Jackie Peers School of Photography at (黄竹洋) Wong Chuk Yeung

Wong Chuk Yeung village was established by the Li family (李) in 1660, who were originally from Dongguan, in Guangdong Province. Before they came to the village, they went to Kowloon City during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) with the Ng (吳) and Chan (陳) clans and set up the Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen. The villagers were farmers, producing rice, sugar and beancurd sticks, which they sold in the Sai Kung Market. 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 Li were resettled by the government from Ping Chau to a site near the village with the provision of water supply for their daily use and irrigation.

Wong Chuk Yeung village is now largely abandoned but is regularly visited by its ancestral descendants at times of ancestral worship such as at Qingming Festival. It lies along the MacLehose Trail (stage 4) and is one of the few abandoned villages in Hong Kong accessible by car. The village is currently in the middle of a takeover bid from a development company.

My first date with Daisy also started at Wong Chuk Yeung and continued on up into the mountains beyond.