Discovery of 300-year-old relics at Hong Kong’s last urban walled village could halt redevelopment
Calls for a conservation project to reconstruct a dramatic episode in China’s history
The future of a controversial urban redevelopment hangs in the air after 300-year-old relics were unearthed at Hong Kong’s last urban walled village.
The discovery was made during an archaeological impact assessment carried out by the Urban Renewal Authority, the Antiquities and Monuments Office confirmed with the Post.
The office, which has sent experts to monitor the assessment work, added that more building foundations and daily utensils could be found underground at a later stage.
“These walls and towers were a reaction to the depredations of the bandit Lam Fung [an influential pirate on the coast of Guangdong],” said Dr Patrick Hase, a a village historian and former senior civil servant.
“Bandits, walled villages, and all that they imply, are a vital part of our history. They are even more a vital part of the history of Kowloon, which is otherwise almost entirely destroyed. They should be preserved in situ as they are,” Hase said. “The whole village should have been preserved.”
Elders interviewed by Hase said each tower had a gun mounted on a swivel, known as a jingal, that were all sunk in the moats when Japanese troops invaded in 1941.
The villages used the guns in 1854 to fight off rebels when the Taiping Rebellion spread from mainland China.
“When the Taiping bandits appeared before the village, the League villagers fought them off valiantly, and the bandits eventually left,” Hase wrote in the paper.
The Qing dynasty was said to have been weakened significantly by the rebellion, which lasted 14 years until 1864 and was estimated to have cost 20 million lives. It was started by a disappointed civil service examination candidate, Hong Xiuquan, who was influenced by Christian teachings and believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ sent to reform China.
The Conservancy Association’s senior campaign manager, Peter Lee Siu-man, urged the URA to stop the redevelopment and turn it into a conservation project that would reconstruct history by preserving the relics, including the remaining houses and the temple.
With more evidence telling the history, the site should be declared a monument
“With more evidence telling the history, the site should be declared a monument. The government should buy back the stakes from the joint-venture developer as compensation,” Lee said.
The HK$1.24 billion redevelopment project has dragged on for 18 years, and not without controversy. Named project K1, the village was identified in 1998 as the first redevelopment in Kowloon by the Land Development Corporation, predecessor of the URA.
In 2008 the authority entered into a joint venture agreement with Cheung Kong, which had acquired about 70 per cent of the property interests in the village.
Four residential towers will replace the remaining village houses. Three village relics – a Tin Hau temple, a gatehouse and a stone tablet – and a few houses at the village entrance would be preserved under the plan.
A URA spokeswoman said the assessment would be completed in August and a report submitted to the office. The authority declined to say if it would halt the redevelopment or revise its design to accommodate the relics.
