Nina, Pretty Ballerina.

Community Highlights Asia Nina, Pretty Ballerina.

We were supposed to be going on holiday to Spain, France and Italy, but Peter hasn't been well and Spain is experiencing terrible flooding and here on the day our flight should have gone, there was a force 8 typhoon. (Typhoons don't happen here in November, but this is the second to take place in November this year and there's another one close behind it). So, long story short, it felt like this holiday was never meant to be and we cancelled it at the last minute. That's fine and yet this 'never to be holiday' has taken up so much of our time. I've sorted through wardrobes, washed, dried packed, shopped. We've spent hours planning and researching. We've had fight after fight about whether we should go or not, and in case you are interested these have not been straight forward fights. One day I'll say: "It's fine, we should go." and Peter will say: "I don't think I can do it." Then next day I'll say: "You are right. We should cancel." and Peter will say: "No, I really think we should go." We never agree and it goes round and round in a circle and this has been going on for weeks, but at least we finally made a decision. For my part my biggest bone of contention has been that this cancelled holiday has taken over so much of our lives, but now it's gone and the fighting is over.

Today when I woke up in Hong Kong knowing that I should have been just about landing in Spain, I just had to get out. I had no clear plan. I normally tell Peter where I'm going, but today all I could tell him was: 'I'm going out'. It was a pretty foul day weather wise and I planned my destination on route, eventually deciding that I would head to Nina Park, Tsuen Wan, which I have read has a collection of fossils.

I had never heard of Nina Park until quite recently, but I have been to Nina Mall One and Nina Mall Two in Tsuen Wan, which are next to the park. It never occurred to me that these might be called after an actual person. That was until I saw a little model of a girl with pigtails standing next to the park and I suddenly realised all these things are called after Nina Wang. Maybe that's not such a huge revelation as, although I have heard of Nina Wang, you could sum up my knowledge of her in the words: ' rich, contested will and pigtails.' But now that I have been to her park, I'm suddenly interested in finding out more about her, so here's what I have learned.

Cartoon type model of Nina Wang. She was famous for her pigtails, short skirts and bright colours.

Nina Kung , later to become Nina Wang, was born in Shanghai in 1937. Her closest childhood friend was a little boy called Teddy Wang, whose father had a paint and chemical business. However, the Wangs eventually left Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong where they established a business that later developed into the extremely lucrative Chinachem Group. Nina and Teddy were separated, but met again in 1948 when she was just eleven years old, and they married in 1955 when she was eighteen.

Unfortunately, the Wangs' successful business dealings didn't always bring them happiness. In 1983 Teddy Wang was kidnapped. He was kept chained to a bed for eight days until Nina paid a ransom of $33 million to have him released. Then seven years later in 1990, Teddy was kidnapped again, but this time he wasn't released and, to this day, his body has never been found. One theory is that Teddy had been taken on board a boat and his kidnappers threw him bound and gagged into the sea to avoid a police patrol boat finding him.

In 1999, although it was still the case that noone really knew what had happened to Teddy, he was declared officially dead. However, in trying to sort out his finances, it was discovered that he had left three different wills. The earliest will left half of Teddy's money to his father and the other half to Nina. The second one left everything to Teddy's father. Apparently it had been made shortly after Teddy had discovered that Nina was having an affair. The third will left everything to Nina and mentioned that Teddy was extremely unhappy with his family. After lengthy court proceedings, this third will was declared a forgery and all Teddy's money went to his father. However, Nina appealed against this ruling and managed to have it successfully overruled. Thus she regained control of Chinachem in 2005, but the nonstop stress of a missing husband and endless court battles had taken their toll. Nina Wang passed away two years later in 2007, aged just sixty-nine. At that time she was the richest woman in Asia with a net worth of US$4.2 billion. As well as being a successful business woman, Nina was famous for her pigtails, bright colours and short skirts.

Nina's death should have been the end of the story, but it wasn't. Nina's family stated that she had always insisted that she would leave the majority of her fortune to medical and educational charities in Mainland China, but after her death a will leaving money to these charities and a second different will were found. In the second will Nina left almost her entire fortune to her personal feng shui consultant, Tony Chan, who had apparently been her lover. Eventually this will was declared a forgery and Tony Chan was imprisoned.

So if you've ever wondered if excessive amounts of money always bring happiness, please think again.

Anyway, one final thing to note about Nina Wang is that she collected fossils and after her death The Chinachem Group decided that it would be a good idea to display them in a park next to the Nina Mall buildings. That's what I had decided to go and see.

I didn't head to Nina Park straight away. First, when I arrived in Tsuen Wan, I had a quick walk along the waterfront, looking at the ships and the bridges.

Looking towards the Ting Kau Bridge.

Ships passing the Ting Kau Bridge.

Looking towards Tsing Yi.

High rises in Tsing Yi.

More bridges.

I walked as far as the waterfront park that had a special display devoted to Din Dong and Jentle Cat cartoon characters last time I was here. I discovered many of these characters were still on display, but definitely not as many as before.

Din Dong.

Jentle Cat.

Other animal characters.

More animal characters.

I retraced my steps and walked through Tsuen Wan Park. It started to rain heavily, but I had a wander around nonetheless.

I had a look at the flat drawings that look 3d when viewed from a certain angle.

Waterfall.

Bridge next to a fish pond.

I found a pavilion filled with beautiful plants in a wide array of colours.

Colourful plants.

I walked to the bridge next to the waterfall and for the first time realised it was possible to climb up inside the tower.

Waterfall and tower.

Inside the tower.

The bridge viewed from the tower.

At the end of Tsuen Wan Park, next to the bus station, I saw a sign for Nina Park.

Nina Park Sign.

There were people hosing down the stairs leading up to the park, so climbing them was like wading through a fountain. Apparently most of Nina Wang's fossils came from Java. The first one I saw is known as the Nina fossil. It is shaped like a heart and was formed from two conjoined trees.

The Nina fossil.

Further in and there's a rather odd looking fossil fountain.

Fossil fountain.

Lots of other fossils were dotted around. Some were surrounded by flowers and plants, some were themed such as: the Graduation Fossil, the Promise Rock, the Victory Rock. The Graduation Fossil was tied up in a bow like a degree scroll. The Promise Rock was positioned next to a giant wedding ring inscribed with the word love in many different languages. The Victory Rock looked like it was sticking up two fingers to make a V for victory.

Fossils surrounded by flowers.

Fossils surrounded by plants.

The Graduation Fossil.

The Promise Rock Sculpture.

The Promise Rock Fossil from another angle.

The Promise Rock Fossil.

Victory Rock.

The whole collection contains about a hundred different fossils. There were some attractive fossil arrangements all around.

I thought this bumpy fossil was beautiful.

This one was called Moonrock. It's a three hundred year old tree that was buried in volcanic ash.

Fossilized trees.

Growth rings of a fossilized tree.

Stairway with fossils.

Then there were several scientific displays such as: The People Timepiece, The Sky Timepiece and The Earth Timepiece. These only operate at certain times. I wasn't there at the right time for any of them to be working. The People Timepiece shows how much water people waste each day. The Sky Timepiece shows how water evaporates to form clouds and then the clouds condense to form rain. The Earth Timepiece shows The Rock Cycle. Igneous rock weathers, erodes and deposits to form sedimentary rock, which gets compressed and heated into metamorphic rock, which liquifies into lava, then erupts and cools to form igneous rock. I actually don't ever remember learning about this in school. Maybe I was off that day!!!

People Timepiece.

Sky Timepiece.

Earth Timepiece.

I did see The Rainwater Harvesting System which recycles rain water come into operation. It works on the hour and half hour. It had plenty of rain water to recycle during my visit. There was also a water screw, one of the earliest ways to pump up water.

The Rainwater Harvesting System.

The Rainwater Harvesting System with The Fossil Discovery Centre in the background.

Water screw.

There was a sandpit with various animals bones in it.

Sandpit with bones.

There was even a bench that's supposed to check your temperature and cool you if you are hot, or warm you if you are cold. I didn't sit on it as it was soaking from all the rain.

Interactive bench.

I wandered in to The Fossil Discovery Centre. This had information about the park and about how fossils are formed. It displayed slices of fossilized wood, leaf fossils, flowers fossils, animal fossils and even dinosaur eggs and footprints. It was all very interesting.

Path leading to The Fossil Discovery Centre.