Wun Yiu Village (Sheung Wun Yiu and Ha Wun Yiu)

About the village

Wun Yiu, meaning 'bowl kiln', is Tai Po's representative Hakka heritage village, comprising Sheung Wun Yiu and Ha Wun Yiu in wooded, kaolin-rich hills south-west of Tai Po Market. The Man and Tse clans made blue-and-white porcelain here during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and after the coastal evacuation of the 1660s the Ma clan, Hakka people from Changle county (present-day Wuhua) in Guangdong, settled in 1674 and bought the kilns from the Man clan. The industry prospered under the Ma in the Qing dynasty, with wares exported as far as Jiangmen, before competition from other Guangdong coastal kilns forced the kilns to close in 1932. The pottery kilns at Wun Yiu were declared monuments in 1983, and excavations in 1995 and 1999 uncovered the entire production chain, from clay quarrying pits, water mills, an animal-driven grinder and clay-soaking tanks to paste-making workshops and dragon kilns, a find the Antiquities and Monuments Office calls very rare in China's porcelain history. In Sheung Wun Yiu stands Fan Sin Temple, a declared monument since 30 December 1999, built by the Ma clan to honour the patron saint of potters and unique in Hong Kong. Section 8 of the Wilson Trail crosses the village, making it an easy visit for walkers.