Welcome to the Ping Shan Heritage Trail - promoted by the Tourist Board as Hong Kong's star district attraction for March in 'Asia's World City'. Visitors to the trail will find some of Hong Kong's few surviving ancient structures - hidden amid construction sites, unofficial garbage dumps and sundry eyesores. As the SAR strives to promote itself as a world-class tourist destination, the Sunday Morning Post took to the trail that should 'not be missed', according to the board, and found it a ramshackle shadow of its billing. One of the trail's stops - the Yeung Hau Temple - has been badly damaged by fire, a third of its roof missing, its statues charred and some ceramics broken. The missing section of roof has been covered by tarpaulin and the area is fenced off. But on Friday, no one was working on the restoration as promised by an Antiquities and Monuments Office sign. The fire happened in August but a spokeswoman for the office said it was still 'looking into' the situation. She said the office was not responsible because the temple is not a 'declared monument'. The area around the temple is littered with rubble, abandoned mattresses, furniture and carpets. A signpost on the path to the temple stands in front of a refuse collection point and says: 'Poisonous rat bait is being laid in this vicinity.' The tourism board's pamphlet promoting Yuen Long as the recommended district of the month is being included in a kit handed out to Hong Kong visitors. Its recommended itinerary in the district features the Ping Shan Heritage Trail and the pamphlet features a cover photograph of the Tsui Shing Lau Pagoda, the only surviving relic of its kind in the SAR. However the camera, in this case, does lie - the pamphlet's 1995 photograph fails to include the construction of the West Rail, which now dominates the pagoda's background. A 1994 map featured a photograph of the pagoda near a forest and pond, which are both now gone. Next to pagoda is a potholed road, a dusty car park, shipping containers and piles of concrete pipes, with a sign that warns: 'Construction works area, trespassing is dangerous.' The attendant at the pagoda did not speak English but offered us a pamphlet. None of the other sites on the trail - including the first stop, the Hung Shing Temple - had pamphlets available on that day. The temple was built in 1767 and is dedicated to Hung Hei, an official who lived in 618-907 and established an observatory. Today the temple houses tins of cooking oil, two bikes, buckets and what looked like an upended barbecue set. Tourist Josephine Austin, a British woman who lives in Malta, was glad to hear she was in the right place, not having found any obvious signs as she walked from a bus stop. 'I started walking along the road looking for old buildings,' she said. Ms Austin was in Hong Kong for two days and three nights and said she wanted to see a different side to the territory. She described the trail as 'interesting', despite the tumbledown surroundings. At the end of the trail is the Tang Ancestral Hall, built about 700 years ago. The building's facade appears to have been renovated. The entrance was decorated with flowers and appropriately Chinese music was played from a nearby flat. But the hall is next to a car park and a construction site. Another stop on the 1km trail, the Kun Ting Study Hall, was closed - although it should have been open, according to the sign outside. The trail has drawn a mixed reaction from tourism representatives and historians - some praised it, others said it was a lost opportunity and some felt it was 'shocking'. Many had not seen the trail for several years. Hong Kong Tourist Board spokeswoman Madeleine Bosher said the promotion wanted to showcase every region in Hong Kong, hiding nothing - and the trail had the widest appeal of any attraction in Yuen Long. The juxtaposition of the West Rail construction and the pagoda could be seen as 'fusion' of old and new, one of the aspects the board promoted about Hong Kong, she said. 'Part of its charm is its setting in modern surroundings,' she said. Asked why the pamphlet did not reflect the reality of West Rail, she said it accurately portrayed the monument itself. The board reviewed sites before promoting them, and made recommendations to the district authorities on improvements, but could not force villagers to implement them. In a Tourism Board press release launching Yuen Long as district of the month, district officer Vincent Tang described the trail as a 'signature attraction that visitors should not miss'. The chairman of Yuen Long District Council, Sang Tiu-tong, in the press release said a consultant had been appointed to review tourism in the district. He failed to return calls from the Post. Hong Kong historian Jason Wordie said the trail was 'yet another of Hong Kong's lost opportunities for heritage tourism'. 'The environs of the pagoda at Ping Shan have been completely degraded, and the loss of the fishponds, fields and so on that gave it its context cannot be repaired. It has gone,' he said. 'Why would an international visitor come all the way to Hong Kong to see a rather small and insignificant pagoda, when the mainland has any number of far more impressive ones - many of them easily accessible.' Hotel and tourism management expert, Hong Kong Polytechnic University associate professor Jack Kivela said: 'If I were an overseas visitor, I would be shocked.' Graphic: HERI03GET
