HK FungKatHeung GeneralHouse ShumAncestralHall

Kam Tin Tree House - 2007-09-30 13h58m58s SN200785

Kam Tin, or Kam Tin Heung, is an area in the

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It lies on a flat alluvial plain north of Tai Mo Shan mountain and east of

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north Nam Sang Wa ...

town. It was formerly known as Sham Tin (岑田). Administratively, it is part of

Yuen Long District Yuen Long District (Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, formerly Un Long) is one of the districts of Hong Kong, districts of Hong Kong. Located in the northwest of the New Territories, it had a population of 662,000 in 2021. Geogra ...

. Many of Kam Tin's residents are from the

Tang Clan The Tang Clan of Hong Kong () is one of the Five Great Clans of the New Territories. The others are Man (), Hau (), Pang () and Liu (). The Tangs are one of the region's oldest families and can trace their lineage back 30 generations in Hong ...

, who are of the Punti culture, not

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

as is often misattributed.

History

Kam Tin is the origin of the biggest indigenous

() in Hong Kong. The ancestor of indigenous Tang, Tang Hon Fat () settled his family from

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

to Sham Tin in 973. During the reign of

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shenzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Yijun, art name Yuzhai, was the 14th List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, emperor of the Ming dynasty, reig ...

(1572–1620) of

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

, Sham Tin was renamed Kam Tin.

Villages

Villages in Kam Tin include: Fung Kat Heung, Kam Hing Wai, Kam Tin Shing Mun San Tsuen, Kat Hing Wai, Ko Po Tsuen, Pak Wai Tsuen, Sha Po Tsuen, Shui Mei Tsuen, Shui Tau Tsuen, Tai Hong Wai, Tsz Tong Tsuen and Wing Lung Wai.

Features

Kat Hing Wai is the most famous walled village located in Kam Tin. It is a compact village consisting mainly of narrow row-houses and temples separated by small alleys. The wall was erected to fend off pirates and bandits who were common in the area in the last millennium. It was the site of a rebellion against British rule in 1899. There is also the Yi Tai study hall in Kam Tin. It was built by the Tangs for the local students to study for the Chinese civil servants qualifications. It also houses a temple to the god of study, Man Cheung. In the village of Fung Kat Heung, Shen Hongying (沈鴻英), a Chinese general in the Old Guangxi Clique during the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, built his residence, a modern version of a

house of high built heritage value. Known as "General House," the mansion has determined to be a Grade II historic building of special merit by the

Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Secretary for Development, Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monum ...

(AAB) of Hong Kong. It is a rare residence to outline the development of the early 1930s. Minor additions and plastering are not that serious to downtune its authenticity. Also located in Fung Kat Heung is Miu Kok Yuen (妙覺園), a Buddhist nunnery and communal martyrs' grave built in 1936 by the Tang (鄧) clan of Kam Tin (錦田) in commemoration of the Punti and other indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories who protested British colonial rule and died fighting in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

of 1899. This communal grave at Fung Kat Heung is the largest in the New Territories, measuring about 15 metres across and bearing the Chinese inscription 'Six days of outstanding bravery'. Elders from Kam Tin insist it contains at least 100 dead. The nuns pray for the souls of those who died three times a day. In 1996, the grave was restored.

Education

Kam Tin is in Primary One Admission (POA
School Net 74
(Yuen Long East). Within the school net are 11 aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and one government school: Yuen Long Government Primary School (元朗官立小學).

Transport

Kam Tin is served by the Kam Sheung Road station of the

MTR The Mass Transit Railway system, known locally by the initialism MTR, is a rapid transit system in Hong Kong and the territory's principal mode of Rail transport in Hong Kong, railway transportation. Operated by the MTR Corporation (MTRCL), ...

References

External links

The incredible journey of Yuen Long - Kam Tin Tree House
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