Kanda tree house

Kanda tree house

Kam Tin tree house is located on the side of the playground in Shui Wei village, Kam Tin, Yuen Long, Hong Kong. Its unique feature is that it is surrounded by a huge old banyan tree with complex structure. It has many records in Hong Kong and witnessed the history of the order of moving the boundary (also known as the order of moving the sea) in the early Qing Dynasty.

Introduction to ancient trees

This old banyan belongs to Ficus microcarpa. Its trunk diameter is 6000 mm (1.3 m above the ground), which is the highest in Hong Kong. Its height is 16.5 m, and its crown is 42 m. This is the first record in Hong Kong like the famous camphor tree in Sheshan village of Tai Po. Its age is at least 100 years. As for the actual age, there are many different opinions: 300 years and 400 years, but the brick technology of the stone house surrounded by banyan trees is only 200 years old, so it is estimated that if the stone house is to be swallowed up, the age of banyan trees can not be far behind the date when the bricks were made, but it is generally agreed that banyan trees have a history of at least 150 years.

Therefore, ancient trees meet the following four characteristics and are listed in the book of ancient and famous trees specially compiled since 2004

1. The tree is over 100 years old

2. Having cultural, historical or important commemorative value

3. Outstanding tree shape

4. Big tree

Stone house

The so-called stone house surrounded by banyan trees is now uninhabited and there is nothing left but some brick walls and a stone door frame. It is said that the stone house has a history of at least 400 years. It was built in the late Ming Dynasty and is the building of the Deng people in Jintian. In his book Hong Kong anecdotes, famous tourist Zhu Weide pointed out that the area near the tree house was originally a wild place,

At that time, the stone house used to be a temple of heaven after Heaven (also known as Beiming Temple). On the other hand, it was thought to be a study. The stone house itself is a two in three room design. It is built of green bricks and is built with sandwich walls (that is, the walls are built with two layers of bricks, and the middle part is connected with a horizontal brick every two layers). It's hot and humid in southern China. This kind of design just achieves the function of moisture-proof and warm in winter and cool in summer, but it increases the construction cost relatively.

The formation of tree house

In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, in order to prevent the coastal residents from helping Zheng Chenggong, a Ming Dynasty official, in Taiwan, the Zheng Dynasty issued an order to move the boundary in the first year of Kangxi (1662). The coastal residents from Shandong Province to Guangdong Province had to move inland for 50 Li, covering most of Hong Kong. After moving to the sea, the coastal residents lost their homes, the countryside was desolate, and the fishing and salt industry was abandoned. In addition, the implementation of the sea ban has seriously affected Hong Kong.

The order of moving to the sea also covered the area of Kam Tin in those years. So the owner had to leave. Since then, the stone house has been abandoned for over a hundred years.

Slowly, the banyan trees beside the stone house grew up, the branches coiled and the air roots grew. Step by step, they surrounded the house and penetrated into the cracks of the bricks and tiles. Later, they crushed and swallowed the stone house. Professor Zhan Zhiyong of the Department of geography of the University of Hong Kong, who is known as "Dr. tree", points out that the air roots developed by Ficus microcarpa can go deep into the soil layer and grow into new trunks. Then the trunks grow air roots again. If it goes on like this, it will finally form a situation that "a single tree can become a forest".

Today's tree house

Up to now, brick walls and once visible Chinese style stone door frames can still be seen in the middle of the main trunk. The branches on one side of the ancient tree also developed surprisingly straight, even with abnormal growth of right angle turning, just like the pillars of the tree. I believe it was because the branches developed around the original stone house like octopus. Later, the bricks were taken away. Today, the outline of the stone house can be seen faintly from the shape of the branches of the ancient tree, which is a wonder.

In addition, it refers to the appearance of the air roots and trunks of banyan trees wrapped in stone houses, which are like small animals, such as monkeys, rabbits, snakes and so on.

Deng Dazhi, a native of the new territories and a famous fashion designer, described the treehouse as his childhood Playground: "when I was a child, I liked climbing up the treehouse to play. I didn't come down for hours. I felt like" I am the king. " He also said: "the buildings are empty, but the trees still exist and witness the changes of history." He also said banyan trees have air roots, are wetter, have many branches, and attract birds to build nests, so they are particularly difficult to climb.

The combination of ancient trees and stone houses can confirm the history of the Qing Dynasty's influence on Hong Kong. The allusion of tree house and its unique form make it a rural tourist attraction in Hong Kong.

The threat of Treehouse

However, the tree house and Jintian township have attracted many visitors, but the tree house has not been included in the protected cultural relics. The tree trunks were climbed, some bricks were removed from the stone house, and the door frames and windows fell off due to years of disrepair. All of these have done some damage to the trees and the house itself.

On the other hand, although the leisure and Cultural Services Department included the tree house in the list of ancient and famous trees, from December 18, 2006 to January 15, 2006, the renovation project of the amusement park adjacent to the tree house, which was undertaken by its department, cut off about half of the roots of the ancient trees. The roots originally hidden under the soil were exposed, and some of them were mixed with a large amount of concrete fragments, while cigarette boxes, paper scraps and other garbage were transported with them It is abandoned by the exposed roots.

Local residents said that the place covered with concrete was originally a piece of mud. Zhan Zhiyong, a tree expert who exposed the incident, pointed out that Ficus microcarpa roots in the shallow soil, rather than growing deep. In order to renovate the playground project, workers cut off the roots of the ancient trees and paved a lot of concrete beside the trunks, which hindered the growth of the trees. Originally, the roots of trees spread in the soil, but now the growth range of trees is limited, it is difficult to absorb enough nutrients and store nutrients, and the consolidation capacity of trees is also reduced. If the exposed part of the root is infected by fungi, it will trigger the withering of ancient trees.

In addition, at the beginning, the original pavement was only paved with bricks on the soil, and the roots of ancient trees could be developed under the road. However, due to the concrete construction, the pavement with a deeper foundation is like a concrete wall, which prevents the roots from extending in this direction.

Zhan Zhiyong also pointed out that the life span of Ficus microcarpa is generally up to 1000 years. The ancient tree is only in its prime and remains healthy before being cut off. It is estimated that it could have lived at least 300 to 400 years longer, but now it is not ruled out that the ancient tree will wither step by step.

Zhan Zhiyong criticized the lack of common sense of the LCSD in protecting ancient trees in the incident. On the one hand, the scope of the playground project was allowed to be too close to the ancient trees. On the other hand, there was no effective supervision on the project, which led to a big mistake.

Other stories

In 1996, the KCRC launched the East Rail Travel chronicle, which introduced tree house with pictures and pictures. At that time, it was introduced that the KCRC could transfer buses to various scenic spots in Kam Tin through the Tai Po Market railway station of KCRC. Later, the KCRC was opened to traffic in 2003, which greatly shortened the traffic time to and from Kam Tin. It was only a short walk from Kam Sheung Road station to Shuwu. By 2005, the Kowloon Canton Railway (KCRC) had launched the "discovery of West Rail monuments" for free distribution. Besides Shuwu, it also introduced the monuments in Yuen Long, Tuen Mun and other places.

In 1992, the Hong Kong film "I love twisted firewood", which was edited by Luo Qirui and Zhang wanting, used the tree house as the background, implying the entanglement between men and women. Since then, it has attracted many tourists, and the price of the surrounding buildings has also soared.

In September 2007, the green power and Xinchuang group charity fund specially held the activity of "Hong Kong people, Hong Kong trees and Hong Kong feelings" based on the historical and cultural background of Hong Kong banyan trees. In one of the activities, 12 groups of banyan trees were selected to vote for "Hong Kong people's banyan trees". In addition to the Jintian tree house, they also included the famous Ho Li wood road stone wall tree, Lin Cun wishing tree and Miao Street banyan tree head leaf Banyan, banyan under Yuen Long tree are also on the list.

Adjacent buildings

Shuiwei village, where Kam Tin Shuwu is located, and Shuitou village, one street away, are the birthplaces of the Tang people in Hong Kong. Therefore, there are a large number of historic sites and a natural landscape. Not far north from the tree house in Shuiwei village, there is a vast pond called Pinghu. On the south side are the temple of Qingle Deng (Sicheng Hall), Changchun Garden and Liugeng hall.

Shuitou village, located in the south of Shuiwei village, is rich in historical relics, including the legal historic site of Erdi academy, Zhouwang ERGONG academy, xuliuyuan (zhijiatang), bianmuqiao (jingmuqiao), etc. both Zhouwang ERGONG academy and Jintian Shuwu are related to the history of moving to the sea in the early Qing Dynasty. King Zhou ERGONG Academy was established to commemorate and worship Wang lairen, governor of Guangdong, and Zhou Youde, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in the early Qing Dynasty. They were ordered to explore the border and go deep into the people, but they deeply sympathized with the sufferings of the residents due to the sea ban. Therefore, they wrote to the imperial court at that time and finally succeeded in lifting the ban. Therefore, if the tree house witnessed the loss of all kinds of business due to the order of moving to the sea, the king of Zhou ERGONG academy recorded the end of the order of moving to the sea.

Address: the side of Shuiwei village playground, Kam Tin, Yuen Long, Hong Kong

Longitude: 114.069891534

Latitude: 22.448197653852

Chinese PinYin : Jin Tian Shu Wu