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.

chapel on the hill

view of salt pans from the path

overgrown building

the old school now a heritage center

statue of  St. Joseph Freinademetz, first missionary to live and preach in HK, later canonised as a saint

statue and old chapel site with part of original walls

"The only language understood by people everywhere is the language of love."

info, story, map of former and current chapel and dwellings (click to enlarge)

ancestral home of Rev. Dominic Chan

on the Path of Reconciliation

view toward the golf course on Kau Sai Chau

walkway connecting Kau Sai Chau

pc Wai

pc Wai

drone shot by Wai

pc Wai

Here's a link to all the photos: Yim Tin Tsai outing
More on the Path of Reconciliation: Stations of the Path of Reconciliation

Genealogy

I wouldn't say genealogy is a hobby of mine, but my interest has grown over the years. My parents have gone to high school reunions, several of the annual gatherings of alumni from New York City Chinese School, and attended a conference on Chinese in/from the South (my mom is from Arkansas).

I blogged about the time we went for a visit to Tai Shan, my father's ancestral village and other places during my parent's visit in 2006. My dad's ancestral home was built in the diao lou watchtower style that was meant to keep a lookout for bandits. Click to see the rest of the photos

In 2012, the 1940 census data was released free online for a time and I was able to find my maternal grandparents listed along with my oldest aunt and mom. My younger aunt and uncle had not been born yet. 

In this close-up screen shot, it shows rent was $10.00 a month, my grandfather was 30 years old, and had completed 7th grade as his highest level of education. My grandmother was 27, and completed 6th grade. In another part of the form (in another photo I have) it was reported my grandfather was "at work for pay" and worked 72 hours that week. My grandmother "engaged in home housework." My grandfather owned a general store in Brickeys, Arkansas at the time selling various merchandise and foodstuff. 

My mom and family, circa 1945

When I was younger, my mom shared what she knew of her parents immigration to the U.S. via Seattle and stories about growing up in the store. She had only been once to her mother's village in the 1950s and we did not get a chance to go look for it in 2006 when we found my dad's ancestral village.

I recently found a website called Chinese Exclusion Files with a blog started by a volunteer at the National Archives in Seattle and requested a search for information on my maternal grandparents who arrived in the U.S. during the time of the Exclusion Act when it was difficult and time consuming to enter and leave the country due to background checks.

Files were found for both grandparents with more than 50 pages of various documents in each file. There were many pages of transcribed interview/interrogation, reports of investigations and requests from the authorities for confirmation of information.

It was neat to read through it all to glean an idea of their experience when immigrating to compile this information to write a family history to share with descendants of my grandfather. Following are a few screenshots from documents in the files. 

my grandfather from Certificate of ID issued on arrival in 1923

from re-entry permit issued 1930

notarized affidavit for grandma's visa application 1936

my grandmother and aunt on a document from the American Consulate HK granting a visa, 1936

The search for information for my dad's side of the family has been tougher because his grandparents are the ones that immigrated, and their last name, Lee, is an English name as well as Chinese.

Both his parents were both born on the east coast, father in Watertown, NY, and mother in Worcester, MA. As far as I know, they were sent back to China for schooling (from a port unknown) and returned to America to run a laundry business in New York City. I don't know if they married in China or in the U.S.

I did not find 1940 census data online since I didn't have an exact address in Brooklyn, where my dad was born and where they were living at the time. Perhaps I will be able to find it when the 1950 census is released in a few years. Until then, here's a few photos of my paternal grandparents, dad, and my aunt. 

circa 1935 shortly after marriage

1940s

my dad and oldest aunt, early 1940s

my dad, age 10, 1949

Signal Tower

When Maggie was young we often visited a little roadside playground after attending playgroup at the YMCA with friends who lived across the street in the former New World Apartments. It was in the shadow of a hilltop garden where sits a building called Signal Tower. 

It has been many years since I climbed up the steep path to look at Signal Tower, so went again for nostalgia's sake on the way to the post office after lunch with Alex.

steep stairs

banyan tree

The handsome red-brick building dates from the early 1900s and housed a mechanism that dropped a "time-ball" that was hoisted up and dropped at a certain time so that mariners and other people could keep time. 

This little garden on a hill known as Blackhead Point in Tsim Sha Tsui has remained through the (re)development of the surrounding area. Way before all the reclamation of the waterfront, it was a high point with the tower being visible to the boats in Victoria Harbour. 

One can still see a snippet of the harbor from part of the park, but the tower is now dwarfed and hidden by skyscrapers. In fact, the path leading to this peaceful area is next to a refuse collection point and easy to miss. Many walk by on their way to the MTR station.

 

bubble tea on blustery Blackhead Point

The little park Maggie played at is long gone, but another park of the same name was built on the roof of a bus terminus atop the East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station along with a walkway, viewpoint, benches, and gardens built over Chatham Road South and another bus terminus that leads to a waterfront promenade (walkway) that stretches from Hung Hom Stadium to the Kowloon Star Ferry.

It's called Middle Road Children's Playground and connects to Waterfront Podium Garden. It's a pleasant way to walk to/from Hung Hom station to E TST.

The waterfront apartments my friends lived in are also long gone. They were part of a residential, office, commercial building including a hotel. We used to watch the hourly display that popped out of the wall above the entrance to the mall. It consisted of kitschy figurines "marching" to music-box tunes and enthralled the children. The closest comparison would be the display at Disneyland's It's a Small World. 

The new New World Centre development is nearly finished after being razed and looks completely different. I guess it goes with the times.

Bonus photos of our tsukemen and ramen lunch, Alex on the MTR and out and about in TST after YMCA playgroup circa 1999.

at Mitaseimenjo

see my reflection?

YMCA playgroup Halloween 1998