In its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, the Lung Wah Hotel, a converted, Spanish revival villa, offered a leafy refuge from the bustle of city life, near a cove and surrounded by parks in Hong Kong’s northern New Territories.
Winding stairs, flanked by red lanterns, led to a sprawling Chinese-style garden. On summer weekends, people gathered for games of mahjong under a pavilion as children played nearby in sandboxes and swings. Movies were once shot there and Bruce Lee, its most famous patron, practiced martial arts on its roof.
In the decades since, the hotel stopped renting out rooms because new fire codes would require them to be upgraded. The surrounding rice fields were developed into middle-class housing. The restaurant is still turning out its famed roast pigeon, but it has struggled to fill its wood-trimmed dining rooms since its 500-spot parking lot was requisitioned for a new police station in the 1970s.
Lung Wah Hotel in Hong Kong’s northern New Territories.
Now, the operation has been given a chance for a new lease on life — by leaning into the past. An unused teahouse on the property has been remade into Hong Kong Radiance, a hands-on museum that seeks to recreate slices of the vibrant life in the city as it transitioned from a postwar factory town producing clothes, electronics and plastics into a glittering financial center connecting East and West.
John Wu, a graphic designer and well-known local collector who curated the space, said he wanted it to resemble a film set, where each corner had a cohesive color palette.