Ma Wan is a small island wedged between Lantau and the New Territories, dominated by the soaring cables of the Tsing Ma Bridge. Planning for Ma Wan Park began in 1997, the year of Hong Kong's handover to China, after the government agreed to subsidise construction by 800 million Hong Kong dollars. Sun Hung Kai Properties, led by brothers Thomas and Raymond Kwok, drove the project as part of a broader development plan that included the nearby Park Island residential complex. Construction began in 2005. The first phase — a free nature park — opened in 2007, a year behind schedule. The rest followed in December 2008, with a limited opening in March 2009 and a full launch in May of that year. What visitors found when they arrived was a multi-storey building with a facade built to resemble the biblical ark, improbably large, parked beside the sea.

The centrepiece structure houses a hotel and youth hostel on its upper floors, and an immersive multimedia experience below. Inside, guides lead visitors through a sequence of theatres and galleries with a creationist narrative: an introduction to Judeo-Christian teaching from the time of Moses, a reconstructed Holy of Holies with a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, and reflections on the challenges facing Earth and humanity today. The suggested response to those challenges is acceptance of Christianity and biblical teaching. The experience concludes with a history of the Bible in China. Outside, 67 life-size pairs of animal sculptures flank the gangway — fiberglass tigers, giraffes, elephants, an inventory of the world's creatures disembarking from the hull. Elsewhere on the grounds, staff in period costume occasionally portray the Holy Family while others play pursuing Roman legionaries. The park also features a nature garden, a children's play area, climbing courses, and a small animal enclosure.

In 2012, Thomas and Raymond Kwok were charged with bribing Rafael Hui — Hong Kong's former Chief Secretary for Administration from 2005 to 2007, the official who had overseen the Ma Wan Park project during its construction. The allegation was that Hui had been paid to be the brothers' "eyes and ears in government." The total amount paid by Thomas Kwok to Hui reached HK$8.5 million. The case, prosecutors argued, illustrated the dangerously close relationship between Hong Kong's most powerful developers and its government. In December 2014, a jury in the Court of First Instance convicted Thomas Kwok of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined HK$500,000. Rafael Hui received seven and a half years. Raymond Kwok was cleared of all charges. The memo about the park being an "excuse for village relocation" — for displacing the original Ma Wan residents in favour of premium housing — made international headlines.

Whatever the circumstances of its creation, the ark's location is genuinely dramatic. The Tsing Ma Bridge, completed in 1997, is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world carrying both road and rail traffic. From Ma Wan's shoreline, the bridge's twin towers rise above the water in a way that makes the scale of the ark feel almost proportionate. The island retains a small fishing village alongside its newer developments. Visitors reach Ma Wan by ferry from Tsuen Wan or by bus through the Tsing Ma Bridge itself. The nature park portion of the grounds — free to enter — preserves native trees along terraced hillside paths. Hong Kong's capacity for holding contradictory things in close proximity is perhaps best illustrated here: an enormous biblical vessel, a corruption conviction, a free nature walk, and one of the engineering achievements of the twentieth century, all on the same island.