New Farm Land

新田, or literally translated to New Farm, lies on one of the Northern edges of Hong Kong. Since it is part of the New Territories, the land was previously owned by the local farming settlers since the beginning of times. Even up till now, the land passed down and allocated to each male offspring. In this case, all the owners of these few villages share the surname "Man".

Anyways, we were here to visit my maternal uncle's new apartment because he and his wife will move every time their landlords increase their rent (rental in HK is insane!), and they ended up here right next to the customs this time. At this rate, they may have to shift to China's suburbs in order to have a roof over their heads. :(

This house and the temple (last photo) are some of the preserved heritage of the area. Both buildings are well kept and there is even a volunteer guide within the house to show us around! We learnt so much about the architecture and Chinese culture from the mini crash course by the guide.

This area is indeed a village, where houses are found with opened doors and people are sitting outside their houses to enjoy the cooling breeze. The cramming of the modern houses with the already fallen traditional houses are unsightly, and they'll serve as a reminder that the last frontier the villagers called their homes would be lost soon.

p.s. It is ridiculous how many parallel traders there are each day! They usually pass through the customs and try to flag a cab at the village entrance, or enter one of those "distributors" or "trading companies" within the village to process their goods. New Territories will never be the same ever again.