Just another day...: Yim Tin Tsai

I still have a “go see” list in Hong Kong, so when Lisa was in town Susan and family joined ours to see two places on the list. We went on jaunts up to the Ngong Ping Plateau in Ma On Shan to enjoy views over Sai Kung and we also hired a boat to Yim Tin Tsai. During her trip prior, Lisa and I walked up to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery above Shatin - I hadn’t been in more than ten years! One is more inclined to get out and about when there are visitors around rather than succumb to the usual daily routine.

Yim Tin Tsai was settled in the late 1800s when the Hakka Chan family came to Hong Kong and found a little (1 square km) island about 3km off the coast of Sai Kung. They evaporated seawater into salt, fished, and farmed. The name Yim Tin means salt field in Chinese, and the villagers became one of the first Catholic settlements in Hong Kong. St. Joseph’s Chapel was built on donated land, inaugurated and blessed in 1890. There was Cheng Bo School, est. 1846, as well. At its peak, more than 1000 lived on the island, but it became abandoned in the late 1990s by descendants looking for a better life.

St Joseph’s Chapel and other buildings had been used for paint-ball wargames and were in a sad state before funds were raised to restore it. It won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award of Merit in 2005 and is classified by the HK Antiquities Advisory Board as a Grade 2 Historic Building. The school is now a heritage/visitor center.

After St. Joesph’s founding Father was canonized by the Pope, there have been more visits by Catholic tourists. They walk the approximately 1.2km Path of Reconciliation around the island. There are two pavilions to rest and highest point is about 37 meters/120 feet above sea level. The view was mostly obscured by the vegetation, the same that is slowly devouring the old village houses.

In the 1990s, the salt field, known as pans, were put back to use after having been converted to fish ponds before the island was abandoned. Today the salt fields produce little, but the island has seen more visitors since a regular ferry service is now offered, and an experiential learning activity is offered. Most people just eat at the local restaurants to finish their walk and enjoy the atmosphere.