The industrialization of Hong Kong created hundreds of abandoned villages on the outskirts of the city. Today, these rural villages struggle to rejuvenate their economies and preserve their traditions.
Beginning in the 1950's thousands of village dwellers uprooted from their traditional, rural communities to pursue higher-paying jobs in the rapidly urbanizing center of Hong Kong.
According to Jonathan Spollen, of The New York Times, "while urban development has enriched Hong Kong economically, the depopulation of so many of the territory's villages has taken a cultural toll."
The best way to rejuvenate abandoned villages, said Cho-Nam Ng, the director of the Conservancy Association, a nongovernmental organization, is through eco-tourism and heritage tourism. "We are talking about sustainable development," he said. "Not selling to a developer, but a different kind of economic activity."
Thanks to Victor Negrete
FULL STORY: Hong Kong's Forgotten Villages
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