大夫第
Tai Fu Tai
The mansion of a Man who did well in the 19th century: carved eaves, coloured glass and a façade that shows what the clan had achieved. Now a monument, free to visit.
San Tin
新田The village in the New Territories where the Man clan settled in the 15th century – “New Field”, drained from marsh. Almost every family in this association comes from here.
THE SET-UP
The village in four layers
This page starts with the land – why the Mans ended up right here – and works its way to the buildings still standing, the people who live there now, and the route for anyone who wants to go and see for themselves.
THE STORY
The land nobody else wanted
The Man clan was the last of the five great clans to move from China to Hong Kong. The fertile land had already been shared out – the Tang and the others got there first. What was left was marsh in the far north, up against the border.
The Mans drained it, grew rice on it and named it after what it had become: San Tin, New Field. The other places the clan settled are Chau Tau 洲頭 and Tai Hang 泰亨.
RICE FARMING IN THE NEW TERRITORIESWhat still stands
Four places you have to see when you’re there – and that the clan still uses to this day.
祠堂
The ancestral halls
This is where the name tablets stand and where births, marriages and the autumn banquet are announced. Anyone coming back from Europe comes here first.
圍村
The walled village
Narrow alleys, grey brick and houses built right up against one another – the original core, squeezed between new builds and the motorway.
洲頭
Chau Tau & Tai Hang
The two other places where Mans settled. Tai Hang is near Fanling and has its own hall and its own branch of the family tree.
MAP · © OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORSThen & now
ARCHIVE PHOTOS WANTED1960now
The paddy fieldsFrom wet fields to warehouses, fish farms and the border road.1970now
The main streetThe same corner, photographed two generations on.1985now
The banquetRound tables on the village square, then and today.Got old photos of the village or of family visits? Send them in – we’re building this block with pictures from the family itself.
From San Tin to Europe
15TH C.Settling in the marshThe last of the five great clans; the land is drained.
19TH C.Tai Fu Tai builtThe clan is established; officials and trade bring prosperity.
1920sThe first Mans in the NetherlandsSailors and traders around Amsterdam’s harbour.
1950sThe great wave of departuresRice farming no longer pays; hundreds of Mans leave for the UK and the Netherlands.
Scholarly studies have been published on this migration, among them The Man Lineage in the Netherlands and Europe (1950–2010) and Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The ‘Mans’ in Hong Kong and London (1975). More in History
GOING YOURSELF
A day trip from Hong Kong
San Tin is in the north of the New Territories, about an hour from Kowloon by MTR and bus. Tai Fu Tai is open to visitors as a monument; the halls are in use by the village – do ask if you’d like to look inside.
PRACTICAL
- DIRECTIONS
- MTR to Sheung Shui or Yuen Long, then bus or taxi towards San Tin.
- WHEN
- Around Ching Ming (April) or Chung Yeung (October) there’s the most to see.
- BRING
- Your generation name or a photo of your grandparents – that opens doors.
- MIND
- It’s a lived-in village, not an open-air museum. Ask before you take photos.