1936 Building along Ting Kok Road, Tai Po
Speaking of 1936, as we just were in this post where I mentioned the great (but not as great as 1937) typhoon of 1936, not far away from Sam Kung temple is a very old building sitting right next to Ting Kok Road at the edge of Po Sam Pai village.
We know it’s old because right above the central entrance – as is common with many older houses in HK – is a date stamp, you guessed it: 1936.
Now, regular readers of this blog will know I am a bit of a sucker for buildings with a bit of style and a bit of age, so i was immediately drawn to this place. The strange thing about it is that, of the three parts that make it up, only the left hand section is actually in any sort of habitable condition. The rest of it – certainly the central section as you can see – is dilapidated and roofless and needing a bit of TLC.
But what about the design on the upper part of the central part. Apart from the date inscription, there is also a mural and some Chinese text. Here is a closer look.
Okay, you have to be a bit eagle-eyed but the Chinese along the top is quite interesting and may reveal a little bit more about the building’s history.
Reading from right to left the characters say: 豫章堂 (yu cheung tong), which I initially thought was possibly referring to the buildings former use as some sort of meeting hall for the local, if any, Henanese contingent. No, it seems I have misunderstood the use of the yu (豫) character. Normally it is used for referring to things relating to Henan province but, after reading up a little bit on the AMO, it appears that Yu Cheung was actually the name of a much-revered ancestor of the person who built the house.
According to Govt files, the house was built by a Law Tai-yuen – a merchant who ran a grocery store in the old (demolished 1983-ish) Tai Po Kau train station and was named after Law Yu-cheung – the clan ancestor.
As you can see from what is left, the facade was quite intricate and this was really done to reflect Law Tai-yuen’s affluence.
Why it now sits in a semi-dilapidated state is anyone’s guess, but I’m assuming it is Mr Law’s heirs that now live in the remaining decent bit and perhaps it is other branches of the family that have let the rest of it crumble. Who knows? It’s these style of buildings I would love to see someone taking responsibility for and restoring them to their former glory.
January 21, 2013 at 11:20 am
Nice. You didn’t venture inside?
January 21, 2013 at 5:08 pm
no, there was a mesh fence around it all and I didn’t want to annoy the people who occupy the end part. Not much to see anyway I think other than collapsed roof beams and such like.
January 20, 2013 at 8:00 am
Did the middle portion burn down?
January 20, 2013 at 8:42 am
it’s possible, but then it is probably just a consequence of years of typhoons and heavy rain. The climate is fairly unkind to buildings here which is why the old ones should be treasured rather than demolished.
January 18, 2013 at 7:27 pm
I just passed this building coming back from berry picking. As always, thanks for the insights.
January 18, 2013 at 7:39 pm
Thanks Jen. There’s a whole load of similar vintage and impressively styled buildings all over the NT. I wish there was more of them.
January 18, 2013 at 6:16 pm
I used to pass this old building regularly as a friend lived behind it. One of the many (or few, I suppose, now) buildings I admired in HK’s NT. I noticed that a lot of them were from the years 1928 – 1936. any idea what spurred this development?
January 18, 2013 at 7:29 pm
I honestly don’t know Angus. I can only guess that it may have been a side effect of what has been described (by Dr Pat Hase in his Catholic history of Tai Po) as a boom time for Tai Po. The 1920′s saw a huge influx of people. There was a lot of foreign money flowing in and Tai Po became very popular as a country retreat for wealthy Chinese and foreigners alike. It’s possible the housing in Po Sam Pai was part of the housing boom, but to be honest at that time this area was still quite remote from Tai Po Market, so I imagine it may have just been that some of the inflowing wealth was finding its way into the hands of local entrepreneurs such as Mr Law.
February 5, 2013 at 7:33 pm
Hi Phil, interesting comments from you. I have a friend origin from Tai Po and currently lives in the UK. He sugguests that there is some kind of Transfer his Right To Build to some Developer going on. He could be entitled £20k if the claim successful. Did you know much about this?
Many thanks
Laura
February 5, 2013 at 7:53 pm
Hi Laura
I believe your friend is referring to elements of the Small House Policy. I don’t understand it completely but it seems that there are rights to land and rights to build. You can’t build a house without having both. Many people (sorry, I should emphasize this is a policy that applies to indigenous males only) with rights to build don’t necessarily have the land (and the application process can take many years and is often subject to the local village politics i.e. if the villages object and have more power than you there isn’t much you can do about it) and many people with the land don’t necessarily have the right to build. As a result these rights change hands for large amounts of money.
Many people with the right to build never bother and just sell their build rights to interested parties (other villagers or property developers).
It’s complicated and I don’t know all the ins-and-outs but certainly lots of money is involved. Those who go onto build houses usually become instant millionaires) which is why the Heung Yee Crook (whoops! I mean “Kuk”) is so keen to make sure the policy remains whereas everyone else just wants it ended asap).
Cheers
Phil
P.S if anyone is reading this and would like to correct my rudimentary knowledge, it would be greatly appreciated.
February 7, 2013 at 1:41 am
Hi Phil, thanks very much for your prompt response. Your comments are very close to what my friend’s understanding of the situation. It seems you are very knowledgable, are you Tai Po local? if you dont mind me ask. I think my friend’s situation falls into the catogory you described as “have the rights to build don’t necessarily have the land”. he said those old Villagers rejected the idea years ago, but then the developers changed hand and those old villagers died. Now the situation changed. People want to sell their rights to developer for money. The developer is very keen (desperate) to get all the entitled indigenous males sign the agreement. they even sent some solicitor over to England to get signatures. Unfortunately my friend missed it due to ignorance. Now he is thinking of flying back to Hong Kong to sign the agreement. But as you know, its not cheap to travel back. So he needs make sure everything confirmed with the right parties before making any arrangement. Whats you view on this? Do you happen to have any more details? We have the solicitors details here.
Many Thanks
Laura
February 7, 2013 at 9:16 am
Hi Laura – I have no idea what your friend sets to gain or lose by signing or not signing the agreement. I think he should probably get some professional advice from someone who knows about this.
My own opinions of land issues in the NT have been jaded by a good friend of mine who was totally screwed by his uncles over his right to land in his ancestral village. They used the fact that his dad had passed away and his mum remarried a westerner to screw him out of what he was entitled to and then used the land themselves to build another house (they already had their own!!).
Good luck to your friend. Sorry I can’t offer any advice.
Cheers
Phil
February 7, 2013 at 9:39 pm
Hi Phil, thanks for your response. I think your understanding of the issue and your advice are apprecited. whenever money involved, all sorts of ugly things are possible. Sad, isn’t it? I have contacted HYK for direction and hopefully they would be able to help.
a seperate matter, i must say I enjoy reading your posts on the web. your english is brilliant. and your writing is superb!!! (you got a secret admirer here, : – ) . Who are you? what do u do for a living? you maintain this web space?
Thanks
Laura
February 7, 2013 at 10:12 pm
Hi Laura
Many thanks for the compliments. I’m a nobody really, but definitely not Chinese.
Good luck with the HYK, it sounds as though your friend is already being sidelines…village politics.
Cheers
Phil
February 5, 2013 at 8:12 pm
My friend comments:
this was, or is the house of my former landlord’s father-in-law.
the house was next door to my green Po Sam Pai house.
they were three brothers and built a house with 3 parts.
when i moved in in 1990 only one brother was alive, the one living in the left section.
the middle part got hit by lightning and partly burned and you can see on pics that there is no more roof . that happened something like 1994 and they never bothered to repair it .
the father of the 3 brothers also built the small temple opposite the road…..
February 5, 2013 at 8:38 pm
Hi Angus – many thanks, that clears up the reason for the vacancy in the other two parts. Interesting though that it was hit by lightning – this place certainly gets some vary scary (and loud) storms.
By temple does he mean the Law ancestral hall? I didn’t go in but it looks as though it was recently renovated.
Cheers
Phil