Haw Par Mansion, which is well-known in Hong Kong for housing the famous Tiger Balm Garden, will reopen to the public for free guided tours from June 9. The 1.5-hour-long tours will be held every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and public holiday, except for the first three days of the Lunar New Year.

There will be four tours on each day, starting at 10.15am, 12.15pm, 2.15pm, and 4.15pm. Visitors will get to explore the mansion’s private garden and most of its interiors, while learning about its history, architectural features, and heritage value.

Visitors to Haw Par Mansion will get a tour of its interiors.
Visitors to Haw Par Mansion will get a tour of its interiors (©Wpcpey via Wiki Commons)

Visitors can only attend the tours by making an appointment online, which will be approved on a first-come-first-served basis. Each group can accommodate 24 people, but bookings can only be made for two people at a time at the moment.

The mansion grounds previously housed the Haw Par Music school, which closed in December 2022. Haw Par Music’s tenancy agreement was supposed to expire in March 2025, but the foundation that ran the school faced financial difficulties and decided to return it to the government early.

Visitors flocked to the mansion to get a look at its unique sculptures and murals in the garden.
Visitors flocked to the mansion to get a look at its unique sculptures and murals in the garden (©Kathryn Greenhill via Wiki Commons)

Haw Par Mansion was built by entrepreneur Aw Boon Haw and his family in 1935 in the Chinese Renaissance style, and was opened to the public in the early 1950s, who flocked there to get a look at the sculptures that dotted the garden. In 1985, the garden was converted into the Haw Par Villa amusement park and many of the sculptures were replaced by rides.

The Tiger Balm Garden was demolished in 2004, and many of the garden’s murals and statues were salvaged by the Antiquities and Monuments Office. The mansion was accorded Grade I status in 2009.

See also
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Header image credits: Wpcpey via WikiCommons

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From the Middle East to the Far East and a couple of places in between, Anjali has lived in no fewer than seven cities in Asia, and has travelled extensively in the region. She worked as a lifestyle journalist in India before coming to Hong Kong, where her favourite thing to do is island-hopping with her daughter. You can check out her musings on motherhood, courtesy her Instagram profile.

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