Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall, Ancestral hall in Yuen Long District, Hong Kong.
Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall, also called Lai Shing Tong, is a Qing-era ancestral hall at 32 Shui Tau Village, Kam Tin. It has a two-hall, one-courtyard, three-bay layout, with wing rooms flanking the courtyard. Built of green bricks and wooden beams under a plain tiled roof, its ridges, wall bands and eaves carry auspicious carvings.
Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall, also called Lai Shing Tong, was built in 1701 (the 40th year of the Kangxi reign) by Tang Cheung Luk, a 21st-generation member of the Tang clan, to honour his 17th-generation ancestor Tang Kwong U. In 1782 clan members donated funds to renovate it. From the 1950s to the 1960s it served as a shop, then as a metal-goods factory in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before falling into disrepair. The government funded repairs in 1995, and it was declared a monument on 12 November 2010.
The hall's alternate name, Lai Shing Tong, is used by the Tang clan, and since the 1996 restoration the Deng family has held a lantern-lighting ceremony here before the Lantern Festival. The building also served as a shop in the 1950s and 1960s and as a metal-goods factory in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The hall stands at 32 Shui Tau Village in Kam Tin, Yuen Long, near the Qing Yue Tang and Zhen Rui Xuan Tang ancestral halls, Er Di Study Hall, Bin Mu Bridge and Chang Chun Garden. The two-hall, one-courtyard plan is small, so allow a short visit and look up at the ridge and eave-board carvings.
The hall's name Lai Shing Tong (來成堂) is used for the lantern-lighting rite held before the Lantern Festival, revived after the 1996 restoration. Between the 1950s and early 1980s the building served as a shop and then a metal-goods factory before standing abandoned and dilapidated.
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