Shui master :Dragon smiles on HK tycoons

Some of Hong Kong's richest property tycoons were born in the Year of the Dragon and can expect a prosperous 2012 under their auspicious birth-sign, a feng shui master said Wednesday. "The element of earth is especially pronounced in the Year of the Dragon, so people born this year will have an advantage in business related to the earth -- real estate for example," Hong Kong geomancer Si Tou Kin Fu said. Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, was born in the Year of the Dragon in 1928. The chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, he has a net worth of $22 billion and is ranked 11th on the Forbes billionaires list. His son Richard Li, born on the Dragon year of 1964, is chairman of Hong Kong's biggest phone company. At age 44, he is worth an estimated $1.4 billion. Raymond Kwok, another dragon baby born in 1952, is the youngest of the Kwok clan, which is behind one the city's biggest developers, Sun Hung Kai Properties. The family was ranked 23rd on Forbes billionaires list last year. Also born in 1952 is Robert Ng, chairman of property development conglomerate Sino Group. He is the eldest son of Ng Teng Fong, the Singaporean real estate billionaire. The Chinese zodiac is based on a 12-year cycle, with each year represented by an animal. Traditionally associated with imperial power, the dragon is the fifth animal in the cycle and is considered the most auspicious. Si Tou said that not all those born in a dragon year could expect fortune and power. Other factors such as the time of birth were also vital to one's fate. "Li Ka-shing has a special life grid, unusual," Si Tou said. "Otherwise one 12th of the Chinese population would be mega-rich -- we know that's not true."