Wong Uk of Yuen Chau Kok in Shatin

Yuen Chau Kok’s Old House of Wong Uk stands in an area of Shatin that has but long-retired from significance. I lived in Shatin some thirty-five years ago and even then, Yuen Chau Kok was not anything that was talked about even amongst the residents of Shatin.

Now tucked in the backstretches of a public housing estate and an old hotel, Wong Uk stands still in time as the sole witness to a part of Shatin that was once a thriving major courier station for traffic between the New Territories and Kowloon.

In a time of glory long bygone, Yuen Chau Kok of Shatin was a waterfront area with ocean access. Most of the south Shatin Sea (Tide Cove) was filled by the Hong Kong Government’s reclamation efforts during the 1970s, a time that I have no personal memory of.

The History of the Old House of Wong Uk

Its name meaning “the House of the Wongs,” Wong Uk belonged to the Wong Clan, who came to Hong Kong during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1736-1795) from Xingping in Guangdong. Wong Uk was once a village, like so many other walled villages of Hong Kong. The Old House of Wong Uk was built by the 19th generation of the ancestor Wong Tsing-wo circa 1911.

In its heyday, the Wong Uk Tsuen Village was bustling with visitors. Travelers and merchants carrying goods for trade often stopped in this part of Hong Kong as a rest stop enroute between Guangdong and Kowloon. The Wongs had once built a hotel next to the Old House of Wong Uk to provide accommodation, and it had booming business.

After the reclamation efforts of the late 1970s, the Hong Kong Government then began to resume the ponds and agricultural land for development in Shatin. With many of the villagers moving out as well, the Old House of Wong Uk became the only of what remains in the former Wong Uk Tsuen Village in Yuen Chau Kok now.

I think Wong Uk has been well-restored. The rear hall now houses a very simple exhibition (basically, four large posters) that explained the story of Wong Uk well with a good and simple narrative.

The Old House of Wong Uk has been a Declared Monument since 1989.

The Architecture of the Old House Wong Uk

As a traditional Hakka structure meant for residency, Wong Uk comes with a common two-hall, one-courtyard and three bays layout. The old house was made of gray bricks and granite. The use of granite is somewhat uncommon for traditional village houses in Hong Kong, as it was a more expensive material than bricks.

The dressed granite blocks are what form the frame for the building’s main entrance, fitted with a traditional sliding timber grille door. The antique grille door is still being used today to lock the venue.

When one visits traditional Qing dynasty houses in Hong Kong, the roof is often a point of interest. Look up and you will see that the granite of the house supports “the pitched roofs of wooden rafters, purlins and Hakka-style tiles.”

Like other similar houses, the Old House of Wong Uk comes with extensive embellishments, including “exquisite mouldings, murals and a finely carved eave board” on the façade.

As with all traditional Hakka homes, the two halls in the main axis served purposes of receiving guests as communal space in the house. The kitchen, bathrooms and the bedrooms are at the bays.

The Wong Uk is special in that there are cocklofts above the ground floor of the bays.

Both the interior and the exterior of Wong Uk are well-restored, showing beautiful auspicious elements that typically adorn traditional Qing dynasty structures in Hong Kong. I found the adorned top beams on the roof in the rear hall to be particularly beautiful, and this is also an uncommon feature of the Old House of Wong Uk.

How to Get There

The Old House of Wong Uk lies across the street from the Regal Riverside Hotel on Yuen Chau Kok Road in the Wong Uk Garden.

Note that the walk from the closest MTR station, Shatin Wai, is quite far. Do look up bus options that will take you to the neighbouring residential estates, such as Greenfield Court (Route 170), or otherwise there is a bus stop right outside the Regal Riverside Hotel as well. Most buses stopping at that bus stop will return to the Shatin MTR station, and that was how I returned to Shatin station.

The Old House of Wong Uk is open daily between 9am and 1pm, closes for lunch between 1pm and 2pm, then reopens between 2pm and the 5pm. It closes on the major public holidays of Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and the first three days of the Lunar New Year.

Sources

Descriptions on site at the Old House of Wong Uk.