Lai Chi Wo

As the name suggests, this area was once known for its lychee trees and it got its name before the Hakka settlement. In the 1960s and 1970s villagers found it more profitable to plant mandarins, which could fetch good prices during the Chinese New Year (as they are seen as auspicious). However, even the local villagers still cannot confirm if the village got the name because of the lychee trees or another reason.

Lai Chi Wo walled-village and the houses inside adapt the structure of a typical Hakka village. There are a total of 211 houses inside the village, including 3 ancestral halls (the Tsang's ancestral Hall, the Wong's ancestral Hall and the Wong's Weixing ancestral Hall). One hundred and thirty-one of the houses are single-storey buildings. Another 76 are double-storey buildings, and the remaining four are three-storey buildings. The village is structured in 3 rows and 9 columns.

The inhabitants of Lai Chi Wo consist primarily of the Tsang and Wong Hakka families. Many families have either moved overseas or to other parts of Hong Kong. The ancestors of the Hakka residents of this village are claimed to have originated from Kaifeng, Henan around 2500 years ago. The Wongs in Lai Chi Wo originate from Fujian, via Huizhou to Hong Kong during the early Qing dynasty. No one lives there except the occasional members of the Tsang family nowadays.

Layout

What elements should a village of good fung shui composed of? Good fung shui of the village ought to be embraced by mountains and hills at the back and on both sides. This can be served as a "green barrier" for the village. Native trees and shrubs are crucial concern for the selection of the fung shui sites, and villagers would also plant vegetations of different values to be added in the forest. Following the development of the forest, a C-shaped like forest would encompass the village, forming a typical layout of fung shui setting of the village and fung shui woods.

Functions

Fung shui woods can protect and alleviate the impact of strong breeze and sun burn. During the time of heavy rainstorm, mudflow or landslide may happen. The natural barrier can help reduce the level of destructiveness by its retention capacity to stop the water and mudflow. Also, the dense broad-leaved trees are good resisters devoted to prevent hillfire from spreading. In economical terms, villagers grow the economic crops at the edge of the forest. It includes edible stuff and vegetation for medical purpose. They can be used as fuel wood or construction materials.

Natural conservation

Fung shui woods have the ability to stabilise the slopes as well as to avoid leakage of surface nutrients and organic substances after heavy downpour. Moreover, the physical landscape and natural habitat of Hong Kong can be preserved. Indeed, they act as a breeding ground for other fauna such as birds, bats, butterflies and mammals to thrive.

The Lai Chi Wo Fung Shui Wood

The fung shui wood still exists thanks to the effort of the villagers in the past to use every means to preserve it, such as limiting the number of days for fuel wood collection and imposing penalties for the damage of trees.[15]

The 5–7 hectare fung shui wood comprises thick trees and shrubs. Most of them are 10–20 metres tall. We can see the great bio-diversity in Lai Chi Wo fung shui woods. For instance, we can find wild animals such as the Masked Palm Civet (Paguma larvata) and Chinese Porcupine (Hystrix brachyuran). Moreover, more than 100 plants have been recorded. Ordinary fung shui woods species like the Endospermum (Endospermum Chinese), Schima (Schima superb), Lance-leaved Sterculia (Sterculia lanceolata), Incense Tree (Ardisia quinquegona) can be seen. Other less common species like the Sampson Macaranga (Macaranga sampsonii), Lankok Fig (Ficus lankokensis) and Golden-leaved Tree (Chrysophyllum lanceolatum) have also been found.

Former Siu Ying School in Lai Chi Wo.

Siu Ying School (小瀛學校) has a long history.[16] As there was no school in the other six villages, children of those seven villages went to this school to study. It closed in 1980. Then it had been left for many years. It will be converted to tourist centre in the forthcoming years. The objective of the centre is to let people know the importance of eco-awareness and preservation of environment, species, ecology, culture, learn about the natural environment, plants and animal species of Lai Chi Wo, experience the village culture in the New Territories.

Old water well in Lai Chi Wo.

Stone mills are used to peel the crust of the wheat. Each one is made up of two big cylindrical stone structure stacked together. The surface of the rocks is very rough. After you pour the wheat into the mills, you stir the rock structure, and the wheat will be peeled off into rice that villagers can eat.

By virtue of the fact that there was no tap-water, villagers have to fulfill their needs by getting waters from rivers and wells. However, there were not enough rivers near Lai Chi Wo, villagers started to dig wells and use underground water to meet the daily demands. But nowadays wells are abandoned.

There are seven villages in the Hing Chun Alliance (慶春約, Hing Chun Yeuk). They are Lai Chi Wo, So Lo Pun, Sam A Village, Mui Tsz Lam (梅子林), Kop Tong (蛤塘), Siu Tan (小灘) and Ngau Chi Wu (牛池湖)[17] which are located at the coast of Northeast New Territories and facing Kat O. In ancient time, when the ancestors of the 7 villages first settled in this place, the mountain and land were barren and arable lands were insufficient. They opened up wastelands and built up houses sparing no effort. Gradually, the families began to enlarge and became villages until Eastern Sha Tau Kok was developed, the 7 villages associated and made up the Hing Chung Engagement. They also opened up the Seven-Village Square. After the establishment of the engagement, the life has been smooth therefore villages all believed that it was because of the blessing of Guan Di and Guan Yin. To thank the gods and pray for good fortune, they decided to hold a ten-year session (Bun Festival).

Tsang Ancestral Hall in Lai Chi Wo.

Ancestral Hall is the representative building of a clan with a lot of spirit tablet worshiping ancestors according to their positions in the family hierarchy. The eldest is located on the highest place and the younger ones are located on the lower places. Every Tomb-sweeping Day and Double Ninth Festival, or some other big festivals, villagers must visit the temple. There are two main families in Lai Chi Wo: Wong family and Tsang family. Therefore, there are temples of these two families in Lai Chi Wo.

Hip Tin Temple and Hok Shan Monastery

There are two temples, Hip Tin Temple and Hok Shan Monastery, in the square of Lai Chi Wo village.[16] The two structures are connected.

They were built in the Qing dynasty and are more than two hundred years old. They were jointly built by the seven villages in Sha Tau Kok, Hing Chun Yuek for drawing good fortune and expelling the evils. The village people worship Guan Di and Guan Yin. Hip Tin Temple is for Guan Di while Hok Shan Monastery is for Guan Yin. The temples are categorised by the government as Grade II historic buildings.[10]

The East Gate and the West Gate are the entrances of the village.[16] The East Gate is the main entrance on which there was engraved a sentence 'The purple cloud comes from the East.' In Chinese, purple means good fortune. The objective of the sentence is to hope to have highly placed or high-ranking government officials and noble lords coming into the village all the time so that it makes the village prosperous and flourishing. On the other hand, there was engraved a sentence 'The west can receive the auspicious light of luck.' on the West Gate. It means the village people hope to get luck and peace.

The broad way inside the Nature Trail was constructed in 2003 as a viewing platform. It is 120 metres long and introduces three main features in the eastern mudflat corner of Lai Chi Wo. The trail is 1.2 km.

The mangrove in Lai Chi Wo consists of Looking-glass mangrove (Heritiera littoralis) and White-flower Derris. Looking-glass mangrove is a species of mangrove whose biggest forest is to be found in Lai Chi Wo. Every April and May are their blossom seasons and fruits can be harvested from June to October. The fruit is round and green at first, and then become brown when it ripens. Heritiera littoralis is grand, peculiar and has a thick tree-crown. It is almost tall enough to reach the chest of people. The interlaced plank buttress serves to grasp the swampy soil in the tide zone to hold the body of the tree. And the "natural swing" around the forest of Looking-glass mangrove in fact is formed by the growing White-flower Derris.

There are four main kinds of seaweeds in Hong Kong. They are Halophila beccarii (貝克喜鹽草), Halophila ovalis (喜鹽草), Ruppia maritima (川蔓藻) and Dwarf eelgrass Zostera japonica (矮大葉藻) among which Zostera japonica was first found in Lai Chi Wo in 1979. Lai Chi Wo is the only place, and also the largest bed that we can find this kind of seaweed. This seaweed bed mat the shore for more than 2 hectares on the wild open mudflat. Seaweeds are precious in Hong Kong which mainly grow along the coast of northwest and northeast of New Territories. Seaweeds hold great importance to the eco-system because it provides shelter, food and feeding place for animals living along the coast, and besides, seaweeds can prevent soil and sand from being washed away.

The structures shaped like wooden slabs are named as buttress roots. Several of them can be seen inside Lai Chi Wo Nature Trail. The taller the tree, or the poorer the growing environment, the larger and stronger these buttress trees grow.

The Camphor measures 25 metres tall and 3 metres in diameter. It gets its name because it had five branches like five fingers, although only four of them remain today. It was said that during Japanese Occupation, when Lai Chi Wo was occupied as a military backup base for the Japanese Army, the Japanese cut down many trees for fear that their enemies will hide near the area and make sudden attacks. When the soldiers threatened to chop this five-finger Camphor, the villagers stood up to protected the tree with their lives. Therefore, only one of the "fingers" has been cut.

The Hollow Tree is an Autumn Maple (Bischofia javanica) estimated at to about one hundred years old. It reaches a 17-metre high and 1.9-metre in diameter.[20] It is called "hollow tree" because it has a huge hole inside the tree. The hole has openings in both upper and lower section of the tree. It is once said that there was a honeycomb and villagers tried to fire the comb but finally fired the tree altogether. However, the explanations from the description board of the tree told another cause. The parenchyma cells in the centre of the trunk contracted and withered as a result of infection. Small holes began to appear inside the tree. However, the nutrients and moisture transporting cells around the exterior part of the trunk continued to grow and thicken. The trunk later get thicker, and the centre hollow expanded in tandem.

Lai Chi Wo Pier

A ferry service runs between Ma Liu Shui (Landing Steps No. 3) to Lai Chi Wo on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.[21]

Visitors who carry the Sha Tau Kok permit can travel to Lai Chi Wo through boats. They can first go to Sha Tau Kok using KMB bus route 78K or Green mini-bus 55K.

Alternatively, Lai Chi Wo can be reached by hiking via one of the two popular hiking routes.

The first hiking route is from Wu Kau Tang, via Kau Tam Tso, Miu Tin and Lai Tau Shek. To get to Wu Kau Tang, hikers may use:

• Green mini-bus route 20R (daily route) from Tai Po Market station[22]
• KMB Bus route 275R (served on Sundays and holidays only; no service on non-holiday Mondays-Saturdays), from Tai Po Market station

The second hiking route is from Luk Keng, which green mini-bus 56K serves. Hikers can walk from Luk Keng, via Tai Wan, Kuk Po and Fan Shui Au.