A Visit to the New Territories: Shatin and the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas

(Sunday 3 May)

Ranee and I were invited to visit Rainbow Lueng’s family who live in a hillside village a short walk from Shatin Station. My notions of a village in the middle of the countryside were dashed upon my arrival at Shatin - the MTR emerges into a vast, brand new air conditioned shopping mall, just like the ones in Central. Outside, the green hills of the New Territories are obscured by a huge Merrill Lynch glass and steel tower, and the familiar 40 storey tower blocks. The building density is lower here than in the city though; there are still views out towards the distant and still largely unspoilt hills towards China in the north that are not completely obscured by the rapacious growth of residential towers and the new financial district.

On meeting Rainbow, we made a visit to the local market to buy fish for lunch- everything is very much alive - fish, crustacea, huge fish heads pump their gills, unaware that they have been severed from their bodies. It’s all a bit much to be honest, and I’m glad when we have bought what we need and make our way up to the village with our haul.

The Lueng family live in a traditional (and rapidly disappearing) style of Chinese house. Its modest in size with a tiny kitchen that has only a small sink and tap and a double stove top burner. The living room, with its shrine and sparse furnishings, also houses sleeping areas that are curtained off platforms above the communal sitting room. There is an outside terrace that serves as a sitting area and kitchen extension, which is used by everyone (and the dog, Boogie). It’s certainly warm enough to sit out here until bedtime, in fact its unpleasantly hot during the day! Although in her late twenties, like a huge number of young HK adults Rainbow still lives with her parents (and her maternal grandparents, both in their 90’s!). As in the UK, the high rental prices in HK mean that a lot of young people can’t afford to move out of home.

We are offered hot bamboo juice to drink. It’s naturally sweet, and refreshing on a hot day like today. We offer to help prepare the food but are told that as we are guests we must just relax and wait until food is ready. Rainbow’s boyfriend Yin does help though, it’s not just considered to be ‘women’s work’, at least not in this family. While we wait, Rainbow’s grandfather tells me how he can remember when the village was still a village - with no high-rise towers, paddy fields, and uninterrupted views.

After our seafood lunch (which is spectacularly good!) we take a walk to the Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas, which is a short walk from the house. The steep path up over 400 steps to the temple is lined with gold painted statue after statue, all with different facial expressions (some very comical), ages and body shapes, all representing the diversity of Buddha’s manifestation. It is a hard climb, on a particularly hot and humid day, and I’m glad to reach the temple as by this time I’m sweating buckets. It would be a great place to draw but not on a day like today, it’s far too hot. On the way back we have an encounter with a Shatin monkey, who seems very interested in my red carrier bag, which apparently they recognise as potential food. It seems less than keen to be photographed and bares its yellow (and dangerously sharp looking) teeth. I think it wise to make a swift retreat as the beast then makes its way along the handrail of the path before disappearing into some trees towards the town. Further along we see a whole troupe of them climbing from balcony to balcony in search of pickings. It’s by now late in the afternoon and its time to say goodbye to Rainbow, her mum, and Yin, and head back to the city. Its been a good day and I felt privileged to have been invited to a Chinese home during my visit to HK.