The Sam Tung Uk Museum is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

restored from Sam Tung Uk (, which describes the original floorplan), a

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

walled village A walled village () is a type of large traditional multi-family communal living structure found in China, that is designed to be easily defensible. It is completely surrounded by thick defensive walls, protecting the residents from the attack o ...

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a town built on a bay in the western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite of Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market town of Tsuen Wan emerged from the surrounding villages and flee ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

History

It was built by a Chan (, pronounced "''chin2 (or tshin2)''" in the

Hakka dialect Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities ar ...

)

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

under the leadership of the clan patriarch, Chan Yam-shing, in 1786 during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

Antiquities and Monuments Office The Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) was established in 1976 under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance to protect and preserve Hong Kong's historic monuments. Housed in the Former Kowloon British School, the AMO is responsible for iden ...

. Declared Monuments in Hong Kong - New Territories
Sam Tung Uk Village
/ref> The Chan clan was originally from

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

; they had moved to

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, and then to Hong Kong to engage in farming. The site has been carefully restored and opened to the public as a museum. Sam Tung Uk was vacated in April 1980 and declared a historic monument in March 1981. The Hong Kong government funded its restoration and converted it into a museum between 1986 and 1987. The restoration work won the Pacific Heritage Award of the Pacific Asia Tourist Association in 1990.

Museum

The entrance, assembly and ancestral halls, and twelve of the original houses are preserved. Other rooms have been modified to accommodate a reception area, an orientation room, an exhibition hall, a museum office, and a lecture theatre. The agricultural implements and everyday objects of Hakka village life are on permanent display. The main exhibition hall at the far end of the building complex changes its displays approximately every six months. Documentation of the restoration process is on display in Orientation Room. The Sam Tung Uk Museum is open from 09:00 to 17:00 every day of the year except Tuesdays,

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

Boxing Day Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

, and the first three days of the Lunar New Year. Admission is free of charge. It can be accessed from the MTR

Tsuen Wan station Tsuen Wan () is the northern terminus of the MTR in Hong Kong. It is the only station on the Tsuen Wan line at ground level. It is located in the northern central part of Tsuen Wan New Town, New Territories West. The preceding station is . ...

References

External links

Sam Tung Uk Museum

1960 photograph of Sam Tung Uk

CityLife. Sam Tung Uk
{{Coord, 22.37205, N, 114.12015, E, source:placeopedia, display=title History museums in Hong Kong Declared monuments of Hong Kong Rural history museums in Asia Tsuen Wan Hakka culture in Hong Kong Walled villages of Hong Kong Architecture in China Historic house museums in China Houses completed in 1786 Museums established in 1987 1987 establishments in Hong Kong Villages in Tsuen Wan District, Hong Kong

History

Museum

See also

References

External links