BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- One of the last villages on Hong Kong has made it onto an international list of threatened locations, prompting calls for it to become a protected world heritage site. Cathy Yang takes a tour of Pok Fu Lam village for a closer look at a piece of Hong Kong’s living history.

This is Pok Fu Lam, one of Hong Kong’s last remaining villages. In a place where one pays a premium for space, this 150-year-old heritage treasure trove in Hong Kong has persevered, amid the largely middle-class high-rises that now threaten its existence.

"This is the first building in the village and then it’s been over a hundred years, and we keep it as same as it can, and also it got a little renovation to keep it alive. It was a salon and right now the owner is too old. He is retired, but we want to keep it and make it as it was,” villager Kellie Ko said.

A walk within the village itself reveals housing constructed from metal sheets, in what Hong Kong classifies as "squatter housing". But a walk through the narrow alley ways show historic, hidden structures such as a temple surrounded by homes.

Around 2,000 people live here, most of them third-generation villagers such as 51-year-old Siu Kwan-Lun. He is committed to preserving their village's heritage and culture.

"When we were young, after school we went here on Main Street, looking for traditional food and ran whole area of dairy farm. It was huge. We grew up here, we're all very close to each other, we don’t want to lose this old village in Hong Kong," said villager Siu Kwan-lun.

Mr Siu and his neighbors may now have a fighting chance. The New York-based World Monuments Fund describes the village as “a unique collection of modest traditional buildings. The modest appearance belies its importance to the history of Hong Kong." It’s now got Pok Fu Lam as one of its 67 cultural heritage sites under threat.

And experts say it’s a distinction that raises Pok Fu Lam’s chances of becoming a world heritage site, protecting it further from any government plan to lift development restrictions in the area.

(Source: cntv.cn)