Visitor Info Board: From Yung Shue Au to the Banyan House

Standing along the ancient path to Luk Keng is the building known as the “Banyan House”, also called the “Four-Character House”. Its crumbling walls are tightly wrapped in a massive web of banyan roots, looking as if nature has pulled the old home into a tight embrace, holding inside all the sadness of the village’s decline. Starting from the second half of the 19th century, villagers from around Sha Tau Kok, including those from Yung Shue Au, left one after another to make a living overseas. Yung Shue Au went through two main waves of emigration: the first happened between the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the global Chinese migration boom, while the second took place in the latter half of the 20th century as European immigration policies eased and Hong Kong industrialized rapidly, prompting villagers to move to the city or settle abroad. By the early 1990s, Yung Shue Au was completely deserted.