Sam A () is a village in the northeastern

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 ...

of Hong Kong, named after the bay of Sam A Wan ().

Administration

Sam A is a recognized village under the

Small House Policy The Small House Policy (SHP, ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories. The policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 ye ...

History

The Tsang () of Sam A have the same ancestor with the Tsang of

Ma Tseuk Leng Sheung Ma Tseuk Leng (), sometimes transliterated as Ma Tseuk Ling, is an area in Sha Tau Kok, North District, Hong Kong, North District, Hong Kong. The area contains the villages of Ma Tseuk Leng Sheung () and Ma Tseuk Leng Ha (). Ma Tseuk Leng San U ...

and

Lai Chi Wo Lai Chi Wo is a Hakka people, Hakka village near Sha Tau Kok, in the northeastern New Territories of Hong Kong. It is described as a "Walled villages of Hong Kong, walled village" by some sources. Lai Chi Wo is located within Plover Cove Countr ...

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 ...

. Historic Building Appraisal
Tsang Ancestral Hall, Sheung Ma Tseuk Leng
/ref> In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, there were more than 200 residents in the village, but at the end of the 1960s most of the men left the village to seek employment in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Sam A is one of the seven

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 ...

villages of the Hing Chun Yeuk (), which comprises Kop Tong,

, Mui Tsz Lam, Ngau Shi Wu, Sam A, Siu Tan (), and So Lo Pun.

. Historic Building Appraisal
Hip Tin Temple & Hok Shan Monastery Lai Chi Wo, Sha Tau Kok
/ref>

Features

Today, the Tsang

ancestral hall An ancestral shrine, hall or temple ( or , ; Chữ Hán: ; ), also called lineage temple, is a temple dedicated to deified ancestors and progenitors of surname lineages or families in the Chinese tradition. Ancestral temples are closely lin ...

and the abandoned three-village school still stand, but there is little life here on a week-day. On week-ends, however, some Tsang clan members return to their ancestral village to run a couple of stores that offer food and lodgings for the ever increasing number of visitors. Still, even today, Sam A is still only accessible by boat or on foot.

References

External links

Delineation of area of existing village Sam A (Sha Tau Kok) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)
* Villages in North District, Hong Kong {{NorthDistrictHK-geo-stub

Administration

History

Features

See also

References

External links