San Tin
San Tin (Chinese: 新田; lit. 'new fields'), or San Tin Heung (新田鄉), is an area located near Lok Ma Chau in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It is administratively part of Yuen Long District. It should not be confused with San Tin village in Tai Wai also in Hong Kong.
History
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The area was largely settled and inhabited by the clan with surname Man (文). According to their genealogical document, they are the descendants of the second cousin of folk hero Man Tin Cheung from the late Song Dynasty. Their ancestors came to Hong Kong with the young emperors to flee from Mongolian invaders.
Geography
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The area was originally marshland and not suitable for cultivation; few people lived in the area. The Man clan decided to settle in the area in the 15th century. They dried the marshes and gradually filled them with soil, turning them into 800 hectare of rice paddies. This is reflected by the name San Tin, which means new fields.
Areas in San Tin
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The San Tin areas are divided into nine villages within the area most notable areas are Wing Ping Tsuen (永平村), which is close to the Tai Fu Tai Mansion, and Fan Tin Tsuen (蕃田村).
The areas around San Tin are covered in wetlands hence their main products are cabbages (like Chinese cabbage or kai-lan) and previously ducks, when the village was still a farming community.
Transport
Road
San Tin Highway (Chinese: 新田公路; pinyin: Xīntián Gōnglù; Cantonese Yale: san1 tin4 gung1 lou6) is an expressway in North-Western New Territories of Hong Kong, leading off Fanling Highway near San Tin village and connects the Tsing Long Highway and the Yuen Long Highway north of Au Tau, near the new town of Yuen Long. It is also part of Route 9. The road was completed between 1991 and 1993. The speed limit of the expressway is 100 km/h.
The intersection between San Tin Highway and Fanling Highway is the San Tin Interchange which joins the Sam Sham Road to Lok Ma Chau. It connects to the third vehicle cross-boundary facility between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Two bypasses were built here specially for lorries and goods vehicles so they did not need to use the roundabout. They opened on 27 May 2007. Before their construction, the vast amount of lorries and goods vehicles using the roundabout cause serious traffic congestion, on San Sham Road and occasionally on San Tin Highway.
Before the completion of Tsing Long Highway, the southern end of the Highway connected to Castle Peak Road and Au Tau Interchange. When Tsing Long Highway was opened in 1998, San Tin Highway was connected to it, thus linking up with Tai Lam Tunnel and Yuen Long Highway. The interchange near Fairview Park is the roundabout which has the most exits in Hong Kong. It has 7 entrances and exits which lead to:
- Fairview Park (Joining Fairview Park Boulevard)
- San Tin Highway (Bidirectional)
- Castle Peak Road — Tam Mi (Bidirectional)
- San Tam Road (Bidirectional)
San Tin Public Transport Interchange (San Tin PTI) is a bus interchange adjacent to the junction of the San Tin and Fanling highways with Sam Sham Road. San Tin PTI offers bus connections serving 2 separate border checkpoints within Lok Ma Chau to Shenzhen, destinations in and around 4 major settlements in New Territories (Fanling, Sheung Shui, Yuen Long and Tuen Mun), Hong Kong International Airport and a much more infrequent service to destinations en route to and from Kwun Tong.
Rail
San Tin Station (Chinese: 新田) is a proposed station on the Northern Link of the MTR in Hong Kong. There were originally no stations planned on the main section of the Northern Link, between Kam Sheung Road and Kwu Tung/Lok Ma Chau, but three stations, including San Tin, will be built on this section provided that significant development can be seen in the surrounding area. As of 2012, there are still no construction plans for the station, although the Yuen Long District Council has pressed the government to construct the station "as soon as possible".[1]
Governance
San Tin constituency (Chinese: 新田) is one of the 31 constituencies in the Yuen Long District of Hong Kong. The constituency returns one district councillor to the Yuen Long District Council, with an election every four years. San Tin constituency is loosely based on San Tin, Mai Po, Ngau Tam Mei and Nam Sang Wai with estimated population of 20,990.[2]
Chieftains
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Each village in the area has its own chieftain who takes care of ceremonial activities as well as tourist information. The chieftains also make decisions on any change in the area, for example whether a new house should be allowed to be built or if a building need to be demolished. They also represent the village when they go to gatherings with other villages from the New Territories.
New chieftains are chosen through voting from the local area of the village when the current chieftain decides to retire from duty. Chieftainhood is not hereditary and cannot be passed down to their children. Anybody from the village, regardless of status or personal finances can apply as long as the person's surname is the same as the village's. The system is to some extent democratic, however so far there has not been a female chieftain in any village around the New Territories.
Attractions
One of the most important sights in the area is the Tai Fu Tai, a large study hall built in the 1860s. There are also numerous historic village temples scattered around the area, as well as a park dedicated to Man Tin Cheung.[3]
The area is also noted for the village dish poon choi (literally translated as "Bowled dish" in which assorted meat and vegetables are put into an iron bowl with concentrated soya sauce). Once a year, in Autumn, every part of the San Tin village (and also other villagers in New Territories) hold an annual Poon Choi festival in which everybody in the village (and also guests from outside the village) eats Poon Choi.
Study
San Tin was the subject of a study on the social effects of out-migration, conducted by Professor James Watson, who is now a professor at Harvard. He documented how the movement of many young men in the 1960s to Europe affected the village function.[4][5] Wan Loi Man (文運來), a lineage member of San Tin, who migrated from Hong Kong to the Netherlands by the end of 1966, has written a MA historical thesis about the reasons why his co-villagers decided to migrate to the UK and respectively to the Netherlands from the 1950s. His thesis named " The Man lineage in the Netherlands and Europe (1950 - 2010): A migration narrative is to read at [1]. He was also a co-founder of Man lineage Foundation in Europe (Stichting Familie Man in Europa) established in Amsterdam and was the chairman from 2000 - 2003.
See also
References
- ^ "Summary of Discussion Items - The 5th Meeting of the Yuen Long District Council in 2012" (PDF). Yuen Long: Yuen Long District Council. 28 June 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
- ^ "2015 District Councils Election - Summary of the District Council Constituency Areas". Hong Kong Government.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ "A village on the edge: San Tin".
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ * Watson, James L.; Watson, Rubie Sharon (2004). Village life in Hong Kong: politics, gender, and ritual in the New Territories. Chinese University Press. ISBN 978-962-996-100-8.
- ^ * Watson, James L. (1975). Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02647-0.
External links
