Melody and Jordan Travel Memories: Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail is literally a step into the far past. Not far, far past in terms of China's history, but far back in terms of Hong Kong's cultural heritage. Located up by Tuen Mun MTR station, it's a completely different place, exactly the type of thing we'd been looking to find since we got here.

We got up in late morning and had our breakfast and met up with Chris, and began our MTR journey to get up to Fanling station. It's one of the very farthest stations from our east side of Kowloon, so it was quite a journey. Probably took almost almost an hour to get there! Once we arrived in Tuen Mun, we hopped on another little mini-bus and made up way up into the hills to find the heritage trail. Upon landing, the first realization we make is how spread out and new the houses look. Some of the houses look like they were built in the last 5 years. The siding is new, the metal railings are shiny. We're supposed to be looking for an ancient heritage trail, yet our first observation is brand new housing developments. The mysterious double story of Hong Kong history arises again.

Our very first stop is a map board that clearly declares the beginning of the trial. It is standing in the small courtyard of Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, just a stone's throw from 6 tenant apartment building where a man is washing his patio. Here on Google maps. An old man is sitting in the courtyard, chatting away in Cantonese into a mobile phone, dispelling all conception that this area has been left forgetting by Father time. We look to the map board and see a description about the early walled settlements built by the Tang clan, one of the first clans to move into Hong Kong, settle, and proliferate themselves in history by the construction of walled villages, or "Wai", 圍)

The Map showing the different wai

Outside Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall

Jordan down an alley outside the hall

In the backyard area inside the ancestral hall's walls

From there we walked 100 metres down the wall to find our first walled village, aka wai, known as Lo Wai. It's located here on Google maps. As I walk up the concrete steps to enter, Chris and Melody point out that the red banners are more than just decoration from the past; they say "No tourists" or something to that matter. So we instead walk along the wall side, and take a look around the back.

Approaching a walled village, no tourists allowed sadly

That's an ancient walled village on our right

Behind the walled city

Jordan trying to grab a handhold to peer into a peep hole

At this point, change directions and start walking down the longer path of our map, the one that leads back to Fanling, and encounters a few wai along the way. It's quite the scenic route. Further illuminating our guesses of the average age of this area's populace, we stumble upon a large outdoor basketball court, where some children are playing. It indeed seems that at least 3 generations currently call this area home.

Along the way, we also encounter Wing Ning Wai. By far one of our weirdest encounters, it definitely gave me the foreigner feeling. As we attempted to tread softly and unnoticed, the inevitable calls in Cantonese rang out from hidden nooks and children were ushered inside. I definitely knew were were being watched from many angles as we poked around. I didn't want to invade their privacy, but we figured the small streets were fair game and didn't want to pass up this opportunity to look inside Hong Kong's cultural incubator. The weirdest feeling about this wai is that juxtaposition of having ancient brick walls and old houses next to tricked out sports cars, as we found parked in the driveways of some of the houses.

The recurring theme up in Fanling area has been the nearly complete preservation of ancient culture and architecture, but the inevitable signs of new age culture presenting itself in a strange, yet harmonious relationship that is distinct and unique.

Walking our scenic route

Entrance to Wing Ning Wai

A sort of sub entrance that we found

The sports car that seems to be ever present in the new generation's Chinese concept for mianzi, 面子

We walk far enough to cross back across the highway that lead us to our dropoff point and keep walking north. At this point, we're less than 5km from the Chinese border. We eventually find Kun Lung Wai (覲龍圍) . Walking in, we stumble upon a grassy courtyard where 3-5 familes are barbecuing and laughing, children running around as parents try to get them fed. We've just walked in on a birthday party, as Chris later overhears. We've stumbled into a 400 year old village and there are still families thriving in there.

Outside the walls of Kun Lung Wai. Notice how it looks like the photo on wiki? :)

The back grassy area where an ancient tree grows

Another deserted back corner, with apartments in the background

One of the alleys

A shrine in the back corner.

We are nearing the end of our trek. We cross a bridge and find that we are quickly approaching mountainous terrain, the likes of which we didn't prepare for. The sun is also beginning to set, giving us an indication to soon head back. Down stream from the bridge, we are able to spy families fishing in the water. Thinking about how we walked nearly 3 km from our landing point in a due north direction, I figured that we were probably within 2km from crossing into China at this point. We call it a day and head back down to the highway, where we catch a bus back into Fanling's city centre. A quick dinner and our day is complete!