Hong Kong is fashionable for its vibrant metropolis life, boasting an iconic skyline, bustling streets, and well-loved points of interest together with Disneyland and Victoria Peak.
However Hong Kong can be house to serene and relaxed spots that provide noteworthy experiences away from the everyday vacationer paths.
Outdoors the town are reserved islands and small villages that showcase the nation’s wealthy cultural tapestry and pure environment.
On this three-part sequence, GMA Information On-line will delve into underrated gems good for these searching for to uncover the extra intimate facet of Hong Kong.
SECOND OF THREE PARTS
Tucked away within the Sai Kung District of Hong Kong is the tiny island of Yim Tin Tsai, which accurately means Little Salt Pan in Cantonese. It’s the solely place within the nation the place salt is produced right this moment.
The charming island, as soon as house to a thriving Hakka clan, now serves as a transferring reminder of a bygone period.
Coming into Yim Tin Tsai, you can be greeted by slim paths that wind between ghostly residences and completely different deserted homes with crumbling partitions and overgrown gardens.
They had been left vacant when the variety of residents began dwindling earlier than the Eighties as they moved to city areas in the hunt for higher alternatives.
There was additionally a time when solely 4 residents had been left within the village, incomes its nickname, “Ghost Island.”
However within the 2000s, a gaggle of descendants of the unique villagers returned and began to revitalize the island.
In 2011, the Salt and Gentle Preservation Centre was based to preserve and promote the tradition and ecology of Yim Tin Tsai.
Salt pans
When the Hakka group arrived in Hong Kong, they constructed salt pans, as Yim Tin Tsai is discovered to be a super location for salt making due to its solar and wind publicity, in addition to its high and low tide ranges.
For a very good 200 years, the Hakka folks made good cash from promoting salt to Sai Kung and the neighboring area till they needed to take care of competitors from Vietnam and the Mainland, who had been all of the sudden producing and exporting salt at extraordinarily low prices.
At current, the preservation middle’s most important purpose is to protect its salt manufacturing tradition with the restored salt pans, however they nonetheless do promote jars of salt in a restricted quantity.
Learn extra from this sequence:
St. Joseph Chapel
In-built 1890 by French missionaries, Yim Tin Tsai can be house to the St. Joseph Chapel, which has a mix of each Western and Chinese language architectural sorts.
In 2005, it was given an Award of Advantage of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, and in 2011, it was rated as a Grade II historic constructing by the Hong Kong Antiquities Advisory Board, which implies efforts must be made to selectively protect it.
The chapel sometimes holds non secular and cultural gatherings that contribute to the island’s wealthy heritage.
Heritage Exhibition Heart
Housed in a restored main college, the Heritage Exhibition Heart shows the cultural relics of Yim Tin Tsai.
Guests can uncover particulars concerning the each day lives of the island’s former residents, its transformation through the years, and different artifacts like farming instruments, house furnishings, and paperwork collected throughout salvages completed within the space.
Based on archaeological investigations, the island could also be traced again to the Japanese Han dynasty round 100 CE on the newest.
get to Yim Tin Tsai?
To achieve Yim Tin Tsai island, you will need to first go to Sai Kung by taking the MTR to Choi Hung (Kwun Tong Line), exit at C1, after which experience the inexperienced minibus 1A, which can take you to the city at round 40 minutes.
When you arrive in Sai Kung, take a brief stroll to the Sai Kung New Public Pier, the place you can see accessible boats that may take you to the island. —JCB, GMA Built-in Information
