Kat Hing Wai – Yuen Long, Hong Kong

This Lovely Little Village Will Welcome You With Open Arms… Unless You’re A Pirate Or A Bandit

Kat Hing Wai is a time capsule of China’s past. Housed behind blue-brick walls, the village was built by the Tang clan 500 years ago and is the best preserved of Hong Kong’s walled villages. Designed to keep out bandits, pirates and invaders, cannons were mounted atop the village’s 5.5 metre-high battlements and it was sealed with a heavy wrought iron gate.

In 1899, in a defiant defense against the new British colonial authorities, the people of Kam Tin took refuge behind the walls. When the Brits took the village, they sent its gate home as a trophy, only returning it 26 years later. The 400 residents have taken steps towards modernization, but the outside walls, grid design and some original structures remain.