Ping Shan Heritage Trail

Yesterday I went on the university sponsored Heritage Trail in Ping Shan. It wasn't a big group who went (less then 30). I must admit that there aren't too many good pictures so I am only posting the link to the album. Ping Shan is a small town (by Hong Kong standards so the high rise apartment buildings were still there) in the northern part of the New Territories near the boarder with Shenzhen. It was basically a walk with several historical buildings led by a tour guide. It started at the top of the hill at the old colonial police station that the British built shortly after first taking control of the area. Today it is the Tang Clan Gallery with artifacts dating back to the beginning of British occupation. Then we headed down the hill to a restaurant to have a hot pot. A hot pot is essentially a pot with all kinds of food (mostly meat) in it over a hot plate. Most of the meat was cut traditionally (no bone removal). A lot of it was unidentifiable. At one point I ate something a Singaporean just described as "skin." It was not very good. After lunch we visited the Hung Shing Temple. It was in honor of a water god and was very small and very old. It was neat to see something smaller and less worn. Next on the trail was the Kun Ting Study Hall. Attached was the Ching Shu Hin which was the guest house. Both were mainly stone and brick and had lots of nooks and oddly shaped rooms. All the rooms were very small by modern standards. We then came to the row of ancestral halls. The most prominent was the Tang Ancestral Hall which was about 800 years old (but restored in the 90's and the vast majority is modern that looks old). Only two of the halls were open to the public (Tang being one of them). The Tang Ancestral Hall was a few inches taller then the neighboring ones. Since it was the first, each additional hall had to respect the oldest by being shorter. Inside there was three chambers in succession. The first two were open court yards used for meetings, celebrations, and classes. The third had the shrine to the ancestors. Only the first born son could be added. Next we walked to the original well. It was about what one would expect, a hole in the ground. However the water was very polluted. Then we walked to the Yeung Hau Temple. This, again, was a small temple. It was interesting because it wasn't near any buildings and was only a few yards deep. We then walked through a walled city. Very very tight walkways and most of the city has been removed or crumbled beyond repair. The final stop was the Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda. It used to have 8 sections but it was knocked over about 100 years ago by a typhoon so now there is only 3. We were disappointed because we could not climb it. It was then late in the afternoon and we headed back to CUHK.

Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2278962&l=9964c&id=7725102