Sam A village in the northeastern New Territories

New Territories

New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...

 of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 is named after the idyllic bay of Sam A Wan (三椏灣).

In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, there were more than 200 residents here, but at the end of the 1960s most of the men left the village to seek employment in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the Netherlands. Today, the Tsang

Zeng

Zeng is a Chinese family name. In Cantonese, it is rendered as Tsang. In Taiwan, it is rendered as Tseng or Tzeng. In Malaysia, it may be rendered as Chan. In Indonesia, it may be rendered as Tjan. In Vietnam, it may be rendered as Tăng. The surname Zeng is the 32nd most common surname in Mainland...

ancestral hall and the abandoned three-village school still stand, but there is little life here on a week-day.

On week-ends, however, some Tsang clan members return to their ancestral village to run a couple of stores that offer food and lodgings for the ever increasing number of visitors. Still, even today, Sam A is still only accessible by boat or hiking.