Ping Shan Heritage Trail
Saturday, January 23rd, 1999
The Ping Shan Heritage Trail is the OISP Second Term Excursion. As
described by OISP, this is "A fun-filled educational trip led by IAS
teacher, Professor Ho Puay Peng!" The Ping Shan Heritage Trail, the first
of its kind in Hong Kong, was inaugurated in 1993 by Mr. Chris Patten,
then Governor of Hong Kong. The meeting time was at 8:15 a.m. at
John Fulton Centre Parking Lot. At 8:30, the departure time, two people
have not yet come. One person said that she wasn't coming, while the
other person, Julia Wang, was waken up by the call. She apparently had
used a broken alarm clock! After 15 minutes, we finally left CUHK for
Ping Shan in Yuen Long by bus. The bus was a very small one, as not too
many people were going. Of the first semester students, Waniko, Julia,
Chihiro, Miho, Nanae, Richard, James, Doug, and I were going. Kitty from
OISP followed us. The rest of the people were second semester, including
Peggy, Polly, and Jeung Wingsi.
We arrived at Ping Shan Village at 9:30. Ping Shan Village was first
inhabited by the Tang clan, one of the "Five Great Clans" in the New
Territories, in the 12th century and is relatively well preserved. We
first went to look at Tsui Shing Lau, or the Pagoda of Gathering Stars.
It was built because long ago, no one in the village was able to pass the
official examinations. The villagers consulted a Feng Shui expert and he
said that bad elements were coming in and something was needed to block
off the bad elements. Thus, they built the pagoda. There are three
levels. The first level has a statue of Guan Yu and a god of academics.
The second level has a statue of a dancing god. The third level and the
highest one had a very small statue of a earth god.
Pagoda of Gathering Stars
We stopped by a grave and Professor Peng was explaining about Feng Shui.
He also then explained about the villagers. When the British came to take
over the New Territories from China, they built a police station in the
New Territories. The Tang Clan villagers didn't like it so they marched
over there, burned it down. The policemen of the burned down police
station came back with soldiers and fought against the villagers,
inevitably winning. The British then built a police station on top of a
hill considered sacred to the villagers. The whole region was
characterized by the villagers as a crab, and the hill was like at the
center of the crab. The British were training dogs here, so these dogs
were just running around on the sacred hills. Even worse, the British
painted the roof of the police station red. When a crab is red, that
would mean the crab is cooked and dead! Of course, the villagers were mad
and tried to get the government to remove the police station. Years ago,
the police station was no longer really important and in use. However the
Hong Kong government doesn't want to destroy it. In a compromise with the
villagers, the building will become yet another museum. Also, the
villagers are quite wealthy. Whenever a male of the Tang Clan becomes 18
years old, he will receive a plot of land in which he can build his house
upon. Sometimes they live there or sometimes they rent it to other
people. Anyway, in recent years a new law was proposed and passed by a
female legislator, which gave the parent the choice of heirs, because it
used to be that females never got anything. Many villagers were mad and
even threatened the legislator. After 1997, they tried to ask the China
government to repeal the law but China refused because China believed in
equal rights for male and females. Ironically the villagers are strong
supporters of China! Another recent development is that the government
wants to build new flats in the area occupied by a graveyard. The
villagers were really angry and closed the Ping Shan Heritage Trail for a
while. The trail was eventually opened again but some parts of are still
closed because those parts are controlled by people who are still
mad.
We went to see a walled village. Walled villages were created to protect
villagers from pirate attacks. Hong Kong used to have so many pirates.
Villagers would run back into the village and close it off. The walled
village was quite small. The wall is now quite broken and the buildings
have all been already modernized.
Entrance of a Walled Village
At 10:30, the professor led us to Kun Ting Study Hall. This study hall
was built in 1970 by Tang Heung Chuen, the 22nd generation ancestor of the
Tang Clan. The villagers always considered bringing up their children to
be officials as being important. Anyway, this place is supposed
to be closed, because of the angry vilalgers. However the
professor has connections and got someone to open the study hall
for us.
Adjoining the study hall is Ching Shu Hin, which is a guest house for
visitors and scholars.
Next,we went to visit a traditional house. Everything was quite old.
Some of the things in there were a rice grinder, an old styled bed, old
books, an abacus, a long and heavy "guan" sword (the type used by guan
yu), and of course old tables and chairs. Doug and Yoko led the
way and I along with about five other people followed. We went
out and waited for several minutes before I noticed that no one
else was coming. I went back and sure enough, realized that we
had went the wrong way since Kitty was there, saying that the rest
of the group had went another way.
A Modern Building
We went to the Tang Ancestral Hall. It was constructed after the death of
a high official who came from the village. The hall was renovated in
recent years, with the money coming from the clan itself. Some people
wanted to keep the brick walls the same, with the old feel, but the
villagers wanted to make it new since they were paying money not only to
restore it, but to make it like new again. Thus, the brick walls were
plastered and painted over.
Outside the Tang Ancestral Hall
Group Photo
Kittens!
The last place we went to in Ping Shan village was Hung Shing Temple.
Many female vilalgers come here to worship. This temple was created in
honor of Hung Hei, an official whose accurate weather forecast greatly
helped the fishermen and people who depended on the sea for their
livelihood. There was quite a lot of incense in the temple.
Around 12:30, we left Ping Shan.
Hung Shing Temple
We had a vegetarian lunch at a Daoist temple at Fanling - Fung Ying Seen
Koon. After lunch, we were able to walk around. This is the third time I
have been here! The first time was the First Term Excursion and the
second time was with the Chinese Learning Center Field Trip! Julia, Miho,
Richard, and Chihiro all got their fortunes by shaking the can of sticks
so that one of them would fall down. They then pick it up and get the
piece of paper associated with it.
Fung Ying Seen Koon Daoist Temple
Left to Right: Chihiro, Richard, Miho, Kimiko, Ayumi, Julia
We returned to CUHK at 2:30 p.m. Thanks to Professor Peng and Kitty for
the wonderful trip!