Ground broken for Bruce Lee theme park in China
Last Updated: Monday, November 27, 2006 | 11:09 AM ET
CBC Arts
A ceremony was held Sunday in park in Shunde, a Chinese town near Hong Kong, to lay the foundations of theme park dedicated to kung fu star Bruce Lee.
Lee's younger brother, Robert, and actress Betty Ting Pei were at the ceremony to kick off work on the 200 million yuan ($29 million Cdn) park, according to the Bruce Lee fan club in Hong Kong.
The Bruce Lee theme park being built in Shunde in southern China is to include a statue of Lee, a memorial hall and a martial arts academy. This photo of Lee was taken in 1973.
(Columbia Pictures/Associated Press)
Lee was born in the United States, but moved to Hong Kong as a child, and achieved fame with his intense fighting style in movies such as Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.
The theme park is to include a statue of Lee, a memorial hall and a martial arts academy. Shunde is Lee's ancestral home town.
Wong Yiu-keung, the president of the fan club, said he was not sure who was funding the planned park.
The park is expected to be completed in three years.
Lee died in July 1973 at age 32 from a cerebral edema, a swelling of the brain, in Pei's apartment.
The Taiwanese-born actress donated a set of nunchucks, a martial arts weapon, for the theme park, according to a report in Hong Kong's Apple Daily.
A statue of Lee was unveiled in Hong Kong in 2005 on what would have been his 65th birthday.
