IT was back in 1698 when a band of sturdy Hakka first tramped into the Pat Sin mountain range above Tolo Harbour. They found an empty valley nestling at the foot of the hills, crossed by sparkling streams ideal for irrigating the virgin soil.
Because of the grey earth and the shape of the valley, they called it Shalotung (Sand Carried In A Basket). It was paradise.
The Cheung clan built their village against the side of a ridge - which had good fung shui - and provided protection from marauders. Decades later, when an outsider named Li - another Hakka - married a woman from the Cheung clan, he was invited, unusually, to join the community. That was how the Li village came to be built on the far side of the valley. But of late the sleepy hollow has come to resemble something of a battlefield.
A 16-year tussle between villagers, prospective developers and environmental concern groups over proposals to develop Shalotung has erupted into open confrontation - and, as a result, the grey, sandy soil that gave the valley its name is very much in evidence.
Bulldozers and earth-moving machines have cut into the long-fallow paddy fields - and deep ponds for rearing catfish have been dug into the soil which has fed 13 generations of Cheungs and Lis.
For the Hakka families who had moved away in search of work are determined to go back to their ancestral lands, sparking yet another round in the long-running saga of the battle for Shalotung.
This has pitted the incensed villagers against the company seeking trying to turn the valley into an upper-class residential area Enraged villagers are also at loggerheads with environmentalists - who they say are trying to stop them farming their land. Some even supect green activists might be behind an attempt to stop the bulldozers by putting sugar into the fuel tanks.