Lou Ka

At the end of the 19th century city was in an urgent need of expansion, and the natural area was this degraded buffer zone. Lou Cheok Chin (1837-1906) or Lou Kau, a wealthy businessman, helped to convince many rich Chinese to build their family mansions and gardens in an area outside the city walls between the Christian city and the Mong Ha village.

The place was an unhealthy swamp with a few bamboo trees, irrigated by water flux from Guia Hill. This area surrounded by two slopes know as "Macau Valley".

The first son of Lou Kau, Lou Lim Yeoc finished the construction of the garden inspired from the Suzhou / Hangzhou gardens.

The garden is walled with many shapes of pavilions, gates, etc., inspired accordingly with the fashion of the time in the "prospect garden" mentioned in the 18th century novel; A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin. In this novel, members of the Jia family invited their educated guests to give the more appropriate name to a view, to each pavilion, gate, corner or perspective.

The promenade to this literati garden is an exercise of culture, knowledge and sensibility. The artistic analyse process is similar to the way that the eye move in the painted scroll.

Like the eye in the scroll, a man can walk trough a garden. Poetry (painting /calligraphy) and garden design are two parallel worlds, which meet in the mind of the observer. Influences of Fung Seui, Taoism and Buddhism principles as well western style architecture was apparent in this eclectic garden.