A huge French chateau was built in Peking a couple of years ago. It's called Chateau Zhang Lafite. The owner is obviously Mr Zhang, and the chateau is modelled on Chateau Lafite in France - at least sort of. The name Lafite is certainly a very smart name, as it is associated with an extremely fine (and expensive) wine - Chateau Lafite! The most extraordinary thing about this construction is that it should be found, as a replica, in Peking, just a 15 minutes' drive from the airport. Even more amazing is that the garden is modelled on Versailles.
It is strange indeed to see the Chateau in Peking. One doesn't expect to see anything like it. We are of course used to skyscrapers, ugly and uglier skyscrapers, built all over the capital, but one would not expect a replica French chateau. The owner, Mr Zhang, is a very affable man. He is very proud of his estate, for it is an estate. And rightly so. The workmanship, at least outside, is faultless. On a beautiful day with clear blue sky, I visited Mr Zhang with my wife and our friend, Tom Parker-Bowles, son of Camilla, who is married to Prince Charles. As a bit of an aristo, Tom, who is of course now the stepson of Prince Charles, knows a thing or two about palaces and grand places. But even he was astonished - as we were. Mr Zhang, our host, could not have been nicer nor more hospitable. He gave us a sumptuous lunch - but mind you, no Chateau Lafite!
Mr Tom Parker-Bowles, Mr Zhang, me and wife.
What is wonderful to me is that there are Chinese mainlanders who are seemingly as eccentric as Mr Zhang. I admire rich people in the mainland because they must have excelled - in the Charles Darwin world of the evolution of the species, they must have been the survivors of the fittest. So they are the winners. And as a winner, Mr Zhang could have built another boring skyscraper of a shopping mall or a hotel or an office block. But no, he bought hundreds of acres of land, and he built a massive French chateau surrounded by beautiful landscaped gardens. For me, it is truly wonderful that there are seemingly crazy people like Mr Zhang. I love the way that he did something completely different and utterly unexpected. I hope Mr Zhang now builds something like Bavaria's Neuschwanstein, originally conceived by the mad King Ludwig, and after which Walt Disney modelled his own fantasy tower! Then eventually, someone will think about duplicating the Forbidden City, and that would accidentally restore the true glory of Chinese arhictecture and culture to China!
Talking of buildings, I read in the newspaper that that marvellous Chinese house at 45 Stubbs Road is being sold privately for HK$450 million. Why doesn't the Government buy it? Or why doesn't a tycoon or a consortium of tycoons get together and buy it for Hong Kong? The house is clearly unique, and it will be another dreadful travesty of heritage if some greedy developer were to get his hands on it, and then pull the whole thing down to make way for yet another phoney high-end residential block. Brain-block is what comes to my mind when these things happen.
The historic King Yin Lei mansion at 45 Stubbs Road.
Just look at the way in which last month how Prince Charles led a consortium with £ 45 million and bought for the British nation an extraordinary house in Scotland called Dumfries. This house was important not only as an architectural masterpiece, but inside, a great deal of the contents had significant value. Some of Chippendale's finest works are found amongst the furniture.
There was jubilation all over Britain when this house was saved. So why can't we do it in Hong Kong? We are infinitely wealthier than the Brits, and isn't it uncanny that the number 45 figured in both Dumfries and 45 Stubbs Road? One for £ 45 million; the other for HK$450 million. And even the address at Stubbs Road is 45! Come on! Is it too late for someone, or someone together with someone else, or simply the Government, to bite the bullet and buy it and save it for Hong Kong? If we are really serious about the preservation of our heritage, there is no finer example. The building can be turned into a Hong Kong museum that records the vernacular life of Hong Kong. There won't be a better location or a building in which this can be done. Don't say I haven't warned you all how not to miss this great opportunity!
