Tsang Tai Uk

Nested at the foot of Lions Rock , Tsang Tai Uk is made up of four long rows of village houses with three circular entrances and a big courtyard at the front. The Village has a 3-meter thick wall, along with cannon and gun holes. The walls and buildings use to have colorful paints on them. The roof decorations were bright colors. Tsang Koon Maan spent so much money on decorating the village that he didn’t have enough money to buy the actual guns and cannons. There are also 2 wells there; the people who live there actually still collect water from those hundred-year-old wells. This village is unique in certain ways, for instance, it is a three-hall type structure built with granite, grey bricks and solid timber. It also has the old steps, which is believed to trip over demons. Most of the unique things in the village would probably be the carving and decoration. The carvings and the decorations are carefully carved and decorated; some of them are made out of wood.   It is built around five courtyards, centered on an ancestral hall. The entrance is three iron-bound gates. Two wells in the front courtyard provided drinking water. The roofs are decorated with objects to turn away evil spirits. While the village is usually called Tsang Tai Uk (Big House of the Tsang Clan), its formal name is Shan Ha Wai ( Walled Village at the Mountain Foot).

Tsang Tai Uk is an outstanding example of a fortified village. Built in the 1840s, it is a large, rectangular grey-brick compound originally designed as the home for a rich quarry-master's clan.