Wong Chuk Yeung () is a remote village in

Tai Po District Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. The suburban district covers the areas of Tai Po New Town (including areas such as Tai Po Market, , Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Wo Estate), Tai Po Tau, Tai Po Kau, Hong Lok Yuen, Ti ...

, on the

Sai Kung Peninsula The Sai Kung Peninsula () is a peninsula in the easternmost part of the New Territories in Hong Kong. Its name comes from Sai Kung Town in the central southern area of the peninsula. The southern part of the peninsula is administrated by Sai ...

of Hong Kong. It is located within the

Ma On Shan Country Park Ma On Shan Country Park () is a park located in the central neck of the Sai Kung Peninsula in the eastern New Territories of Hong Kong. The park covers an area of and links Sai Kung Country Park and Lion Rock Country Park to form an extensive ...

, southeast of Ma On Shan Peak.

Administration

Wong Chuk Yeung is a recognized village under the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

Small House Policy The Small House Policy (SHP, ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories. The Policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 ye ...

History

The village was established by the Lees (李) in 1660, who were originally from

Dongguan Dongguan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the s ...

, in

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) ...

Province. Before they came to the village, they went to

Kowloon City Kowloon City is an neighbourhood, area in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is part of Kowloon City District. Compared with the council area of Kowloon City District, the Kowloon City area is History As early as in the Qin dynasty (221 BCE ...

during the

Southern Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(1127-1279) with the Ng (吳) and Chan (陳)

clans 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 ...

and set up the

Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen, also known as Hing Yau Yu Tsuen was a walled village in Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon, Hong Kong with a history spanning more than 600 years. It was the last walled village in the urban core of Hong Kong before its resumption for r ...

Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monuments. The AAB was establish ...

. Historic Building Appraisal
No. 9 Row 2, Wong Chuk Yeung
/ref> The villagers were farmers engaged in rice growing. They also produced sugar and beancurd sticks for sale in the Sai Kung Market. At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Wong Chuk Yeung was 83. The number of males was 25. Military facilities are located in the vicinity of Wong Chuk Yeung. They are believed to have been built by the Japanese during World War II in order to check the movements of Communist guerrillas, who were active in the nearby

Sai Kung Sai Kung may refer to: * Sai Kung Town, or just Sai Kung, a town and administrative area in the Sai Kung District, Hong Kong * Sai Kung Peninsula, a peninsula in Hong Kong * Sai Kung District, an administrative district in Hong Kong, which does no ...

area. The systems comprises at least 13 pillboxes. Some of the village houses were occupied by the Japanese during the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong and the villagers were forced to build the road leading to Sai Kung and batteries on the hills. In the 1950s, iron mines were opened in Ma On Shan. As a consequence, the water tables of the village were lowered and the land became unsuitable for cultivation, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. Twelve families also surnamed Lee were resettled by the government from

Ping Chau Tung Ping Chau () is an island in Hong Kong, part of Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark. It is also known as Ping Chau (). ''Tung'' (, meaning ''east'') is prepended to the name at times so as to avoid possible confusion with ''Peng Chau'', ...

to a site near the village with the provision of water supply for their daily use and irrigation.

The village today

The village is abandoned but is regularly visited by its ancestral descendants at times of ancestral worship such as at

Qingming Festival The Qingming festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors' Day), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by the Han Chinese of mainland China, Hong Ko ...

. It lies along the

MacLehose Trail The MacLehose Trail is a 100-kilometre hiking trail that crosses much of the New Territories, Hong Kong, starting from Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung District in the east to Tuen Mun Town, Tuen Mun District in the west. The path is marked by distance p ...

(stage 4) and is one of the few abandoned villages in Hong Kong still accessible by car. The village is currently in the middle of a takeover bid from a development company.

References

External links

Delineation of area of existing village Wong Chuk Yeung (Sai Kung North) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)

Wild Cows and Ghost Towns: Hiking Hong Kong

Pictures of No. 9, Row 2, Wong Chuk Yeung

Entrance road to the village as seen in Google StreetView
{{coord, 22, 24, 19, N, 114, 15, 57, E, display=title Villages in Tai Po District, Hong Kong