War of words over damage at rare century-old Hong Kong fortified compound
Yuen Chit-chi, owner of Yuen’s Mansion in Mui Wo, says decade of drainage work nearby has left house sinking on a tilt, with cracked walls and fallen masonry
A nearly century-old estate in the coastal town of Mui Wo has sustained life-threatening damage because of work by the Hong Kong government, its owner has alleged.
Yuen Chit-chi, owner of Yuen’s Mansion in the sleepy town on Lantau Island, complained that a decade of drainage work near the historic site had left it sinking on a tilt, with cracked walls and stone blocks fallen off.
The 68-year-old accused the government, which did the work, of not protecting the compound’s fragile old buildings from the construction, and shifting responsibility for the costly conservation to him.
But in a reply to the Post, the Drainage Services Department denied harming the buildings, saying the cracks existed before the work started, and the cause of the other damage was unknown. Officials from the antiquities office also said they believed there was no “insurmountable impact”.
The compound, a fortified estate of a kind rarely found in Hong Kong, was built between the 1920s and 1940s. It includes six grade two historic buildings. That grading means they are of “special merit” and “efforts should be made to selectively preserve” them.