Lai Chi Wo

Lai Chi Wo sits on the shore of Double Haven in the far north-east, a walled Hakka village of about two hundred houses laid out in a grid roughly four hundred years ago, abandoned as families left for the city in the twentieth century, and since the 2010s the subject of a revitalisation project that has brought some residents back, restored houses and put paddy fields and orchards back into cultivation. Behind the village stands a feng shui wood, protected for centuries and now one of the best preserved lowland forests in the territory, with strangler figs, an incense tree and a five-fingered camphor. Mangroves and mudflats front the shore, and a Geopark trail passes through.

History

The village was founded by the Tsang and Wong families more than 300 years ago, the Tsangs' ancestors having come from Shandong, and at its height it was a prosperous Hakka village of about 1000 people. About a hundred years ago, when the village had grown poor, a feng shui master advised building three feng shui walls to keep out evil spirits, after which its fortunes recovered; the name refers to the lychee trees once grown here, though in the 1960s and 1970s villagers turned to mandarins, which sold well at Chinese New Year (Wikipedia, Lai Chi Wo).

Highlights

• A grid of Hakka houses - about two hundred, walled and laid out on a plan.
• The feng shui wood - centuries-old protected forest behind the village.
• Restored fields and orchards - land brought back into cultivation.
• Mangroves on the shore - the tidal edge of Double Haven.

When to go

October to April for the walk in; the ferry runs on Sundays and public holidays only. A day. The walk from Wu Kau Tang takes two hours each way over hills.

What to expect

Access is genuinely difficult: one ferry a week or a long hilly walk with no escape route. Facilities are minimal and food is limited to a village stall on busy days. Many houses remain ruined. The last ferry back cannot be missed.

Nearby

Double Haven surrounds the bay; Plover Cove lies south.

Key facts