Past Event
2021-01-31
Sai Kung Yim Tin Tsai In-Depth Tour: Eco Tour Online Experience
Yim Tin Tsai is located off Sai Kung. The Yim Tin Tsai island has ecologically unique salt pans, mangroves and different species of trees in countryside, as well as historic Catholic churches and village houses with Hakka characteristics. This Climate Eco Tour was held on January 31st. More than 80 participants visited our Yim Tin Tsai tour via Zoom or Facebook, through the CarbonCareInnoLab and V'air Hong Kong
For this in-depth online tour, we invited Mike as a speaker. Mike is the project officer of V'air Hong Kong. He has a keen interest in ecological and environmental conservation issues, and he also has a deep understanding of local tree species. There is a century-old comphor tree on the island. It has a unique meaning in Yim Tin Tsai village: whenever a baby girl is born, the head of the household will plant a comphor tree in front of the house. As the comphor tree grows taller and taller, the girl at home grows bigger and bigger, and finally came to the day of marriage. And when every household has a daughter to marry, the villagers will cut down the comphor tree as the daughter's dowry. Mike also introduced the plant species that grow in the mangroves of the island, such as Kandelia obovat. Mangroves need to grow in a warm environment with low tides, and the geographical environment of Yim Tin Tsai provides such conditions.
With the progress of the online ecological tour, we also introduced the salt pans on the island: using traditional artificial salt drying, it takes time and the process is slow. First, the sea water must reach the salt pan, and then it will evaporate and crystallize into salt after about two weeks. Sunshine and hot weather both improve the entire evaporation process quickly. This traditional sun-dried salt method, which relies on the weather, cannot produce salt in large quantities, but it can produce high-quality sea salt.
Some participants said that they do not want Yim Tin Tsai to be over-exploited and destroy its original appearance; some participants said that "I have not been to Yim Tin Tsai, and I have seen many travel programs that have introduced it. After watching this online tour, I must go once after the epidemic. I want to personally touch and feel, appreciate and discover the natural species and historical culture of the place, and enjoy the fun!” This in-depth online tour enriched participants’ understanding of renewable energy and climate change. We hope they will respect and protect nature when enjoying outings, think about the impact of climate change on nature, and take actions to make changes.