Dragon Garden is a magnificent example of Chinese Renaissance architecture

One of Hong Kong's precious private gardens - and one which many overseas audiences have seen in the James Bond thriller The Man with the Golden Gun - has been saved for posterity as a future public garden and tourist attraction.

The 8-hectare Dragon Garden in Sham Tseng was built in the late 1950s by Hong Kong tycoon Lee Iu-Cheung, and designed by Chu Pin, the architect responsible for restoring Beijing's Forbidden City. The garden was recently officially recognised by the Antiquities Advisory Board for its historical value, after a three month battle to save the property from developers.

Dragon Garden made headlines in Hong Kong and regional newspapers when Cynthia Lee, a granddaughter of the tycoon, led a campaign to stop her family from selling the garden and instead work towards preserving it. She made several public appeals to prevent the sale of the estate to an eager property developer for HK$130 million (US$16.7m).

Wide-ranging support

Ms Lee said she had received overwhelming response and support from the public. "Lawmakers, green groups, architects and academics have offered all kinds of assistance," she commented in the South China Morning Post.

If the sale had gone through, it would have meant the demolition of a grand garden in the Chinese Renaissance architectural style. It would also have caused the destruction of a remarkable collection of tree species, not to mention an ancestral hall with a handwritten family tree tracing back 22 generations.

The garden was saved from the developers when the youngest son of the tycoon bought the garden from the family and pledged to donate it to a charitable trust fund and open it to the public.

In awarding a "grade two" historic status to Dragon Graden, the Antiquities Advisory Board said "efforts should be made to preserve" it.

"The historical value, architectural merit, authenticity, rarity, integrity and social value of the historic buildings are taken into account when buildings are categorised. Similar architectural work of such a high standard of workmanship is rarely found in Hong Kong," according to a statement from the board.

Dragon Garden will hopefully be restored to its former glory as one of the city's rare gardens of significance. It was opened to the public more than 50 years ago with a HK$1 admission charge which went to charity.

"I would like to see the day when that happens again," wrote Ms Lee.