Tai Lam Country Park

Local School

Doors decorated for Chinese New Year

Ancestral Hall

The rule is--you may only build above the stairwell--an illegal structure?

Tai Lam Chung Reservoir

Graves in Ho Pui

I joined a Harvard hike on Sunday. We started at the village of Shek Kong and walked 17 k through Tai Lam Country Park. This is up in the New Territories near the People's Republic. It was a beautiful day with interesting people. Most are in business-related fields and live on HK island, but reflected diverse ethnic backgrounds--Chinese, Chinese-American, French, Philipinno, and European-American.

This was the most rural place I've been since being here. We started at a Chinese military outpost, oversaw a valley that is now mainly scrap metal business, went through the village of Ho Pui and saw some traditional housing, the local school, ancestral halls, and graves. We followed the contours of the Tai Lam Chung Reservoir. Many of these reservoirs were built in the 50s and 60s, but are not used anymore for drinking water--it sounds like they are back up. We passed through two prisons to get back to a bus stop.

Great day!