new fields

Despite having lived in Hong Kong, on and off, for more than 40 years, I’d never visited San Tin (‘new field(s)’), the domain of the Man clan, until December last year. It’s likely that I hadn’t even heard of the place until a few years ago, when I learned of potentially interesting historical buildings in the area:

Man Lung Fung Ancestral Hall.

Tai Fu Tai Mansion.

Tung Shan Temple.

However, it looked as though the location would be awkward to get to, certainly by bike.

On my first ever visit to the area, I decided to cycle over Saddle Pass (Ki Lun Shan Au), which is certainly an indirect approach. However, I did find an interesting connection to ‘the snake path’, which was an unexpected bonus that I shall incorporate into ‘journey to the west’ the next time I do that ride.

When I emerged from the snake path, I crossed the expressway via a tunnel and found myself on the opposite side of Castle Peak Road to the start of what I’d already identified on the map as San Tin Tsuen Road (tsuen is Cantonese for village). This road separates the built area that I shall henceforth refer to as San Tin—although it is actually several villages that have, over time, coalesced into one—from an extensive area of fish ponds.

The red X on this satellite photograph lies on San Tin Tsuen Road:

The San Tin conurbation lies immediately to the east of the X.

On this first visit, I was unable to find a way from San Tin Tsuen Road into the built area and eventually found myself almost back on Castle Peak Road before I discovered a road that led, eventually, to the gatehouse of a wai (‘walled enclosure’):

The walls are now rather dilapidated:

…but I followed them into a maze of narrow alleyways.

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea where I was going, but quite by chance I ended up at the rear of what was clearly a significant historical building. This, I learned, was the Man Lung Fung Ancestral Hall, which was built in the seventeenth century and is now a declared monument, the highest category for listed buildings in Hong Kong.

A helpful lady from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department explained that if I followed the squares of red bricks arranged in a double basket-weave pattern and spaced at regular intervals, starting at the side of the hall, I would come to the Tai Fu Tai Mansion, which was built in the mid-nineteenth century and is also a declared monument. Tai fu means ‘high official’ and is a title that was bestowed on San Tin’s top man at the time by the Qing emperor. The plaster mouldings and other small-scale features of this building are absolutely stunning.

I didn’t find the Tung Shan Temple on this initial visit—I wasn’t aware of its existence—but I did notice that it was marked on a sketch map in the brochure that the lady from the LCSD gave me, and I had no trouble locating it on my next visit.

I thought that Paula might enjoy visiting these historic buildings, and I was right! She was hugely impressed with the Tai Fu Tai Mansion in particular and thought that more people should know about it. Even though she is a Hong Kong native, she’d never been aware that such buildings existed here. I hadn’t been either—until this winter!

On my next visit, I decided that I should investigate the fish ponds:

This is a general view from a point on San Tin Tsuen Road.

I started at the red X and headed northwest for about 700 metres to the red circle that I’ve marked on the satellite photo above. And these are some of the photos that I took along this section:

This is what I would describe as an ‘active’ fish pond, because it contains two aerating machines.

And this ‘building’ is pumping what I imagine are nutrients into the same pond:

I know from my experience further west that fish ponds attract a lot of birds, although this is the only photo that I was able to take on this occasion:

The long-legged birds are black-winged stilts—Paula and I identify them as ‘red legs’—but I don’t know what the smaller birds are. I queried the reason for the round holes in The Mystery of the Holes, and although it seems far-fetched, the culprits appear to be a species of fish known as tilapia.

I simply had to take the next photo. It shows a mini-bulldozer, which will have been used at one time to excavate nearby fish ponds:

I can’t imagine it ever being used again!

I don’t know why this pond has been drained:

…but I love the pattern of cracks in the dried mud.

The next photo shows what the ‘roads’ through the fish ponds look like:

This photo requires some explanation:

Notice that the reflection of the skyscraper in Shenzhen is fuzzy, because there was quite a bit of wind, but nearest the camera, the surface is broken up in a different way. This is because when I stopped to take a photo, I inadvertently disturbed a small bird in the bank below me, and it went skittering across the water for about 10–12 metres before sinking without trace—or so it seemed.

I turned south at the red circle and eventually emerged onto a huge unmetalled road at the more northerly of the two red circles that you can see at the bottom of the satellite photo above. This ‘road’ carries an almost continuous stream of heavy goods vehicles, so I decided to follow a track starting at the more southerly of the red circles.

I didn’t take any more photos along here, but I eventually ended up at an unmanned crossing point into China, indicated by the large red circle in the top left of the satellite photo:

I had no alternative but to turn back!

On my way back, always looking for an alternative to what I’d already done, I decided that I would like to cross to the other side of a stream through the area. And there was a bridge:

I was tempted to try, but there is no guard rail on the narrow central section, and it does not look as though you can build up enough speed to avoid wobbling.

This photo was taken from a bridge over the same stream that is a longer way round but sturdy enough to support motor vehicles:

So that was my only foray to date through the San Tin fish ponds, but I was back last weekend with Paula to try to shoot some video of the narrow alleyways. Unfortunately, we haven’t mastered the intricacies of the camera, and instead of a video, we ended up with a series of photographs:

I’ve selected these photos for just one reason: notice that in each of the four there is a four- or five-storey residential building. I believe that they are illegal! As far as I can tell, they are supposed to be ‘village houses’, a legal definition that mandates a maximum of three storeys. I don’t understand how anyone can get away with this, but there are many such oversized buildings in San Tin. The other thing that strikes me is how close the houses are to each other. Two words spring to mind: greed. And corruption.

When examining this collection of photos, I was intrigued by this last image:

Look at the background! I can’t recall ever seeing tablecloths on the tables of what in any other village I would describe as just a store. This looks more like an urban cafe.

I don’t know what else there is to discover in San Tin itself—I have, among other things, found three other ancestral halls—but I want to see what else there is to see in the fish ponds. Tune in here for the latest updates.