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Lana Lam

A lick of paint and months of elbow grease have given a fresh lease of life to what was once a thriving mining village in the remote hills of Ma On Shan in the New Territories.
Yesterday, dozens of people who used to live in the village - which boasted 10,000 residents in the 1950s but is now home to just 80 families - returned to see their old church reopen as a community hall after a HK$3.9 million refurbishment project.
Two other buildings that formed part of the church complex also benefited: the primary school, built in 1961, is now a hostel for church members; and the former teachers' quarters has become an activity room.
There were tearful reunions as former teachers - some in their 80s - saw old students for the first time in decades.

Special steamed buns with red sugar and savoury fermented bean-curd bread helped fuel the get-together.
The Yan Kwong Lutheran Church - built in 1952 to cater to the burgeoning mining village as demand for iron ore grew - was shut in 2003 after a landslide, but it had fallen into disrepair long before that.
The mine began life in 1906 as a site operated by the Hong Kong Iron Mining Company. It expanded rapidly in 1949 when it was taken over by the Mutual Mining and Trade Company, which extended it underground. Miners dug up 98,000 tonnes of iron ore annually in the mine's heyday, but it closed down in 1976.

Yesterday the church bell sounded for the first time in decades. "It was a very touching ceremony," said Fan Man-tao, service manager from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong, who led the refurbishment project.
He said a second stage of the project would turn an old kindergarten and shed into a museum and activity room that would document the village's mining past. "This project is not just to renew the church, but it's about the history of this area and to educate the people of Hong Kong about Ma On Shan's rich past."
From March, people can sign up for a three-hour, HK$80 tour of the church, which includes a talk on how to recognise the iron-rich rocks found in Ma On Shan.


Ex-residents return to see Ma On Shan village come back to life

Villagers gather for the reopening of the Yan Kwong Lutheran Church in Ma On Shan. Photo: Dickson Lee

Ex-student Ho Chun-lin (left) and youth camp director Fan Man-tao meet former teacher Chiu Yu-chu in what was once a school in the church complex. Photo: Dickson Lee

The entrance to an abandoned mineshaft. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

Hong Kong

A lick of paint and months of elbow grease have given a fresh lease of life to what was once a thriving mining village in the remote hills of Ma On Shan in the New Territories.
