2017年7月30日 星期日

“Transport head” estate in Hong Kong


Do you know that Wan Tau Tong Estate (運頭塘邨) is rumored to be one of the burial grounds in the past in Hong Kong?




…Actually lots of places in Hong Kong are rumored to be burial grounds in the past. People who spread the rumor probably just wanted to scare the others, or simply to look for fun, though.



Anyway, Wan Tau Tong Estate is the latest public housing estate in Tai Po, completed in 1991. This place holds so many residents and is so lively that you will think it has nothing to do with ghost stories…but it does. I mean, the name of the estate itself is spooky enough (運頭 literally means “transport head”)…



There were two versions of the story: one has it that in early 1900s, lots of natural disasters happened and killed many people. In order to prevent the spread of disease, the corpses had to be burnt, leaving the bones behind. Undertakers therefore had to transport the bones and skulls to the burial ground in Tai Po (which is supposed to be the Wan Tau Tong Estate today, hence the name) and had them buried.

The other version is that many civilians were killed and had their heads chopped off during Japanese occupation in 1940s. For some reason this yet-to-be estate became an excellent choice for the Japanese soldiers to ditch the heads.



Whatever the reason was, many people died and have to be buried in this place. Then there started to be rumors about how people would see headless figures pushing a wheelbarrow carrying many heads at night. There was also a spookily hilarious story about a construction worker finding out the headless ghosts using white glue to glue their loose heads on their necks…



If you really are interested in this spooky-name estate, you can give it a visit, preferably at night.

But you would definitely be disappointed. You would only find a modern yet peaceful residential area there. No burial grounds, no headless ghosts, no wheelbarrow carrying heads either.

…We already have them glued up, after all.

What? No, I didn’t say anything.

Don’t mind me…

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