kok Park was constructed in three phases with Phase I and Phase II completed in 1989 and 1997 respectively. Apart from the Lingnan Garden, the Lai Chi Kok Park Phase III also consists of a landscape portion and a Western Garden portion which were respectively opened in February and December last year.
End/Saturday, November 11, 2000
NNNN