Kau Tam Tso

About the village

Kau Tam Tso is a recognised village under Hong Kong’s New Territories Small House Policy, situated in the North District of the New Territories. Its ancestors, mainly from the Lee Clan, first settled there in the mid-Qing dynasty after earlier migrations from Bao’an County, with family records kept in a Village Name List Book. In the 1911 census, the village had a population of 42, including 13 males. During the Second World War, villagers joined local resistance efforts against the Japanese occupation, and tunnels dug into nearby hills as hiding places were later destroyed by monsoon rains. A government-sponsored monument near Wu Kau Tang Village commemorates those who died in the conflicts, and some households still retain Japanese wartime paper currency in hope of future compensation. Traditionally, residents visit the burial site of the founding couple during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals, and today most villagers live in the UK, particularly in London boroughs and Greater Manchester.