Soy sauce makers affected by impending Hong Kong housing projects in Fanling North and Kwu Tung North, as tradition bows to development

In the first of a three-part series, the Post visits an old workshop brewing vital household condiment

Push for new town projects amid housing crisis means the end of the road for cottage industries that cannot relocate

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Pang Chuk-lui, 90, is a soy sauce maker in Sheung Shui, whose business is facing its sunset years. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:00am, 18 Feb 2019Updated: 1:38pm, 18 Feb 2019

In Hong Kong’s Kwu Tung village, tucked away in a quiet idyllic corner of Sheung Shui, 90-year-old Pang Chuk-lui dips his hands into a clay urn filled with squishy amber beans, the back of his palms pressing down into the soft contents.

A dark liquid flows into his cupped hands, the mixture glistening under the winter sun.

“We make soy sauce the traditional way. You know nothing about it,” Pang said, smiling proudly, his eyes brimming with satisfaction at the work.

Fermentation to produce soy sauce at Kwong Tak Lung. Photo: Dickson Lee

For more than 70 years, Pang’s brewing house Kwong Tak Loong has been fermenting and sun-drying soy sauce this way. Every day, he travels for almost two hours from his home in downtown Yau Ma Tei to the far-flung factory to keep the business running.

It is one of four remaining traditional soy sauce factories in Kwu Tung, all having relocated to this area in the last century because of urban development and high rents. The relatively flat land drenched in long hours of sunlight made it ideal for the beans to bake in hundreds of clay vats, yielding the condiment.