Hong KongLetting Its Roots ShowBy Toni DabbsHong Kong has a reputation as a progressive center of international commerce. Change is a constant, with newer and more modern buildings continually altering the city's skyline. However, beneath the ever expanding forest of glass and steel high-rises rimming Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong's traditional foundations remain firmly fixed. But the connection with the past is more apparent in the New Territories to the north, the so-called "land between" that's both a geographical and cultural bridge between traditional China and modern Hong Kong. The ancient market town of Tai Po, on Tolo Harbor, has become something of a boom town, the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) putting it within commuter distance of Hong Kong's business core. The bustling market still spreads over many blocks in the old part of town, its street stalls showing all kinds of goods -- fresh produce, dried herbs and live seafood, cooking utensils, clothing, even electronics.
About eight kilometers northwest of Tai Po on the KCR line is Sheung Shui, the location of Man Shek Tong, the main ancestral hall of the Liu clan. Built in 1751, it not only is a place of worship but also is a setting for important clan ceremonies and festivals. An elongated courtyard connects the main hall with two smaller halls on either side. Soul tablets of past generations are arranged in rows on altars framed with richly painted relief decoration. A short drive west is the village of San Tin, where Tai Fu Tai, meaning "important person's residence" is situated. The only structure of its kind remaining in the New Territories, the stately country home was built in 1865 by Man Chung-luen, a scholar who became a high-ranking mandarin.
Throughout, the house is embellished with painted, carved and molded botanical and zoological Chinese motifs -- bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid and plum blossom, lion, unicorn, deer and bat. Ten kilometers southwest of San Tin is Ping Shan, site of the largest cluster of historic structures open to public view in the New Territories. It can be reached by taking first a ferry from the Central District of Hong Kong Island to Tuen Mun and then the Light Rail Transit from Tuen Mun to Ping Shan.
Built in 1870 by Tang Heung Chuen to commemorate his father Tang Kun Ting, the study hall was a place for the sons of the Tang clan to prepare for the Imperial Civil Service examinations. The examinations ceased in 1904, but the building continued to serve as a school for clan children until after the Second World War.
The most unusual structure at Ping Shan is the simple three-story, hexagonal Tsui Shing Lau, which means "pagoda of the gathering stars." Erected more then 600 years ago, it is the only historic pagoda still standing in Hong Kong. Other buildings that can be visited are two side-by-side ancestral halls, built in the 13th and 16th centuries, and two Taoist temples, both several centuries old.
Nearby are a 200-year-old well that once was the main source of drinking water for Ping Shan, a riverside shrine to She Kung who is believed to protect the community, and the walled Tang clan village of Sheung Cheung Wai.
Sam Tung Uk, meaning "three-beam dwelling," contained three rows of buildings when it was constructed in 1786. A longer row at the back and a perpendicular row along each side were added as the population grew. Today, its rooms display period furnishings, kitchen implements and farm tools. The Heritage Tour, a five-hour coach tour operated by Gray Line, stops at a number of these cultural treasures in the New Territories, and the Heritage and Architecture Walk: New Territories, a four-hour audio-guided walking tour, focuses on Tai Po. Arrangements for both may be made through the Hong Kong Tourism Board Visitor Information and Services Center at the Star Ferry Concourse in Tsim Sha Tsui. by Toni Dabbs FOR MORE INFORMATIONHong Kong Tourism Board Copyright 2002 by Toni Dabbs. This work, including photographs, is protected by copyright and may be used only for personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved, and commercial use is prohibited without permission of the author. |
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Nearby is the turn-of-the-century Tai Po Market railway station, the only Chinese style KCR station in Hong Kong. Since being replaced by a new station in 1983, it has become the Hong Kong Railway Museum, exhibiting models, memorabilia and rolling stock dating from 1911 to 1974.
Crowning the top ridge of the gracefully sloping tile roof are three-dimensional clay figures fired at a famous kiln in Shiwan, China. Suspended inside the main hall are two honorific boards presented by Qing Emperor Guangxu, who bestowed the Tai Fu title on Man Chung-luen. Inscribed with both Chinese and Manchu characters, they're the only known examples of their kind in Hong Kong.
The most ornate buildings in Ping Shan are the Kun Ting Study Hall and adjacent Ching Shu Hin Guest House.
The adjoining guest house was designed to impress the prestigious visitors and scholars who stayed there. It's a sampler of classic Chinese architectural elements -- molded figures on roof ridges, doorways and windows of various geometrical shapes, well proportioned spaces, elegantly carved and painted eaves boards and screen panels, glazed ceramic grilles, and granite column bases.
Hung Shing Temple is dedicated to a man who lived about 1,000 years ago and was elevated to the status of god for his ability to accurately predict the weather. Yeung Hau Temple honors a general who sacrificed his life to protect the last two emperors of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Sheung Cheung Wai is not open to the public because it's still inhabited, but curious tourists can find out what lies within a walled village at Sam Tung Uk, a Chan clan walled village preserved as a museum in Tsuen Wan, about 12 kilometers southeast of Ping Shan. Tsuen Wan is easily accessed from Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula via the Mass Transit Railway.