Lai Chi Wo Field Trip Reflection: Insights and Learnings

In this essay, I have chosen the Lai Chi Wo to further illustrate on the issue of tension between local residents and tourism development. Lai Chi Wo is a 400 years old traditional walled village in new territories. It is praised for being one of the oldest surviving Hakka Feng Shui woodlands in Hong Kong. Many opinions embrace the idea of developing ecotourism in Lai Chi Wo. While at the same time, some of the local residents may not go alone with this and therefore generate tension among the villagers and tourism development. In the followings, I will introduce more about the selected site and how it was affected by the developing ecotourism with the support of news articles and academic reports.

Lai Chi Wo is part of the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark that is legally protected under the Country Parks Ordinance and Marine Parks Ordinance. It contains a range of rich and diversified natural resources like the interlocked-branch trees, hollow tree, “five-finger camphor tree” and mangrove forest etc (Hong Kong Tourism Board, 2018). The Lonely Planet even highlighted it as “Hong Kong's best-preserved Hakka walled village” and ranked it as a top destination in Hong Kong in 2016. The increasing popularity of Lai Chi Wo had draw the attention of the HKSAR government. In the past decades, the government had been taking the leading role to improve rural livelihoods and ecotourism of Lai Chi Wo. Related departments like the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) is responsible for building construction works of the facilities like wooden trails and signboards to facilitate the tourism development. In addition, the Lai Chi Wo Special Area was designated as a Special Area in 2005. The Hip Tin Temple and Hok Shan Monastery were also listed as Grade III historic buildings (Antiquities Advisory Board, 2018). With reference to the report conducted by Dr Ng and Ms Chickthe, the Management Agreement (MA) Scheme was launched by the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) to encourage non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work together with the landowners.

The Geoheritage Centre in Lai Chi Wo Village that supported by Fung Ying Seen Koon is one of the example. It aims to raise the public awareness of geoconservation through panels and exhibits. Other NGOs like The Hong Kong Countryside Foundation and the Conservancy Association had been jointly working together with the villagers to revitalise Lai Chi Wo in the past few years. For example, they cooperated with the University of Hong Kong for the Living Water & Community Revitalization Project which results in positive effect on local biodiversity and help to promote local farm outputs.

However, the tension between ‘preservation’ and ‘conservation’ had always been a heated debate globally. Hong Kong also faces the same dilemma. According the the news article reported by the South China Morning Post, which mentioned that some of the projects did not take the interest of the villagers under consideration. For example the "Hakka Cultural Experience Village" Project supported by the Hong Kong Jockey Club had allocated HK$50 million to reviving 25 village houses in two phases for tourists to stay and experience Hakka culture. However, some villagers who have moved overseas but still own the land, claimed that they were not properly consulted on this topic. One of the resident said the village chief just went ahead that made him feels “it held a ‘do first, ask questions later’ mentality”. Another tension is regarding to the setting up of enclaves. The Hong Kong Free Press explained it as the “private land next to or surrounded by country parks that the government has excluded from the country parks’ boundaries”. It aims to prevent infringing on the legal rights of the local villagers or people who own the land. The 2016 Hong Kong Young Leaders Programme Field Project also tried to categorise the concerned parties into the following three parties: Villagers who are afraid of losing the development rights. Villagers and other stakeholders who concern about the environment protection. As well as the activist and green groups who believe it can paves the way for environmental destruction. In order to tackle with this problem, whenever the government or other organisations planning to implement revitalisation projects in Lai Chi Wo, it will be better to listen and consult with most of the landowners. As there are about 200 families still living in the village, while most of the rest are living overseas. Other than the few families with ties to the village, the village should also reap some benefits as a whole.

For example, an office can be built for members to come together to discuss issues and hold polls regularly. The villagers can have the platform to express their own viewpoints and negotiate for a better solution. Otherwise, it may result in lack of communication that creates tension among the concerned parties. Moreover, the uncivilized behaviors of tourists also enhance the tension of local villagers and tourism development. It is worried that more frequent of the tourism activities may bring more damage to the site. For example, there are not enough rubbish bins within the village and tourists may just throw the rubbish everywhere. Immoral tourists may even lettering on the trees and buildings, and some of them may ignore the warning signs and climb on the trees to thak pictures. To solve this problem, proper site management policies should be implemented to regulate the unethical behaviors. For example setting up a special duty team to monitor the tourists uncivilized behaviors. Moreover, more educational courses or workshops can be held to enhance people’s sense of awareness to protect the nature.

All in all, ecotourism is becoming more and more popular in global tourism industry nowadays, therefore I believe Lai Chi Wo will get more attention from tourists with its unique Hakka core culture value and rich natural resources. Lately, the Chief Executive had proposed to establishment revitalisation projects in promoting the remote countryside areas such as Lai Chi Wo (Policy Address, 2018). It is important for the government to reduce the tension and conflict of the different purposes of land use. Lai Chi Wo cannot have a better tourism development planning without the fully support from the local villagers. The tourism development in Lai Chi Wo need to strike a balance between tourism development and the local lifestyle. Although there are few problems regarding to the conflict of interest, the support from the government will help Lai Chi Wo to move forward in the future.