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Report - - Old Mansion, Fanling, Hong Kong, August 2015 | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Old Mansion, Fanling, Hong Kong, August 2015

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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
I first clocked this place out of the window of my sister-in-laws's flat that we were staying in in Fanling back in 2003. I remember thinking "Surely this place can't be abandoned" but it was. I walked past it and took a single picture of it (I wasn't a fully-fledged urbexer back then):

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Shek Lo by HughieDW, on Flickr

Ahead of my trip this Summer I was determined to go back and have a look round. The history on the place I found is here:

"Shek Lo Colonial house, near Fanling, was built in 1925 by Mr Tsui Yan-sou, who was also the founder of Wah Yan College. The two-storey building is a blend of Chinese and Western architectural styles. Despite its colonial-style characteristics it has a traditional Chinese pitched roof supported on wooden purlins and battens and covered by Chinese clay tiles. Other notable features include the courtyard and also the layout of the rooms, which is similar to that of traditional Chinese residences. Located in the middle of the parapet of the roof is a semi-circular brick wall engraved with the characters “Shek Lo”. It has now been left to decay which is a shame as it has some real character."

So I got dropped off by my brother-in-law near-by and walked to the mansion. It soon came into view. The vegetation had advanced but this glorious mansion hadn't lost any of its charm. The one change however was the perimeter fence with barbed wire on the top and broken glass set in concrete between the fence and the drainage gully. That wasn't what "Street-view" was showing me! The two gates were chained and quite high. It was looking like it was going to be a fail but then I spotted a way in so off I went. Here are the pictures.

From the front this place is majestic:

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img0702 by HughieDW, on Flickr

I just couldn't get enough of the front elevation:

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img0705 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Nature had certainly advanced on the old place:

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img0707 by HughieDW, on Flickr

But that sorts of adds to the place's charm:

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img0708 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0715 by HughieDW, on Flickr

At the back there's a little court-yard:



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img0714 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0720 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Inside there isn't an awful lot. Just some old wooden furniture:

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img0713 by HughieDW, on Flickr

...and some old bakelite (the world's first synthetic plastic!) light switches, which are probably original:

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img0719 by HughieDW, on Flickr

More wooden furniture in the main up-stairs room:

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img0717 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The separate wing to the right is even more over-grown:

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img0727 by HughieDW, on Flickr

...which has more old wooden furniture:

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img0722 by HughieDW, on Flickr

There's vines at the window:

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img0723 by HughieDW, on Flickr

...and trees are growing out of the house itself:

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img0721 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0725 by HughieDW, on Flickr
 

HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Nice find :) with the amount of demand for land over there im surprised there's anything derelict.

I went over the Summer and there's LOADS of dereliction in HK despite the price of land. HK is a bit place and when you head out from Kowloon into the New Territories land prices fall. But even in the congested and ultra-built-up bits there's where land is at a premium there is still dereliction. This often comes down to complex ownership issues etc. Got loads of reports I could post from abandoned ghost villages to Army observation posts...
 

zombizza

Sore Knee
Regular User
Nice. I always feel a bit nervous about treading into dereliction abroad. You never know what my go down with language barriers
 

HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Nice. I always feel a bit nervous about treading into dereliction abroad. You never know what my go down with language barriers

Sometimes this can work to your advantage though. "Sorry, didn't realise the sign said keep out"
 

unplugged

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Makes sense I suppose.

I had three days over there last year but would love to go back at some point.
 

pauln

too old to be reckless
28DL Full Member
Nice find. Would like to see other stuff from HK if you have it.
 
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