Mandarin Orchard

Once flourishing with plum cultivation, Mui Tsz Lam's landscape was reshaped in the 1960s and 70s by a new crop - mandarin. Every year as the Lunar New Year approached, villagers would carefully prune the mandarins into connected branches with leaves, decorating them with couplets and celery as offerings for good luck and peace in the year ahead. As the market bustled with demand, villagers hired workers to pick the mandarins and transport them to the city for sale. A pound of mandarins could fetch over twenty dollars, and a bountiful harvest once brought in as much as 130,000 dollars - marking Mui Tsz Lam's most prosperous era.

As the 1980s saw rapid economic growth, cheaper crops from Chinese Mainland entered the local market, reducing the competitiveness of Mui Tsz Lam's orchards. Villagers gradually left in search of other opportunities, and the terraced fields were eventually abandoned.

Later, with the support of the Countryside Conservation Funding Scheme and under the leadership of the Village Representative of Mui Tsz Lam, villagers and volunteers worked together to rehabilitate farmland and plant new citrus trees. This not only revitalised the land but also helped solve the problem of overgrown weeds. Through this process, volunteers were able to connect with nature, experience the joy of farming, and take part in the village revitalisation. Today, the terraced mandarin orchards is the scenic view that greets visitors upon entering the village. It stands as a symbol of Mui Tsz Lam's former prosperity and marks the beginning of its revival.