During the summer of 2015, I spent a few days in Hong Kong and enjoyed hiking in nature a lot. In particular, I did several sections of the Lantau Trail by myself. At some point, I found a hidden garden, which had been abandoned since 2012. The access was forbidden but I was so attracted to the charm of the place that I got closer. Not too close, though, because there was absolutely noone around and I was scared to meet dangerous snakes. I also did not go far inside and did not take pictures because the walking paths were in pretty bad shape and if they collapsed, I could fall in the water. The water area was full of frogs, singing loudly, it was better not to disturb them and to enjoy this interesting view from outside.

According to internet sources, this place was created by Mr Ng, a textile merchant, who bought the land in 1962 for 2 millions HKD to build a private villa. Later he built a classical Chinese garden called « Dragon’s son garden ». Mr Ng believed in Buddhism and his Dharma name was « Awaken ». Therefore the garden’s full name is “Lung Tsai Ng Yuen”, meaning « Dragon’s son awakening garden ». Inside the garden, there were a lotus pond, a zigzag bridge, and a pavilion, as you can see on this picture.

But the garden had issues on the land ownership and was very poorly maintained in the past few decades, it closed down in 2012.