THE remains of a Sai Kung villager buried about 200 years ago are perched precariously in an unstable slope above a busy road, haunting relatives, town planners and commuters. Heavy rains and a landslip almost three months ago exposed the hilltop ancestral grave and sent it sliding to its current position near San Liu village, about two kilometres from Sai Kung town. Directly beneath the grave and covering most of the main road to Ma On Shan and the Sai Kung Country Park are tonnes of dirt and debris which together create an eyesore and traffic chaos. But government officials who have refused to make repairs revealed yesterday that fung shui fears were responsible for the delays. 'We have not been able to start work because the grave is in the slope and we must consider the fung shui, ' said Sun Shun-choi, the Sai Kung inspector of works for the Highways Department. 'It's a very rare case and we have also suffered from it because of the many complaints from the public.' Mr Sun said: 'Apart from fung shui, we could not do our work because any damage to the grave could attract some lawsuit from the villagers.' The ancestral grave holds the first head of San Liu village, Wong Tsin, who started the Wong clan seven generations ago. There are about 150 descendants, although only about 30 live in the village. 'This is the first and most important ancestral grave as it contains the founder who created many sons, and they had many sons,' said the head of the village, Wong Yeung. Tomorrow, a fung shui man will decide a suitable date and location to move the grave, which should take place this week, Mr Wong said. 'It took a long time for the Government to give us compensation as they had to check our family tree that the grave does contain our first ancestor,' he said. He said the Government had raised the compensation from $35,000 to $80,000 and the villagers were satisfied. A long-established Hong Kong government policy provides for the payment of compensation for costs associated with the removal of ancestral graves belonging to indigenous villagers in the New Territories. In the meantime, thousands of motorists have been delayed and diverted into a cut-away fringing a picnic area overlooking the tranquil waters of Sai Kung Hoi, which meets the South China Sea. 'The fact is that the grave has fung shui significance and we have needed to seek approval before attempting to remove it,' said William Chan Fun-tak, a District Lands Office official. 'We had to locate the owner of the grave and start negotiations and then the owner needed to choose a lucky date in accordance with Chinese custom to carry out the removal,' he said. A longtime resident who lives next to the landslip said he was annoyed that nobody from the Government had explained why the work was delayed. 'Of course, it is bothersome. During the weekend there is a lot of traffic coming into Sai Kung which piles up in front of us,' he said.
