Vignettes of the World
The red walk of Tai Po Kau is an easy 3km walk in the Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve area. The Tai Po Kau Nature Trail offers five routes of choice. Four are demarcated in the colors red, blue, brown and yellow. The fifth walk …
I spent a delightful afternoon at the Central Library reading one of the few copies of Sunset Survivors available in Hong Kong’s public libraries. A good friend recommended this book to me and I enjoyed reading the stories very much. Here is what I took …
With more than 70 years of history on its back, the Better ‘Ole is a rare gem in the New Territories. It is the oldest British pub with continuous operation in the New Territories, and perhaps in Hong Kong. It certainly was the first in the New Territories to serve fish and chips. For most of its loyal customers had been British.
The Better ‘Ole, short for “better hole,” is a reference to a cartoon poster of World War I. British soldier Bruce Bairnsfather drew a cartoon, in which two army men sit in a crater with a crossfire in the background. Old Bill says to his companion: “Well if yer knows of a better ‘ole, go to it.” The original owner Pop Watson named the restaurant after this cartoon.
Photo taken from Pinterest
Bruce Bairnsfather has also developed the character of Old Bill in the World War I musical The Better ‘Ole, also became known as The Romance of Old Bill. The musical garnered immense success in England, and two silent film adaptations followed.
And as history shows, the Better ‘Ole was the best watering hole for expats in Hong Kong for a very long time.
At some point in its history, the Better ‘Ole had branches in Fanling, Sheung Shui and Tai Po. The pub in Fanling, where its roots lie, closed its Luen Wo Hui location in 2007. Now the Sheung Shui location is the only one that remains.
The restaurant claims that its heritage begins in 1947, but Michael Taylor has considered old newspaper reports to learn that the actual beginning might have been even earlier. Since the 1960s, the Yuens have been the family owner of the pubs. It has been three generations since.
In the restaurant’s early times it appealed exclusively to the nostalgic palates of the British soldiers and police officers stationed in the northern New Territories. Pop Watson, a former British servicemen, opened the restaurant in a tin-roofed hut next to the Fanling Station. The popular dishes then were ham, eggs, and chips, and also English meat pies.
The Yuen’s then took over when Pop Watson retired, in 1962. According to both Christopher DeWolf and Michael Taylor, the Better ‘Ole, being less than an hour away from the Chinese border, was then the spot for turning up stories about the ongoing political turmoil in the mainland for the foreign journalists. The journalists would take the train to the border and interview the people on the train ride back to Hong Kong. If they had a story, they would hop right off at the Fanling Station and call their editors on the phone with the story.
As the expats continued to frequent this one-and-only British pub in the New Territories, a community has developed and continued to thrive here. Such as Mike Arden, who served as the Royal Artillery Bombardier of the 48th Gurkha’s Brigade. He met his wife when she was a waitress here. Along the romance line, two marriages were celebrated at the Better ‘Ole. Bob Wilkinson was a former police officer and he had his memorial service at the pub. And needless to say, the Better ‘Ole was the place of choice for countless regimental reunions too.
The Yuen’s pub business evolved, as with the history of Hong Kong. More locals, especially those who were relatively well-off, came to enjoy a western meal at the restaurant. By the time that third-generation heir Stuart Yuen took over in 2018, he had to revise the menu to reflect the changing preferences of the restaurant’s loyal patrons, and there are many still.
Viewed from the outside, the appearance of the restaurant conveys a distinct image of foreign character amidst the other local establishments in the Sheung Shui neighborhood. The big signs with the English name Better ‘Ole and Kronenbourg 1664 together give away the pub’s long history of serving foreigners in Hong Kong. It clearly establishes itself as a British pub with a touch of European flair.
The inner space of the restaurant gave a warm British welcome to diners. The slightly-dimmed dining area had framed old photographs and memorabilia on display. The walls lying on the farther end around the kitchen area have a stone finish that reminds one of a typical cottage pub in England. An arched entrance way into the inner dining hall was a nice feature—this was once a watering-hole-from-home for Hong Kong’s expat soldiers. The wooden furniture, although perhaps not in the sense of being antique, certainly reminds one of their expensive rosewood cousins. It presented a truly British vibe throughout.
Bright neon signs in the interior add a lighthearted touch to the pub dining experience. “We bake our own bread”!
The pub area has even more dimmed lighting, with typical high bar tables and bar stools. Since it was lunch hour, much of the action took place in the dining area.
The first time that I visited Better ‘Ole, I had lunch with my father. We each ordered a lunch set. He ordered steak and I had spaghetti Bolognese. For a mere $100 my father enjoyed a good steak, cooked perfectly in medium rare.
For steaks alone there were five choices at lunch. Other special items on the menu were pig’s knuckle, roast spring chicken, lamb chops and an array of baked pasta and rice, which catered more so to the local favor. The escargot has remained on the menu for decades. It is now a main attraction at dinner time as the Escargot and Steak Dinner Set. It is a major crowd-pleaser.
The restaurant was very crowded during lunch hour on a weekday. I would say it was a full house, and all hands on deck for the staff. It certainly conveyed the festive atmosphere of a pub at happy hour but only with people dining.
The Better ‘Old is located on No. 35-39 Fu Hing Street, next to the Shek Wu Hui Basketball Court. It is an 8-minute walk from the Sheung Shui Station.
I took most of the history on this entry from Christopher DeWolf and Michael Taylor’s articles, please see below.
The Better ‘Ole’s Facebook Page.
Forgotten Hong Kong Icon: The Better ‘Ole, A Pub 72 Years in the Making, Christopher DeWolf, December 4, 2019, Zolima City Magazine,
Hong Kong British Pub That Is Forever England, Michael Taylor, Accidental Travel Writer.
Time for Reminiscing as Last Orders Loom at Better ‘Ole Bar, Liz Heron, South China Morning Post, January 7, 2007.
The Wikipedia on the The Better ‘Ole.
The cartoon drawing Better ‘Ole was found on Pinterest.
I stopped by the Hau Wong Temple of Kowloon City after visiting the Stone House Family Garden just across the street on Junction Road. Even when I passed by the temple, I was quite amazed at how well-kept it was. So I decided to take …
A friend of ours works at the Xiqu Centre in West Kowloon and from time to time she invites us to special events at the cultural hub of West Kowloon. This day we got tickets to the M+ Appreciation Day, which allowed us a sneak …
I learned about the Stone House Family Garden when I looked up the free tours for heritage sites under the Heritage Fiesta 2021 programme of the Hong Kong Government. From the pictures the Stone House looked beautiful, and I was keen to pay a visit.
When I arrived at the site, I noticed the clear effort to maintain both the Grade 3 Historic Building and the garden space. The Stone House has five adjacent rooms in one row. There is a large garden in front of the building. A good number of tents provide shade for the tables and chairs. Customers of the restaurant, which is a social enterprise, can dine at their leisure outdoors.
Worthy of mention is the labyrinth that spans all of the garden space on the site. Old aerial photographs show the patterns on this site. The restoration of the garden thus included a re-construction of the original patterns. Seven exhibits display the history of Kowloon City here, and visitors are encouraged to meditate as they follow the patterns on the ground.
The café operates as a social enterprise. It is the main source of income that sustains the Stone House Family Garden as a heritage site as well as its ongoing community service commitments. It provides training in the food and beverages industry to those who would like to acquire experience. In the past, the Stone House organized Poon Choi banquets (treasures in a tub) for the elderly in the neighborhood. Now, there are paid and unpaid programmes such as open theatre performances, board game sessions and guided tours.
I quote the description on the pamphlet that introduces the Stone House:
The Stone Houses consist of a row of Chinese style two-storey tenement buildings, constructed of granite blocks with walls supporting pitched roofs of timber rafters, purlins and clay tiles. The roofs are covered with Chinese pan and roll tiles. A kitchen and a toilet are found at the rear court of the Houses. Doors of the Houses are in Chinese Style, with timber locks and rock sockets.
Ryan greeted the group for a tour and introduction of Stonehouse Family. As he himself grew up in Kowloon City, he has a commitment to the betterment of this neighborhood.
The interiors of the Stone House show some interesting features. Ryan took note of the stairwell. When the residents built the original stairwell, the first few steps from the ground up were cement steps. Then came the wooden staircase leading to the first floor. They have intended this feature to prevent the humidity of the ground from eroding the stairs. This was a very thoughtful design.
This following is the best-preserved original window of the whole Stone House. You can see that the alignment of the wooden planks are off. The horizontal planks are slanted slightly upward. The glass pane was specially ordered to show the typical patterns of the windows in those times. The restoration throughout the structure showed significant efforts in their details.
This following shows the toilet that the residents used. Note the spot is very narrow. In those days, human excretion was valuable. The families collected their own waste in a bucket, and later can sell it for a profit. In fact, there were people that stole the sewage if they did not keep watch.
The five rooms of the original Stonehouse now serve different purposes, including the space for the restaurant, an interpretation center with interactive and still historical display and illustrated installation, and the administrative office of the social enterprise. Ryan conducted most of the tour in Room 32. He said that in the old days, the small area accommodated as many as 30 people in that room alone. Even considering the fact that people were of smaller stature then, the living condition was terrible by any standard.
But they did have a roof, and in those days, that was a blessing in itself.
This installation illustrates the small living space for a whole family in those times. Ryan told us about an interesting practice then. He said that many people of that era would stuff their most important belongings in the hollow legs of the bed’s metal frame. Things like birth certificate, gold bars, jewelry or anything would go inside the metal frame. The difficulty in lifting the whole bed would prevent thieves from stealing. The metal frame was also fire-proof.
As of the day of the visit, the standard history of the Stonehouse Family as I learned from the official sources on site is as follows.
The predecessor of the Stonehouse Family is Ho Ka Yuen, meaning the home village of the Ho’s. The village had existed since the late 1800s. The Ho’s were rich. Their village consisted of large houses, lychee groves, and streams and wells. The Ho family vacated their home during the Japanese Occupation of 1941-1945.
Until this week, the official account at the Stone House is that the structure was built during the Japanese Occupation years upon the foundations of the Ho Ka Yuen. The Japanese expanded the Kai Tak Airport. They built the Stone House and other settlements to accommodate the displaced residents of Kowloon City.
However, new evidence has emerged to contest this view. The understanding of its history continues to evolve, and it will result in a revision of its standard history. I will discuss more below.
In those times, there was a rocky hill right across the site, in the general area of Mei Tung Estate today. The residents just took the building materials from that hill. It was their stone quarry.
A discussion of the Stone House’s history would not be complete without a comparison with the nearby Kowloon Walled City. Like the Kowloon Walled City, many industries have sprung up within the squatter settlement.
The immigrants of the 1940s and 1950s brought with them the technical know-how for a number of practical industries, which used to be their trade in China. As a result, skilled workers of all kinds opened factories here. Stonecutters, smiths and home building and furnishing craftsmen found a livelihood in this neighborhood.
There is a large stone plaque with the store name Nam Yan Kee. Nam Yan Kee was a company that made tombstones. The business had existed since the 1980s. It was an example of the industries that sprang up within the settlement area.
The squatter area surrounding the Stone House represents the era of explosive population growth in Hong Kong, owing both to the refugee influx and the baby boomers. The public hospitals could not handle the high birth rates at the time. The government decided to grant licenses to midwives, who would help women give birth outside of the hospitals. As a result, there were a number of maternity homes in this community as well.
In 2001, the Hong Kong Government demolished the surrounding squatter areas to make way for new development. The Stone House serves as a remembrance of this once-thriving immigrant community of the mid-20th century. It remains the only original building standing now in the area known formerly as squatter settlement of Hau Wong Temple New Village.
Recently, the Stone House Family Garden has considered new evidence in relation to the actual construction date of the structure. Although it has held that the Stone House was built during the Japanese Occupation years, former residents and community members have disputed this view. Oral evidence suggests that the Stone House came into being after the end of WWII. This would comport with the historic fact of immigration influx into Hong Kong post-WWII due to the civil war in China, creating the need for squatter settlement.
In light of this finding, the Stone House Family Garden considered the old aerial photos of the relevant years. They learned from these old photographs that a shadow showing the potential existence of a structure at this location only appeared on the aerial photos post-WWII as well.
Our tour guide Ryan told us that they are revising the museum captions to reflect this new understanding. That means some of the museum displays on site would undergo revision. Therefore the standard history is still changing.
Photo: This grinder was an original item on-site at the Stone House.
The Guided Tour of the Stone House Family Garden.
The Descriptions on site.
The website of Stone House Family Garden.
The Pamphlet on the Stone Houses Family Garden.
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The Shek O Beach would not be “lesser known” to Hong Kong people because it is one of the most popular local beaches. It comes with soft, fine white sand, a beautiful coastline, and crisp clean waters. But what impressed me on this visit were the waves rocky enough for surfing.
The waves “pushed one after another” as the common Chinese saying goes. I have visited a few beaches in Hong Kong in this past year and the waves at Shek O Beach really feel different. There were indeed quite a number of surfers at the beach. I was intimidated by these strong waves. Therefore I decided to sunbathe instead.
We went to Shek O on this early autumn day, when the summer heat has waned quite a bit. Surely, the sunshine was generous and we would call it a warm weather. Yet there was no urge for us to take to the shore, unlike in our previous visits to the beaches during the peak of the summer. We comfortably sunbathed this time for a whole afternoon. By around 4pm, it turned cool enough that we thought we had better leave.
The beach overlooks a petite island not far away and the view of the island was very pleasing to me. It is named Ng Fun Chau. An online search shows people scaling this uninhabited island for an adventurous day. The things to see there are rocks and eroded caves.
Photos: Views of Ng Fun Chau with high waves
Nearby Shek O are quite a few other very popular outing options. The Tai Tau Chau (Urn Island) is an islet that is connected to Shek O at a very walkable distance. Then there is the famous Dragon’s Back trail, and the beautiful scenery of Cape D’Aguilar. There are also wartime relics in the neighbourhood but I will save that for a later day. Finally, there is also the Big Wave Bay Beach, but I picked Shek O because of its nearby hangout spots. We found the Happy Garden for a delightful long lunch.
There are many eateries in Shek O with all ranges of budget and cuisine. We had our lunch at Happy Garden, a Thai Restaurant with an upper deck that overlooks the entrance of the beach. But when we inquired they told us that the upper deck would remain closed until downstairs seating reach maximum capacity.
But the food was so good you would be busy eating more so than savouring views. We went all out and ordered four dishes for the two of us. We had a peppercorn soup, wok fried morning glory, salt and pepper prawns and a fried dry noodles. Dining at the beach front is always my favourite thing to do, and we certainly took our time at this restaurant.
Fans of comedian Stephen Chow would find it home in Shek O as the King of Comedy was filmed here. The site of filming is the Shek O Health Centre. You will see it when you get off the bus.
All in all, I had a great day at Shek O Beach. There will be more visits in the area to explore other options for outdoor activities.
Close to the Shek O Beach is the path to Tai Tau Chau (Urn Island). Also a bit of a way up north lies the Big Wave Bay, where you can hike via the Pottinger Peak to Chai Wan.
On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, bus X9 departs from the Star Ferry Pier in Central and has a final stop at Shek O. On other days, take Bus 9 from the Shau Kei Wan bus terminus and get off at the final stop. There is also a red top minibus from Shau Kei Wan to Shek O and its final stop is the neighbouring Big Wave Bay.
I have previously visited the Murals of Love in Kam Tin. There is another mural village in Hong Kong. The Ping Yeung New Village in Ping Che, Fanling is another mural village. Yet the reasons for these murals were markedly different from the ones in …