Windows into the past: see inside the abandoned villages of Hong Kong
Ghost villages dot Hong Kong's New Territories, some so decayed there's not much left, others still with furniture and household goods amid their rotting frames. In some, one or two families cling on or have returned decades after most left for urban areas or abroad, writes Pete Spurrier
The rain was incessant, the skies a greenish grey and my Sunday hike across the northeast New Territories was taking far longer than anticipated. It was late afternoon and getting dark; I wouldn't be able to make it to the nearest road before nightfall.
It was time to make other plans. My sodden paper map showed a village called So Lo Pun in the valley below; I would get down there, knock on a door and ask if I could sleep on someone's floor.
As I approached, I could see no lights, and - before I knew it - I realised that I had arrived. The trees of the forest were growing up through the dark windows and broken rafters of what had been a terrace of single-storey houses. Nobody had lived here for decades.
That was my introduction to the abandoned villages of Hong Kong.
