Bamboo court, Ma Wat Wai, Fanling, HK, August 2015

Again another 'bonus' explore. I was walking the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail in Fanling when I saw this place through the bushes from the road. Naturally I had to have a little explore. It took me a bit by surprise did this place and I was a little pushed for time. With hindsight I should have been bolder and got some internals but the place was quite overgrown and pretty much locked-up.

I can find zero information about this place on the web but the Chinese characters above the entrance gates and arches translate loosely as "Bamboo garden". Reading between the lines this place is probably a "Klan" house or complex. In the past extended families in HK were like mini-tribes and they often lived together in one community. This was probably one of these places. The village of Ma Wat Wai where this place is situated itself was established by the Tang Klan during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing dynasty. In the 1970s and 1980s there was a great deal of mass-migration from HK to the UK and Canada. Maybe that is what happened here. The klan may have decided, en-masse, to up-roots and start a new life abroad, locked the place up and left.

OK...on with the pictures:

What's this behind the bushes?

img0733 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Wow! It's a whole abandoned village!

img0734 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Including some very old buildings:

img0736 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0762 by HughieDW, on Flickr

...with some lovely decorative embellishments:

img0764 by HughieDW, on Flickr

There are also number of typical family dwellings too:

img0737 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Some of it looks like it may date from the late 1950s/1960s:

img0738 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0741 by HughieDW, on Flickr

This looks like the central meeting place:

img0739 by HughieDW, on Flickr

..and the place on the right looks like a mini-temple:

img0740 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Here's a close-up:

img0744 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0743 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Here's an overview of the place:

img0757 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0761 by HughieDW, on Flickr

...and a close-up of the arch. These characters mean "Bamboo garden or estate"

img0766 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0760 by HughieDW, on Flickr

There's a less grand side-entrance too:

img0763 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Bye-bye wonderful and mysterious place...

img0765 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Really like the motifs on that gable end the Chinese know how to build when they want to. With these building its more than likely that the outside is more interesting than the inside so not end all if there's no pics of the inside.

Interesting and intriguing place. I see on the less grand side entrance that there is an electronic push button lock or intercom? Maybe this place was for a famous person or business man who wanted privacy. Good idea to ask the locals what the symbols mean on the temple - but then again - maybe not as it might be private.

Before your series of posts, I would have said that one place in the world that wouldn't have many (or any) derelict buildings would be Hong Kong. How wrong was I? Another fascinating insight.

Sludden said:

Before your series of posts, I would have said that one place in the world that wouldn't have many (or any) derelict buildings would be Hong Kong. How wrong was I? Another fascinating insight.

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Cheers mate. I know what you mean. Soon as you get out to the more remote parts of HK there's plenty of dereliction. Plover Cove which is the subject of the next 4 reports has ghost villages all over the place. I'm already thinking about my return trip and going to the places I didn't get to this time around.