Tseung Kwan O Village

Tseung Kwan O Village (Chinese: 將軍澳村; pinyin: Jiāngjūn'ào Cūn) is one of the oldest communities in the Tseung Kwan O area of Hong Kong. Lying at the northern tip of Junk Bay, it is a sleepy and comfortable village that rests at the foot of a small mountain. Before major development in the 1970s by the Hong Kong Government, the ocean was a mere 100 feet (30 m) away but the land has since been reclaimed and an urban area built upon it.

Map of Tseung Kwan O Village, Hong Kong

The inhabitants of the village are mostly native to Hong Kong. They are mainly from the 'Ng' and 'Chan' families, with the current village head in 2006 being a 'Ng'. A British Law passed in 1895 declared inhabitants of various villages native to the territory and granted them special land, burial and inheritance rights. However, as land becomes more scarce and expensive, many people are challenging this old law. The old Tseung Kwan O dialect is also becoming a thing of the past as new generations no longer know how to speak their ancestor's tongue.

Tseung Kwan O Village used to be a small fishing and horticultural village. Dynamite and nets were often the normal tools for fishing and simple rope traps were used to trap owls for dried meat. Villages also used to have annual celebrations and trading between each other. However, this old way of life has been disrupted by urbanization and the landscape has been altered by sea reclamation.