But none of the challenges Yau and his mother, who died 10 years ago, faced over the years was as big as the one he is facing now: at the age of 77 he has to leave his land and start again somewhere else. This time it's nothing to do with his social class, but because he is in the way of works for the high-speed railway to Guangzhou.

'The past two years were the most difficult period,' Yau says. 'Perhaps I am too old. I don't have as much energy as I used to have. There is no way I can rebuild a house now as I did 40 years ago.'

Yau is one of dwindling number of villagers sticking with a plan to move their farms to an eco-friendly village they want to build on land they are buying in nearby Pat Heung - a plan stalled by deadlock with residents of the area over use of an access road.

Reflecting the difficulties, the number of families who are determined to carry through the plan to form a co-operative with streams, vegetable fields, fruit trees and ponds has dropped from 86 a year ago to 47.

But the clock is ticking for them. More than two months have passed since the first deadline for them to move out - on October 15 - and eviction could come at any time. The government has told villagers that 15 families living on a river bank will be removed by the end of the month.

'No exact date has given to us. They want to break us up,' says Chu Hoi-dick, an activist who has been helping the villagers for two years.

Since the government's unexpected announcement two years ago that it would resume the land at Tsoi Yuen Tsuen for a depot, Yau says he has had countless sleepless nights. Despite his age he has joined protests against the removal and he and a dozen villagers were arrested for protesting during a Legislative Council meeting last year.

Helping to fuel those protests has been thousands of young activists in their 20s, who are credited by some observers with having delayed the demolition of Tsoi Yuen Tsuen by bringing the issue into the public eye.

They took up the villagers' cause a year ago, as the government was close to completing the legislative procedure for the railway's construction by obtaining Finance Committee approval for the project. They jammed Statue Square as legislators started debating funding for the HK$66.9 billion project.

Last month lands officers were forced to halt clearance after their path was blocked by villagers and hundreds of their supporters.

Such unexpected solidarity prompted the pan-democrats to side with the villagers. But as the government had already secured the support of more than half the lawmakers, all the pan-democrat camp could do was delay the vote - which they did with a filibuster launched on December 18 that held up approval until January 16.

Thousands of young protesters angered by the approval laid siege to the Legco building and repeatedly clashed with police.

A year later, the struggle over the future of the village is far from over and the future of Yan and the other 46 families still committed to building new homes is still uncertain.

After giving up an earlier demand to stay put, they agreed to move out with a government pledge to help them rebuild their lives as farmers. Immediately they ran into bureaucracy. They had to prove they were farmers to get a farming licence enabling them to build a 400 sq ft house near the farm.

'The process was tormenting,' Yau recalls. 'I told them I have fruit trees, raise chickens and pigs. They said I wasn't a farmer. A group of young people who don't know agriculture at all tell me I'm not a farmer.'

That argument lasted for eight months, but the next hurdle will be much more difficult to surmount.

While the villagers have agreed to pay HK$20 million for a 150,000 sq ft site in Pat Heung, nearby residents who own the only access road to the land are hostile to them.

After successfully demanding that the displaced villagers give up their voting rights for village representatives, they demanded HK$200,000 for use of the road. This was later raised to HK$500,000; then a middleman demanded a further HK$5 million. 'Even though we bought the land, we can't start the construction work because we do not have the right to use the road,' says Li Yeung Mui-yuk, another villager.

There have been two large-scale land resumptions in the village. The government confiscated empty houses and abandoned farmland amid sporadic clashes between the villagers and their young supporters on the one hand and lands and highways officers.

Li says they want to meet the deadline to move out. 'But the precondition is we build our new home first. The obstacles we have gone through and are still facing mean it is impossible,' she says.

She wants the government to intervene on the road fee so they can start building their village. By last night the government had not responded to questions about the road.

Yau, meanwhile, could not hold back his tears as he spoke of the uncertainties he faced. 'There are many young people calling me and visiting me, they keep telling me not to worry. Most of them are students, some from Taiwan and some from Beijing. It has been very difficult, but I have no regrets in choosing this path. The support we receive from the young people shows we have chosen the right path. Their support gives me strength to go on.'

Support has not been restricted to phone calls and visits.

Over the summer, a group of academics and town planners, some of them veteran planning activists in Taiwan, worked with villagers on a blueprint to rebuild their homes and farm.

The 47 families will build their houses with environment-friendly materials. Designed to make maximum use of wind and natural light, the houses will have low carbon emissions.

A system will be devised to collect used water from each household and recycle it for irrigation. A river will be directed into an artificial stream along a main road lined with fruit trees, with a kerb for villagers to relax beside the water. The villagers will devote a quarter of their land to a co-operative society for organic farming. A model of the new village is on display in Tsoi Yuen Tsuen's exhibition room.

Li - wife of a retired, decorated policeman - thinks the difficulties they have suffered over the past year, including the delays in getting farming licences and the escalating road fee, were politically motivated.

'It is all politics. It's because we are disobedient, because our resistance brought them plenty of trouble.'

Li, motivated by a longing to return to farming, moved to the village with her husband several months before the government announced plans to take it back. They bought 2,000 sq ft of land with a cottage for their retirement home and decided to join the rebuilding plan because of the way their neighbours had helped them even though they were newcomers.

'They didn't abandon us and we will not leave them. Although it is very difficult, I have no regrets.'

This solidarity with their neighbours brought the couple their first taste of being held as suspects in a police station when they were detained after marching to Central last month and camping outside the Murray Building, demanding to see the housing minister, Eva Cheng.

Political scientist Ma Ngok believes the government made the whole process difficult so the villagers would give up their rebuilding plan.

'They have been using the same sort of dirty tactics on all redevelopment projects. By taking a hard line they make the people's lives very difficult, resulting in a slowing down of the whole process.'

Ma attributes the government's hard line to bureaucratic habit.

'They are used to getting their way because they have the police to move the people by force.'

He thinks the villagers would have been evicted by now if the young protesters had not stepped in. 'Once the villagers have moved out, they don't have much bargaining power.'