Sha Tin also has still many villages, including Pai Tau, that are very close to the KCR and the city centre.
|
This monastery is closed to Siu Tin Toa home for the aged.
This old lady is helping to do Joss paper. Traditional joss is cut into
individual squares or rectangles. Each square of paper has either a thin piece of square
foil glued to its center or it may be endorsed with a red ink seal from a traditional Chinese seal.
|
|
| Old lady in Monastery |
|---|
|
From the Siu Tin Toa home for the aged, it is possible to see the
Po Fook Ancestral Workshop Hall on the left then the Ten Thousand
Buddhas Monastery on the right then the Sha Tin Dau Fong San, which is a sacred place
of Christanity in the background. A huge Cross erected high above the hill top is visible.
|
| Sha Tin religious hill |
|---|
|
Pai Tau Hang village is very close to the Ten Thousand
Buddhas Monastery. It contains many inhabited houses.
|
|
| Pai Tau Hang village |
|---|
Indigenous villager in the New Territories can apply for a small house grant under the New Territories. An 'indigenous villager' is a male person at least 18 years old who is descended through the male line from a resident in year 1898 of a recognised village.
|
The small house policy was introduced to improve the housing
situation that existed in the New Territories in year 1972.
The policy excludes both women and non-indigenous persons.
|
| Village entrance gate |
|---|
A small house is basically a building in the New Territories constructed in accordance with some governemental rules. The building shall neither contain more than three storeys nor exceed a height of 27 feet and the maximum surface of each floor shall not normally exceed 700 square feet.
|
Under the Small House Policy, every indigenous villager
is entitled to apply to build a small house on private land, or on government
land at a concessionary premium, within their village. Provided the small house conforms with
some defined criteria, the owner is exempted from the need to submit formal building plans
to Government, enabling the houses to be built very quickly with an important saving in
professional fees.
|
|
| Old doorway |
|---|
Until World War II, the custom in New Territories villages was that sons were able to build themselves village houses on their land in accordance with the layout of the village. Daughters married outside the village and relied on their husbands to build for them. No building could take place on agricultural land without Government permission and villagers who did not own land suitable for building had to buy Government land. Due to strong village traditions, it was unthinkable that anyone not from the village clan could build a house in a village.
|
Since year 1972, over 28 000 small houses have been built, providing
potential accommodation for over 300 000 people.
|
| Pai Tau Hang village |
|---|
Recently the government proposed increasing the development density to allow multistory development to meet the increasing demand of villagers applying for land to build a three-story house.
|
People now criticize the Small House Policy as indigenous women are excluded,
some local indigenous villagers sold it immediately to get a financial benefit, some villages
have lost their heritage value due to bad building design, environmental problems,
land limitation in village.
|
|
| Pai Tau Hang village |
|---|
| Home > Tourism > Travel in New Territories > Sha Tin |
| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 |
|
