The Leaping Dragon of Fanling
Literally meaning “the dragon leaps over the mountain,” Lung Yeuk Tau spans a large area in Fanling in the Northern District. It was the second heritage trail in the New Territories that the Antiquities and Monuments Office proposed and promoted. The 2.6km walk takes visitors along many fascinating sites of historical significance because the area is home to many indigenous villages.
Under Hong Kong law, the indigenous inhabitants of Hong Kong are defined as “a person descended through the male line from a person who was in 1898 a resident of an established village in Hong Kong”.[i] Relevant to the indigenous inhabitants is the Small House Policy. It aimed at soothing the relations between the Colonial Government of Hong Kong and the residents of the New Territories. A male descendant of the indigenous population is entitled to one small house upon the age of maturity.[ii] In practice, if an indigenous household has three sons, then the household is usually entitled to the construction of a three-storied structure, with each son claiming one flat in such structure.
There is an overarching feature of the indigenous villages that is unique in character. Many indigenous villages of Hong Kong are walled (“wai” in Cantonese). These stone and brick structures used to serve as bulwark against pirates, bandits and wild and stray animals. Back in the days there were tigers in the rural areas of Hong Kong.
Perhaps these walls would be the one of the last standing structures as reminders of Hong Kong’s indigenous past. So are the ancestral shrines that usually lie at the very end of the central corridor of these villages. While visitors can still see the clear boundaries of each squared plots, the houses that stand on the plots are now modern homes.
I took an excursion on the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage trail on a beautiful autumn day in 2018. There was plenty of sunshine, yet at the same time generous breezes mitigated the heat. Although the villages are open to entrance by car, I chose to park in the industrial zone of Fanling. I then walked over to the starting point of the trail at Tsung Kyam Church (photo above). The Antiquities and Monuments Office has done great introductions of these sites, and they are hyperlinked below.
Wing Ning Wai
[i] Annex III, The Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984.
[ii] Small House Policy, Wikipedia.