Under the epidemic, many Hong Kong people are keen on local tourism. The movie "The Edge of the Road" attracts tourists to enter the "hidden world" to explore Hong Kong's rural culture.
Lai Chi Wo Village, a Hakka village located in the northeast of the New Territories, is surrounded by mountains on three sides and preserves its quaint village style.
Lai Chi Wo was included in the Global Geopark in 2011, and then the conservation project in full swing has brought a new look to the original dilapidated Hakka village houses. Many old villagers have returned, and some new people have joined as new villagers, actively promoting rural culture, and hoping to regain it. The old scenery of Lai Chi Wo.
Lai Chi Wo Village has a history of more than 300 years. In the 1950s, there were nearly 1,000 villagers. It is the largest Hakka enclosed village in the northeastern New Territories.
Zeng Bolun, 65 years old and known as Brother Chun, is an aboriginal resident who has been running "through the mountains" since he was a child.
When he was young, he would "climb mountains, watch cows, catch leopards and tigers, and play with sparrows" in the village. In his spare time, he would take the street to Sha Tau Kok to cut his hair, ride bicycles and eat wonton noodles.
Since the 1960s, due to the backward development of the village, many villagers have moved out of the urban area or immigrated overseas, making Lai Chi Wo increasingly deserted.
Brother Chun was studying at the primary school in the village at that time. There were more than a dozen students in the primary one hour class. Later, the classmates dropped out one after another. In the end, only him and another classmate were left. Immigrated to the UK with my parents for more than 40 years.
Other old villagers also came back from the UK, and they rely on conservation to drive the flow of people to revive their hometowns (click the map to learn more):
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After 40 years of leaving home and returning to the well, but seeking a happy life
Six years ago, Brother Chun, who had reached retirement age, gave up his British restaurant business and returned to Lai Chi Wo by himself, hoping to return to his "own place".
After returning to the village, he found that there were only four or five old women living in the village, and the two ancestral houses were already in ruins, so he agreed to the rural fund to rebuild the ancestral house as a Hakka life experience village. The two houses owned by my uncle said that the house before restoration was like a "haunted house".
The repaired two houses are for self-occupied and converted into a homestay. The wasteland in front of the house was also turned into a teahouse by Brother Chun, with a shop in the front and a residence in the back.
With his children in the UK, Brother Chun chose to return to Lai Chi Wo to return to the roots. Because the climate in Hong Kong is more comfortable, "the UK is cold and freezing almost all year long, and the two months in summer are terribly hot."
He also prefers the slow pace of life in Lai Chi Wo, "I have to make a living in the UK, I work 10 hours a day, life is very oppressive, life in the village is much more leisurely, and the busiest is only entertaining tourists on weekends and holidays."
Work-for-lodging attracts tourists looking for conservation to improve the environment in their hometown
Staying in Lai Chi Wo is for a sense of belonging to my hometown.
After Brother Chun returned, he reopened the "Ming Kee Cafe" under his father's name, hoping to carry on his father's efforts in the past.
At noon on Sunday, the small teahouse was filled with more than 30 guests, and they tasted the Hakka dishes such as braised pork and rice wine chicken.
To prepare meals, he takes a boat to Sha Tau Kok one to two days a week, and then transfers to the city to buy fresh ingredients.
Brother Chun, who was holding the wok and shovel, was busy cooking, and the sound of the wok came and went.
At the end of 2021, Brother Chun will let those who want to experience rural life in Lai Chi Wo stay for free. At the same time, he has to help with the cafeteria, including ordering, passing dishes, and handling the floor. Dishes, and sometimes weeds are trimmed and cleaned.
At one time, about three or four young people signed up, and some parents took part with their nine-year-old son. They liked the comfortable rural life. After work, they would visit the plum forest and clam pond on the mountain.
Brother Chun described Lai Chi Wo as very quiet at night, only hearing the sounds of birds and frogs, and more likely to encounter pheasants and bison on the road, "Many people want to come here to stay and experience rural life, then 'have something to eat, something to live'. , while helping me lightly, they are happy."
Conservation work brightens the deserted countryside, and villagers and volunteers clean up the weeds and ditches with monthly cleaning and annual cleaning to keep the countryside in order.
Brother Chun was delighted to see the restoration results. He described the streets and lanes of Lai Chi Wo as "they used to be 'black and white', but now they are 'white snow'." The presence of conservation organizations and new residents can also revive the village.
Even if Chun is not good at organic farming and cultural relic conservation, he will still stay at the teahouse, cook Hakka flavors for tourists, and continue to do what he loves in the flood of conservation. Nursing homes, open restaurants when you can walk.”
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The long-term agricultural development requires external support
72-year-old Huang Qunying is also an original resident of Lai Chi Wo Village. She moved to the UK for more than 50 years and returned to Hong Kong in 2014 only to take care of her parents.
Sister Qunying takes care of her father's orchard "Panyuan Village" in the village, witnessing the restoration of Lai Chi Wo.
In addition, she co-organized "Lai Lin Coffee" with two new residents, and managed nearly 200 coffee trees in Lai Chi Wo on weekdays. After living in the UK, she fell in love with coffee, and friends persuaded her to try coffee beans together, so they He started farming with a playful attitude.
For Sister Qunying, who only knows how to drink instant coffee, planting coffee trees is not an easy task, and it is difficult to open up wasteland.
Before they can resume farming, the surrounding dead trees and stones must be removed, and the coffee beans must be planted in the shade, and the harvest will take another five years, which increases the difficulty of planting.
They have been cultivating since 2018, and now the trees are beginning to bear fruit. The harvesting process is complicated. Sister Qunying has to check each coffee tree to ensure that the fruit is black before picking. One coffee tree may only be able to pick more than ten coffee beans. .
She lamented that the farming was hard work, and the planting scale was not enough to put coffee beans on the shelves, so she could only accept small guided tours.
She believes that in order to promote the agricultural development of Lai Chi Wo so that other villagers can rely on it for a living, conservation groups should subsidize the restoration, otherwise the villagers will not be able to afford the cost of restoration.
Conservation drives the flow of people into the village to take care of the new residents
After experiencing the restoration of Lai Chi Wo, Ms. Qun Ying pointed out that there are only about a dozen indigenous residents living in the village.
Lai Chi Wo "relying on the support of outsiders is what it is today." In recent years, organizations such as the Countryside Fund have restored farmland and restored Hakka houses as an experience village, which has attracted tourists and new residents to visit.
On Sundays, she opened a tea stall under the big banyan tree. At noon, she cooked Hakka tofu and other side dishes for mountain friends who had traveled long distances. After greeting the guests, she hurried back to the tea stall.
The hospitable sister Qunying takes care of new residents who come to work in the village from time to time, including Liang Yongji (Woody), who is called "Wood" by the villagers.
She pointed out that the villagers laughed and said that Woody was her "chee boy", but since he entered the village, she has been scolding him until now, "He is willing to help the villagers to repair the lights and water pipes, but he doesn't know how to charge for materials!" Woody is not good. They communicate with each other, but whenever she finds that the furniture in Sister Qunying's house is damaged, she will be obliged to repair it for her.
Woody refused to charge, and Sister Qunying had to prepare meals for him to cover the cost: "If he doesn't charge me, then I will cook for him. What's the point? I treat him as a family member." The hot soup shows that Sister Qunying is meticulous to the new villagers.
Indigenous residents do as they do in their villages and inspire new residents
In recent years, more than a dozen new residents have joined Lai Chi Wo Village. Woody, 39, is one of them.
He stays in Lai Chi Wo three to four days a week, and he is nicknamed "Wood" as he loves carpentry.
He is in charge of chores in the village on weekdays, assisting villagers in maintenance of water and electricity, and is occasionally employed by conservation groups or schools to organize workshops.
Woody and Lai Chi Wo became attached more than ten years ago. He, who majored in environmental science at the university, went to the nearby area to conduct an ecological inspection and was deeply impressed by the natural scenery of Lai Chi Wo.
He is familiar with water and electricity maintenance and carpentry, so at the beginning of 2016, he was invited by the organization undertaking the HSBC restoration project to repair the brick roof of the Lai Chi Wo Cultural Center. Making wooden benches inspired him to live in the village "Doumu".
Woody loves to study Hakka brick and mud brick buildings. After moving to Lai Chi Wo, he took care of the orchard with Sister Qunying every morning, and learned from her the Hakka construction technique of "Jie Bau Tau".
The so-called "Jiebotou" is a Hakka dialect, which refers to the farmland where the irrigation water source stops beside the stone bogs by building the terraced stone bogs.
They will go to the river valley to collect stones, and Ms. Qunying will demonstrate how to build the stones and then "return the mud" - putting the soil for planting back into the farmland for leveling.
The time in the orchard was Woody's most unforgettable experience, which made him keen to live in Lai Chi Wo.
In his spare time, he likes to talk to the villagers in unorthodox Hakka dialect, and asks about the past events of the village, especially the origin of the name of the village.
He laughed and pointed out that the villagers' associations have created many interesting place names: "The area near the archway of Lai Chi Wo is called Shek Kok Tau. It turns out that there used to be a rock that protruded into the sea. There is a big pit behind the school called 'Dead Man's Pool', according to legend. In the past, villagers would throw young children into the pool.”
Enthusiasm meets reality, left-behind work waits
At noon on Sunday, Woody taught some tourists interested in building restoration to make Hakka bricks.
Under the scorching sun, he pointed to the trusses and explained how the building structure supports the tiles.
During his lunch break, a can of Coke was his lunch, and then he was busy teaching workshop attendees.
Woody loves Hakka architecture, so he organizes different workshops, such as the activity of building terraced knots with the University of Hong Kong.
Woody, who is busy with work, pointed out that he can only earn about 1,500 yuan a month in Lai Chi Wo, and he needs to work three part-time maintenance jobs outside to survive, otherwise he can't even afford the rent.
He explained that due to the epidemic, only three workshops have been held this year, and it is yet to be determined by the conservation organization whether the next workshop will be successful.
Working for almost unpaid work, his family and friends advised him to leave as soon as possible. "There's no point in going crazy here."
In this regard, Woody only set a "ten-year limit", hoping that the original intention of promoting Hakka construction technology will be realized in the ten years of Lai Chi Wo.
Faced with the unknown, Woody chose to continue his research on architecture.
Talking about the future of Lai Chi Wo, he lamented that the development of Lai Chi Wo is too fast, and the surrounding sites make it difficult for the residents to adapt. He does not want the rapid development to affect the simplicity of the countryside.
"One house was remodeled at the front and repaired at the back. I don't want to change too much here."
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[This article is reproduced with permission from University Line, an internship publication of the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.