Lai Chi Wo is located in the northeast of the New Territories, near Plover Cove Country Park. Backed by mountains and facing the sea, Lai Chi Wo’s environmental setting houses diversified habitats: mature Fung Shui wood, secondary forest, shrubland, freshwater streams, agricultural wetland, mangrove, mud flat, rocky shore and inner sea. These habitats nurture various living organisms and offer a wide range of rich ecological resources.
Lai Chi Wo is one of the Hakka villages in Sha Tau Kok, with her history dating back to the 17th century. The village was founded by two Hakka (客家) clans, the Tsang’s (曾) and the Wong’s (黃). The ancestral lineage of the Tsang’s clan can be traced back to Shandong (山東) in northern China. It was said that the founding ancestor of the Wong’s also came from Dongguan (東莞) and he was a commander of the Ming Dynasty. After the Qing Dynasty took over the rule of China, he and his followers went south and landed at Hung Shek Mun (紅石門). Wong dismissed his followers and settled down at Chu Mun Tin (珠門田), becoming neighbours with the Tsang’s family. Later, both founding ancestors of the Tsang’s and Wong’s decided to move down to settle in Lai Chi Wo where there was more flat land close to the sea.
In the heyday of its agriculture, Lai Chi Wo fed more than a thousand villagers. Farmlands once extended up to the hilltop. However, much of these farmlands have lain abandoned since the 1950s due to a wave of migration to foreign countries and the severe competition in the agricultural market. The majority of the local villagers emigrated to either the United Kingdom or other European countries in the 50s to 70s, while a minority of villagers, remaining in Hong Kong, have also moved out to the urban areas.
(The above information are excerpted from the website of HSBC Rural Sustainability Programme)
Since 2013, the Policy for Sustainability Lab (香港大學策動永續發展坊) has launched the Sustainable Lai Chi Wo Programme with the partnership of three NGOs: Hong Kong Countryside Foundation (鄉郊基金), Produce Green Foundation (綠田園基金) and the Conservancy Association (長春社). They have collaborated and engaged with a large number of local villages to work on an array of activities, ranging from agricultural rehabilitation and community revitalization, to biodiversity research and rural education. In 2021, Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape was rewarded with the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
篩選 Filter
Yellow rice wine chicken
Yellow rice wine chicken is a popular dish in the Hakka culinary tradition. One might be familiar with red and white wine, but what about yellow rice wine? Historically, villagers in the New Territories used to produce their own wine using glutinous rice for personal consumption. Made from simple ingredients like glutinous rice, water and […]
Stone-ground rice flour: the everyday life of farmers
Stick rice flour (粘米粉) and glutinous rice flour (糯米粉) are essential ingredients of traditional Hakka pastries. In bygone days before the establishment of supermarkets, pre-packaged rice flour was not available in rural areas. To make Ban-kwo (Hakka rice cake,茶粿和糕粄), farmers had to crush rice grains into powder by manually grinding the ingredients with a stone […]
Kwan Tai (God of War) Festival
關公信仰是客家人最重要的的信仰，雖然客家人是多神崇拜，但是建主廟的話還是關帝為首，客家人的關帝廟的名稱多數為「協天宮」是關公的另一個封號「協天大帝」，在沙頭角很容易看到祂的身影，例如上面說到的荔枝窩，無獨有偶發現協天 宮包圍著沙頭角海，有谷埔、南涌、膊頭下、烏石角、山咀，非常有特色的協天宮 圈
Stone Tablets of New Territories Villages
如果對香港鄉村歷史有興趣的話，你會怎麼開始？先以鄉間最常見的文字資料 – 石碑作頭炮：眾籌修建公共設施（道路，橋，船，學校，廟宇）＝〉反映地區社群關係
宗族內籌款修建祠堂 ＝〉反映宗族內部關係
糾紛仲裁的結果 ＝〉反映村民如何處理糾紛及當時的社會環境/法律
標示地界，指明道路方向 等等
The Crafts of Vernacular Architecture
【1. Walls – Mud Bricks, Blue Bricks, Rubble Masonry】 Vernacular houses in Hakka villages tend to be constructed with 3 main materials, mud bricks, blue bricks, and rubble masonry. Old village houses tend to be constructed with mud bricks. Wealthier villagers would construct the front façade of the house with blue bricks and construct the […]
Multipurpose temples: A Map of Deities in Sha Tau Kok (Part II)
In addition to worshiping, temples serve three additional purposes: 1. As a regular meeting place for village and village alliance discussions, negotiations and arbitrations, and as a symbol of unity. Some temples were only worshipped by one village originally, yet they evolved to become the core temple of the whole village alliance after the formation […]
A Map of Deities in Sha Tau Kok (Part I)
It is easy to encounter temples of different sizes in Hong Kong. This ranges from large-scale Tin Hau temples that occupy the space of a few shops on ground floors to shrines in shops. If you look closely, you see deities everywhere in the city. Part 1 – Religions Believers are free to worship different […]
Clothing | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
RamieBoehmeria nivea The ubiquitous plant grows everywhere but it is also very functional. The leaves can be used as pig feed or made into hakka rice cakes named ‘coarse-leaf tart’. Its stems can be made into rope, clothing, and shoes after being soaked and torn. Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour. The ball-shaped rhizome of cirrhosa reveals its […]
Food | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
Chinese MugwortArtemisia argyi The Hakka people believe that Chinese mugwort has the properties of removing dirt and filth, and the plant grows exceptionally well near Ching Ming Festival, thus Chinese mugwort leaves are added into Hakka rice cake as an ingredient near Ching Ming times. The Chinese mugwort Hakka rice cake, also referred as ‘Ching […]
Rituals | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
Pomelo Citrus maxima People bathe in fragrant water made by boiling pomelo leaves in hot water on Chinese New Year’s Eve. The practice can ward off negative energy and improve one’s luck. The leaf has an invigorating aroma. The correlation between pomelo leaf and luck might be related to how the plant’s name sounds like the […]