# Yuen's Mansion, Mui Wo, Lantau, Hong Kong, August 2018



## HughieD (Sep 16, 2018)

*1. The History*
Yuen's Mansion, also known as "Yu De Li Wai", is a characteristic old house located in the bridgehead village of Mui Wo Chung Kau, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The old house was built in the 1920s and the 1940s out of granite. On December 18, 2009, it was assessed as a Grade II historic building. The complex includes six buildings in total; a main house, a former house, a barn, Dong Geng Lou, Xi Geng Lou and a hut adjacent to Dong Geng Lou.

The Yuan House was built by Yuan Huazhao, a former member of the Chinese Nationalist Party. During World War II, he played a role in anticipation and defence against the Japanese invasion. A part of the housing estate is now abandoned. The other part is a dormitory for workers in nearby holiday homes. There is still one cannon in the house. The four major buildings (view tower) in Mui Wo are composed of these two buildings, the Luti Pond and the Butterfly Hill.

Current owner, Yuen Chit-chi, recently criticised the local government for a decade of drainage work near the historic site that has left it sinking.

*2. The Explore*
Bit of a mini-explore. Our table at a restaurant wasn’t ready for half-an-hour so with a bit of time to kill I hiked over to this place, having vague memories of previously seen this place. It paid off as the place was where I thought it was and was relatively easily accessible. From the outside the watch-tower and attached building look to be pretty sturdy but once inside you see that it is very much a shell of a building. All the same a nice little boutique explore.

*3. The Pictures*

The watch-tower built out of chunky granite blocks:


img9283 by HughieDW, on Flickr

This bit doesn’t look too steady:


img9282 by HughieDW, on Flickr


img9280 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Front elevation:


img9279 by HughieDW, on Flickr


img9278 by HughieDW, on Flickr


img9277 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Heritage house to the left:


img9266 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Inside we go:


img9275 by HughieDW, on Flickr

All the window frames have fallen out:


img9271 by HughieDW, on Flickr

And the doors too:


img9263 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Remains of an old bed-head:


img9273 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The first floor has completely collapsed:


img9272 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Leaving this sink high and dry:


img9270 by HughieDW, on Flickr


img9269 by HughieDW, on Flickr

New buildings have sprung up nearby:


img9267 by HughieDW, on Flickr

At least the external walls look sturdy:


img9264 by HughieDW, on Flickr


img9262 by HughieDW, on Flickr


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## Sam Haltin (Sep 17, 2018)

Interesting looking building. A shame that some of the floors have disappeared.


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## Mikeymutt (Sep 17, 2018)

Brilliant hughie.such a varying amount of stuff


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## HughieD (Sep 18, 2018)

Hugh Jorgan said:


> Interesting looking building. A shame that some of the floors have disappeared.



Cheers mate. Yeah...kind of weird the floors have just given way.


Mikeymutt said:


> Brilliant hughie.such a varying amount of stuff



Cheers Mikey. Got a few more to come!


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## prettyvacant71 (Sep 20, 2018)

hahaha this made me laugh HD...I'd have turned up to the restaurant 6hrs too late and covered in shit, hope you enjoyed your meal too


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## HughieD (Sep 22, 2018)

prettyvacant71 said:


> hahaha this made me laugh HD...I'd have turned up to the restaurant 6hrs too late and covered in shit, hope you enjoyed your meal too



Ha ha...that wouldn't have gone down too well! The frustrating thing was right next to the restaurant was a MASSIVE abandoned school that I walked straight past without noticing because I was on a mission. Hey ho...next time.


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## Wrench (Mar 4, 2019)

Nice work,
Like the look of this sir


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## BikinGlynn (Mar 4, 2019)

That's excellent stuff, would love to get to far off lands like that... one day!


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## HughieD (Mar 5, 2019)

BikinGlynn said:


> That's excellent stuff, would love to get to far off lands like that... one day!



Cheers mate. LOADS of interesting stuff in Hong Kong!


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