Lam Chiu-ying and Hakka Life Experience Village

Mr. Lam Chiu-ying has been promoting farmland rehabilitation and village revitalisation in Lai Chi Wo for more than a decade. He recalls that in the early days, the rice-farming team cooked their very first harvest and served it to villagers who had returned for ancestral rites during the Chung Yeung Festival. The villagers' joy moved him deeply.

 

Later, he decided to live in Lai Chi Wo himself to experience village life firsthand. He described the experience from dusk to dawn as one where "a single night there gives you enough energy to keep going for three months." At the time, the Hong Kong Jockey Club–funded Hakka Life Experience Village restoration project was underway. Mr. Lam persuaded villagers to allow the project team to adopt an approach of "restoring village houses in exchange for temporary usage rights"—reviving dilapidated houses to be used as the Experience Village, then returning them to the owners once the lease ended.

 

In 2022, with the support of the Countryside Conservation Office, the Hakka Life Experience Village officially opened, marking a new milestone in the revitalisation of Lai Chi Wo.