Gone Fishing!

Tai Sang Wai.

Yesterday, I went to Tai Sang Wai, a little village in Yuen Long, which is surrounded by fish ponds. Villagers tend these fish ponds and grow crops to make a living.

My motivation for going here was to find water hyacinths - a beautiful purple plant - which blooms unpredictably and for very short periods of time. When it does bloom, it covers whole fish ponds in a sea of purple. I'll insert a spoiler alert here: I did not find any water hyacinths on this trip, however, to my surprise what I did find, was an incredibly peaceful and beautiful green and blue patchwork landscape that is unfortunately under threat.

The northern edges of the New Territories of Hong Kong near the border with Mainland China, were once home to many paddy fields. The rice farmers who worked here made some additional money farming shrimps. When rice production in Hong Kong went into decline, the farmers flooded their paddy fields and turned them into fish ponds. New species of fish were introduced to these flooded rice fields and for a while it was a profitable industry.

Freshwater fish farming operates on a yearly cycle. Fish fry are introduced to the ponds at the beginning of winter. Full grown fish are harvested near the end of the year. At one time it was possible to make a reasonable living from this trade, but nowadays the price of fish has fallen due to a glut in overseas supplies. Fish farming has become a labour intensive job that generates little profit for the fish farmers. Because of this, it is an unappealing job for young people and the industry is in decline.

The muddy waters on the edges of the fish ponds are frequented by flocks of migratory birds, so bird conservation organisations support the preservation of the fish farms. However, on the other hand, Hong Kong is short of land for affordable housing and ever encroaching construction is threatening the future of these fish ponds. I do not know how long the fish farmers can hold out against development, but while they do, there is a magical watery landscape on the fringes of Hong Kong, filled with flowering plants and teeming with birds. This turned out to be a wonderful place to explore and I intend to visit other similar areas.

To get to Tai Sang Wai, I first went to Yuen Long. I intend to get to know Yuen Long better. At the moment it is just a large urban sprawl to me. I thought that about Tsuen Wan until I started to find the interesting parts and know my way around better. On this trip I did have a quick wander around one area of Yuen Long. There's a walled village here right next to the MTR, but during COVID they don't want visitors. I also found: some beautiful flowering trees, several of the apparently rare pawn broker signs, a sitting out area filled with old men eagerly playing board games and several dai pai dongs where you can sit outside and eat. This is an older version of Hong Kong than you would find in most parts of Hong Kong Island.

Pavilion near the walled village.

Entrance to the walled village.

Yellow flowers near the walled village.

Pink flowers near the walled village.

Restaurant street art.

Dai pai dongs, which is a kind of open air cafe.

Pawn shop sign.

More pawn shop signs.

Quiet Yuen Long street lined with bikes.

To get to Tai Sang Wai I had to take the number 36 minibus from Fook Hong Street minibus station. To get to that station, I exited the MTR through exit B, went left at the bottom of the stairs onto Long Yat Road, crossed a busy road near an overhead bridge, turned right on Castle Peak Road and walked for five minutes or so before turning right into Fook Hong Street.

Tai Sang Wai is in a really strange location. It is a tiny village spread out along a large number of fish ponds. It's in a very flat area with hills off to one side. Right next to Tai Sang Wai there is a massive housing development called Fairview Park. This development is really unusual for Hong Kong as it consists of houses with up and down stairs and front and back gardens. It looks like suburbia in a European or American town, but is fairly unique here. In addition to that, not too far away from Tai Sang Wai, across the Sham Chun River in Mainland China, lies the city of Shenzhen. This is a city that has expanded hugely in a very short time and its skyscraper filled skyline now looms over northern Hong Kong. Thus, you can stand in Tai Sang Wai facing one direction and see only fish ponds and distant hills, turn around and you are looking at a scene from American Suburbia, turn again and you are facing the skyline of a huge city, one last turn and you are facing the high rises of Tin Shui Wai on the outskirts of Yuen Long. It is all very disconcerting.

Mountain Scenery one way.

Tai Sang Wai Mountain Scenery.

Fairview Park in another.

Fairview Park in another.

Tai Sang Wai house with Shenzhen backdrop.

Shenzhen skyline.

House with Tin Shui Wai in the background.

Instead of walking through the village, I walked back along the road the minibus had brought me on, towards Fairview Park, then headed left along the edge of the fish ponds. I had thought it would be interesting to look around Fairview Park, but I'm not sure if this is possible. All around the edges of it there were rolls of barbed wire. It was a bit like looking at a prison. I decided just to stick with looking at Tai Sang Wai. I was feeling a bit wary about village dogs. I heard a few barking, but only encountered one and fortunately it was friendly.

I saw lots of houses on stilts, built either next to or even in the fish ponds. Some of these were painted in bright shades of yellow, red or blue. It actually made me think of the wooden houses that are found in Norway. There were also some small shacks and some of these had been largely abandoned.

Houses on stilts.

House on stilts.

Houses on stilts.

Colourful Tai Sang Wai house.

Colourful Tai Sang Wai house.

Tai Sang Wai house.

House and flowers.

Tai Sang Wai shack.

Shack.

Shack.

I encountered lots of people wandering around the fishponds, but they weren't the local fish farmers, they were all photographers. At first that made me excited that there may be water hyacinths in bloom, but then I realised all the photographers had come to photograph birds. I also took some pictures of the birds, but my main focus was on the buildings, ponds and surroundings.

Egret.

Water bird.

Egret.

Egret.

As I wandered I found an abandoned bull dozer that had become overgrown with plants, an overgrown cabin and a lovely wall painting depicting wild birds.

There's something inviting about this cabin.

Bird paintings.

Overgrown shack.

"Honey, where did I leave the bull dozer?"

In one area I came to a dried up fish pond which had a really amazing bright red building on stilts right in the middle of it. There were also some abandoned boats here, too.

Dried up pond.

I loved this house on a dried up pond.

I loved this house on a dried up pond.

Of course not all the boats I saw were abandoned. These would still be used to help the fish farmers get around.

Row, row row your boats.

Boats on the fishpond.

Along the edges of the fish ponds there were lots and lots of wild flowers. The only sounds I could hear were the calling of birds and the chirping of insects. It was incredibly peaceful.

Wild flowers on the edge of a pond.

Wild flowers on the edge of the fishpond.

I took some close up shots of the flowers and of the fruit that was growing here. There were lots of bananas.

Wild flowers.

Wild flowers.

Wild flowers.

Banana Flower.

Bananas.

Bananas.

What do Bananas do when they are tired? Find a seat and sit on it.

I have heard this area is very beautiful at sunset too, though I did not stay long enough to find out. One of the things that struck me as so odd about this place was at one point I walked past a village house and the family who lived there was sitting outside enjoying a meal and minding their own business. Then right next to the end of their house there was a long line of photographers all standing silent and still, trying to get the perfect bird shot. This was on a week day so I would imagine the number of visitors would be much higher on a weekend.

The only unpleasant part of my day was when I wandered across a little river and gazed into the water only to see lots of dead fish float by. I'm not sure if they died because of pollutants or some other cause, but it was sad to see. I remember when we came to Hong Kong in 1996 and lived in Sha Tin, the Shing Mun River was covered in dead fish, but on my last visit I was pleased to see this river was much much clearer than it used to be.

River.

Dead fish in the river.

Wandering around Tai Sang Wai was easy, as it's all flat and not too hot, since the temperature is finally beginning to go down. Yippee! I spent a few hours here, sauntering along the pathways between the many fish ponds, enjoying all the beautiful scenery.

Path among the fish ponds.

Path among the fish ponds.

Path among the fish ponds.

Tai Sang Wai.

View across a fish pond.

Fish pond scenery. This view made me feel homesick for Scotland.

Fish pond scenery.

Greens and blues everywhere.

I noticed many lovely reflections in the still waters of the ponds. I felt I could happily stay and enjoy the peace and tranquility here forever, but eventually I made my way back to the minibus stop and took number 36 back to Yuen Long and the MTR.

Reflections

Reflections.

Reflections.

Reflections in a pond.

Next day Peter and I went out for lunch at our friend, Suman's house, where she cooked us a lovely homemade Indian vegetarian meal.

Delicious food.

And good company.

A very pleasant day out.

Suman and I.