Green Acres
A spectacular combination of sea, sky and mountains make Mui Wo a lifestyle choice for homeowners who appreciate some breathing room
| Text : Rebecca Lo | Photo : Rebecca Lo and Deni Stoner |
Mention Mui Wo to any person onthe street in Hong Kong and thereply would inevitably be, “Wow,it’s so far away!” Like other outlying islands,Mui Wo is a minimum 30-minute ferry ridefrom Central’s Pier No. 6, which makes itinconvenient for most people’s, “I want itnow” lifestyles. For many people, Mui Wo issynonymous with holiday time or a pilgrimageto Po Lin Monastery and the Big Buddha. Yetfor the roughly five thousand people who livein Mui Wo and nearby Pui O, these reasonsare exactly why they choose to call this sliceof east Lantau home.
Englishman Ed Peters and his Belgian wifeTammy have been living in Mui Wo’s SanLung Wai for more than three years, andin Hong Kong for more than 15. They arecurrently in the midst of renovating a cottagestylehouse in Choi Yuen Tsuen. The coupleinitially lived in Discovery Bay and bought theirfirst property in Mui Wo as an investment.“After we renovated it, our Discovery Bayblock was due to be done up with greennetting and drilling. Ugh. So we moved intoMui Wo temporarily,” Peters recalls. “The firstmorning I woke up thinking we’d left a taprunning — then I realised it was the river. Wesold the place in Discovery Bay and movedhere for keeps.”
Mui Wo has an illustrious past. In the 13thcentury, while fleeing from invading Mongols,the Song Dynasty’s Emperor Duanzongsought refuge in Silvermine Bay — the mainbeach named after abandoned silver minesnearby. After he died on Lantau island,his successor, Emperor Huizong, wasenthroned in Mui Wo in May 1278. Before thedevelopment of Chek Lap Kok, Tung Chungand Tsing Ma bridge, Mui Wo was bustlingas the gateway to Lantau. As such, it hasmany of the facilities and infrastructure of aself-contained community — such as its ownwet market, public swimming pool, hospitaland post office. Residents enjoy a slower,more pastoral way of life in the shadow of BigBuddha’s protection. The most popular modeof transport is bicycle.
Donna Mah and her husband Rudolf Hollander had been looking at properties for over a year before finally purchasing a village house in Pui O. Mah is originally from Canada while Hollander hails from The Netherlands; both have lived in Hong Kong for well over a decade. After the birth of their daughter, the couple found that their two-bedroom apartment in Causeway Bay was becoming too cramped — especially if they are considering another child. “We wanted a change in lifestyle,” admits Mah. “We looked in Clearwater Bay, Sai Kung, Tai Wai and Shatin but there was nothing that we could agree on.”
Mah is from the Prairies, while Hollander grew up surrounded by water and paddles regularly with The Hong Kong Island Paddle Club. “Water was high on our list,” he says. “Ideally, our home would have easy access to the sea.” The Hollanders finally settled on a house in Pui O with an open sea view. The path to get there is a comfortable distance even while navigating a pram and the longer side of the house offers uninterrupted southern exposure. “We also liked the Tung Chung connection — it is important for us to have access to the airport,” notes Mah, referring to their business as exporters who frequently visit mainland China to source products or attend trade fairs.
At the 2004 policy address by the Financial Secretary, the Hong Kong Government released a concept plan for sustainable development on Lantau, led by a Lantau Development Task Force. After public consultation and tweaks to the plan, a Revised Concept Plan was released in May 2007. So far, this revised plan has remained conceptual, although a number of hotspots have been identified for revitalisation — including Mui Wo’s somewhat underwhelming ferry pier and bus terminal. “The government has plans to change Mui Wo into a vacation destination for the upper class,” says Aaron Hui, property manager at Proper Trip Development.
Proper Trip started off as a property management company that took care of vacation homes in South Lantau. In the 13 years that Hui has been with the firm, he has seen it evolve to now focus primarily on real estate deals. “Village homes that were previously subdivided into small apartments for holiday makers are now one house for a single family,” he observes. “This used to be a middle class district. Now, it is mostly upper middle class. Over 80 percent of my clients speak English — but that includes Singaporeans, Koreans and overseas Chinese who have returned to Hong Kong.”
Hui has noticed that bankers and finance people who used to seek out Mui Wo have predictably declined since 2008, though property prices in the second half of 2010 have increased. “Mui Wo is still cheaper than Discovery Bay,” he says. “And Mui Wo has a great setting. It is very different than anything else in Hong Kong. The air quality is better. It is less stressful.”
“This is a real community,” says Peters. “We witness temple festivals and wedding processions, chat to Mr Mok, the tofu hawker, and Mr Leung, who has fitted his bike with a stereo to play ’60s hits. We know all our neighbours. We look out on fields and mountains, and can hike up to a country park in minutes or hit the beach in a similar time frame. Did I mention peace and quiet?”
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