The expats who revived Hong Kong village Pak Sha O and impressed absentee owners with their labour
Restoration work done by a group of expats on village houses in Pak Sha O has inspired their owners to hold on to their ancestral homes
Retired policeman Toby Emmet's home is a cosy two-storey village house in Pak Sha O, nestled among former rice paddies, dappled woods and streams in Sai Kung Country Park. Next door is the neatly laid-out Yung family ancestral hall, a rustic structure built in 1918.
Yet as charming as the cluster of traditional Hakka houses are, many were little more than dumps when Emmet first visited in 1980.
"Some had been abandoned for a long time. People held barbecues inside. The windows and water system were broken. There were front doors missing. Wooden beams were seriously damaged by termites."
But after years of restoration work, the Yung ancestral hall, a grade two heritage site, has been returned to its former glory.
The Hakka settlement of Pak Sha O is made up of two hamlets: Pak Sha O village, founded by the Ho clan, and Pak Sha Ha Yeung, which was established by the Yung family. Although many traditional village houses in the New Territories have been razed and replaced by kitsch three-storey "villas", those in Pak Sha O have survived remarkably well, retaining their sloped roofs, grey brickwork, heavy doors, wooden staircases and beams.
