Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail

The next 4 pix are of inside the walled city; the place where I was not supposed to go into!

Today, I felt almost well enough to venture out to see a new site. I say almost because I felt like coming back to the hotel every step of the way. My head hurt and I felt drowsy; the drowsiness owing to the meds I'm taking to avoid a stubbed ub node. And, there was this head/eye ache of some unknown description. But, the meds are supposed to take care of headaches, too! Dunno. Anyways, I made it there and back in one piece.

The location of the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail is a very short bus ride away from Fanling subway station in the New Territories. Getting there was relatively easy. You can't really miss it as it is at the last few bus stops along the way. The "trail" really isn't a trail anymore as it's now intermixed with new development everywhere; like old and new living in some semblance of harmony. This area actually reminds me of the (Caribbean) "islands". More specifically, the bus ride through the Fanling subway station area of town is very reminiscent of the richer areas of Havana in Cuba.

The island feel is unmistakable as well once I reached the trail itself. As the street signs are all in Chinese, and I don't read Chinese, I didn't find everything I saw listed on the main map where I got off, but I did manage to see most of the area. As I said, all the old buildings are intermixed with new construction. And, people live in both the old and in the new; something that was quite apparent when a sign at the walled city told of no entry lest one disturbs the current residents. Anyways, I still took a peak (ok, I'm a bad boy) and explored the other places without signs a bit more in depth. It's interesting to see how small places were back then.

There's really no tourism here. The specific buildings have been designated heritage sites, but that's about it. What you see is what it is in their natural state. That's why it looks run down and undeveloped in parts. I was struck by how quiet and peaceful it was there, although the small flying bugs kept eating me!

As for the pix, the first section is of the old buildings that are part of the heritage trail. The last pix are of the modern homes intermixed into the old. The red/orange signs you see hanging by some of the doorways is because of Chinese New Years; it's only a few days away. Normally, they would not be there.