The Chan clan built Sam Tung Uk as a Hakka walled village in Tsuen Wan in 1786, after moving from Guangdong in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The original settlement had three rows of houses; as the family grew, it expanded to both sides and behind them. The surviving plan lets visitors read that growth in the arrangement of the village itself.
From the journal
Sam Tung Uk: Three Rows and a Growing Hakka Village
The village plan at Sam Tung Uk records how a Chan clan settlement in Tsuen Wan expanded around a central ancestral hall.
In this district · Tsuen Wan ↗A village measured in rows
The hall at the centre
The ancestral altar stood in the main hall, on the central axis and facing the entrance. Four Chinese characters meaning “Chan Family Ancestral Hall” are engraved on the granite lintel above the door. The entrance, hall and altar connect the village’s layout with the Chan clan’s worship and shared memory.
From village to museum
Sam Tung Uk was declared a monument in 1981, restored in 1987 and opened as a museum. Rows of houses, the entrance and the main hall still shape the visitor’s route through the site. Its change from clan settlement to public cultural place gives the preserved layout a new use without erasing the plan that made the village distinctive.