When 4 people were killed after a boy fell into a remote Hong Kong village well
In 1981, residents of a worm-farming community were left devastated after a 14-year-old fell into a well and 3 of his rescuers perished
“The remote New Territories village of Ho Sheung Heung was silent yesterday – except for the weeping of seven young orphans and five fatherless children,” reported the South China Morning Post on August 8, 1981. “Only hours before, Chan Ping (14) and his younger sister Chan-ho had been busy catching frogs and playing around the pond area where the villagers cultivate worms to make their living.
“But Chan-ho returned alone and distressed to her parents’ home, telling her mother that Chan Ping had fallen into a well. Mrs Chan rushed to the scene. But she, too, did not return. Mr Chan, who had been sleeping, leaped out of bed when he heard his daughter screaming for help. He also went to the well – and did not return.
“The SCM Post found yesterday that virtually every family had been touched by the tragedy. Villagers flocked to offer comfort to the orphaned and bereaved.
“Mr Wong Yun-shing summed up the tragedy which happened at his family’s well in a few words. ‘This is a peaceful, contented village,’ he told the South China Morning Post. ‘This is the first accident I can recall at Ho Sheung Heung – and it couldn’t have been worse.’”
A year later, on August 9, 1982, the Post reported that “in a remote New Territories village, barefoot children were laughing and playing in the hot August sun. The scene at Ho Sheung Heung, near Sheung Shui, couldn’t have been further away from that of a year ago – when a tragedy which touched the hearts of thousands robbed them of three members of their family at a stroke.
“On August 7 last year a nearby well claimed the lives of four people from two families – a teenager, both his parents and a neighbour. The Chan family lost the breadwinner, Mr Chan Cheung (36), the mother, Mrs Wong Tai-ho (33), and the eldest son, Chan Ping (14).
“The neighbour who died in a brave rescue attempt was Mr Leung Chung-tan (36). His widow, Mrs Wong Kwai-mui (25), was left to care for six children aged between three months and nine years. Yesterday, Buddhist priests conducted services for the spirits of the dead. A year after the disaster, a once-noticeable stone monument erected after the drowning is obscured by waist-high grass. The adjacent well was sealed shortly after the accident, and has never been used since. Villagers do not want to disturb the souls of the victims.