To step into Tsang Tai Uk is to enter a time warp, a remarkable pocket of living history that somehow managed to escape the onslaught of development that has swept away the green fields and paddies of Sha Tin in less than two decades.
Hidden among a maze of high-rises, life goes on in this fortified village much as it did in 1850 when the last brick was laid on its thick, protective walls.
The village remains intact, even down to its wooden hall where village elders once met to arbitrate disputes and organise the community's day-to-day activities. Stern faces of Tsang clan rulers still gaze down from pictures near the ceiling.
But this is no theme village, drawing busloads of tourists to see pig-tailed 'residents' in traditional dress producing handicrafts: Sang Tai Uk is for real.
Its two wells - dug beneath the stone-slabbed street, safe behind the high walls - are still used by residents who, like their ancestors, have no toilets in their small homes.
While neighbours in the tower blocks that stare down on to Tsang Tai Uk prepare to enter a new millennium with cellular phones and modems a part of their everyday life, villagers here still douse themselves with buckets of water from the wells. They would regard a shower with hot water as a luxury - if they had space for it in their cramped quarters.
The village boasts a thick outer rectangular wall with towers at each corner, a main street and behind that a row of terraced homes with tiny inner courtyards.
