For a number of reasons, I've not been out hiking for a couple of months now. But I (still) have been doing a lot of walking, and not just along the Victoria Harbourfront either! Something else I've been doing a bit of in recent months: exploring still other parts of Hong Kong that I hadn't previously ventured to.
One of this places is Cha Kwo Ling, which has been described as one of Hong Kong's last squatter villages but, also, in Jason Wordie's Streets: Exploring Kowloon, as "one of the last remaining original, pre-urban villages in Eastern Kowloon" and an "early Hakka stonecutter's settlement". Although I've known about its existence for a time, I was put off going there by a friend who described her visit there as depressing.
But after seeing it featured in Amos Why's Far Far Away, I decided to go check out the area in the company of a fellow fan of that cinematic love letter to Hong Kong who had been there before and found Cha Kwo Ling to be an interesting, atmospheric part of the Big Lychee...
-- but we are not, really!
erected as part of the Travelling Through Cha Kwo Ling project
a living village that remains home to and for people...
whose walls are locally quarried stone
being an active and popular place of worship :)
10 comments:
I haven't heard the term squatter for sometime.
Coffee is on and stay safe.
Hi There,
Local Tempels were usually built with Granite pillars with grey brick walls. The Cha Kwo Ling Tin Hau Temple is one of those rare temples that only use locally quarried Granite for the main structure and walls. The other I know of seemed to be the one that used to be in Chek Lap Kok, but had been relocated to Tung Chung when the island was leveled and expanded for the Airport.
It's new site in Tung Chung only shows some granite pillars with a very small temple, just the size of the North Beach Tin Hau Temple of Ma Wan.
T
Hi There,
Cha Kwo Ling is one of the four stone cutting villages in Eastern Kowloon while some of its elements are still in situ. The other three are Sai Cho Wan, Lei Yue Mun & Ngau Chi Wan.
Sai Cho Wan is just practically next door to Cha Kwo Ling where Lei Yue Mun is just across further east of Yau Tong. What's left of Sai Cho Wan is a baseball field, but you may still be able to see what's left of the quarries in these three area.
Ngau Chi Wan still has a village status. You can still see its Pai Lau there. What's left of the stone quarrying is a street called Choi Shek Lane a bit further east of Ping Shek Estate.
T
Hi peppylady --
Was wondering if the term would be foreign to Americans!
Hi T --
Thanks for the information. I've been to/through Lei Yue Mun village. Also have been to Ngau Chi Wan (including attending performances at its Civic Centre and passed through its Pai Lau). Am not familiar with Sai Cho Wan though. Didn't even realise that there was a baseball field in that area!
Hi There,
There are actually more quarries in town. Most of them had been shutdown and some had been re-developed (say the very big one on Anderson Road).
Let me name a few from memory:
1. The one near Shek O down the slope at the Hok Tsui bend;
2. The Ko Shan Theatre\Park site, together with a construction site at Shan Si Street. The park site was the quarry and the current construction was the processing plant. Both linked up by a conveyer system;
3. The hill side behind Shau Ki Wan Police Station where the HK Chinese Women Club College and the Fire Station stand;
4. Somewhere in Shek Tong Tsui as its namesake 石塘 pointed to a quarry nearby;
5. Lam Tei Quarry;
Likely have to look them up further if I want to recall the rest.
T
Hi There,
Two other quarry sites pops up:
- Mount Butler quarry, now the HQ of EOD squad;
- Lamma Island quarry on the northern shore of Sok Gwo Wan (Picnic Bay);
Also, there doesn't seem to be any quarry still operating at the moment.
T
Hi T --
Thanks for the additional information but I'm actually more interested in the old villages than the quarries per se! Still, it's hard to ignore the sight of them -- and yes, am familiar with those at Mount Butler, Lamma Island and Anderson Road (and that east of Lei Yue Mun), to state the most obvious!
Hi There,
A bit more of geography discussion on this.
1. I suspect the Sai Cho Wan quarry was located where the Eastern Cross Harbour Tunnel entrance is located. Next time you go that way, look on the western slope where the Tseung Kwan O\Lam Tin tunnel entrance is. The terraced rocky slope there is a typical characteristics of a quarry. I still have to look up if that is Sai Cho Wan though;
2. For Cha Gwo Ling, other than stone quarry, it was also a mine for kaolin clay for a time. There is a new street called "Ko Ling Road", which I believe is named after the Kaolin Clay mine. The housing development on this road is likely the site of the previous Kaolin Clay mine;
T
Hi There,
Found an entry in Wiki about Sai Cho Wan. This link is only in Chinese though:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E6%99%92%E8%8D%89%E7%81%A3
T
Hi T --
Clearly, this is a subject that you've super interested in! Have you visited Cha Kwo Ling, etc. (in recent years)? Note that Cha Kwo Ling's under threat of demolition/"redevelopment". Sad.
https://hongkongfp.com/2023/03/29/villagers-from-hong-kong-squatter-area-file-petition-against-resettlement-plan/
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