Chi Lam Village residents told the Post yesterday that at about 6 a.m., when all typhoon warning signals had just been lifted, an over 80-year-old house collapsed in their ancient neighbourhood.
The structure of the long-abandoned house was mostly wooden, with outer walls made of bricks. The villagers said they were deeply saddened, as yet another place full of memories had been damaged.
Chi Lam Chuen (茨林村), a 400-year-old, formerly walled village with a centuries-old history where some houses still retain their original wooden structures, suffered more damage than other areas in the city as it was unable to withstand even the relatively mild impact of Typhoon “Wipha”.
On Sunday morning, the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) said in a statement that Typhoon “Wipha” was approximately 110 kilometres away from Macau, with maximum sustained winds of 125 kilometres per hour at its centre. As “Wipha” swept past Macau, it brought strong winds and heavy rain to the city.
At noon on Sunday, the observatory reported that “Wipha” was located just 30 kilometres from Macau, with maximum winds reaching level 12. Top Tropical Cyclone Signal No. 10 was hoisted as “Wipha” threatened Macau. However, the village’s old house at 10 Travessa Três finally failed to withstand the storm’s impact and caved in at about 6 a.m. when “Wipha” was already on its way to Guangdong Province.
Chi Lam Chuen is just a street away from the UNESCO World Heritage-protected Na Tcha Temple (known as “Na Tcha” in the local Cantonese dialect), one of Macau’s two Na Tcha temples. The village also features a café dedicated to the Taoist tutelary deity whose popularity has immensely risen since the huge commercial and cultural success of the Chinese mainland’s “Ne Zha 2” film earlier this year –the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, and the highest-selling animated film in terms of ticket sales – which stand at over US$2.2 billion.
The old house on Travessa Três was the only one in the village that was severely damaged by the typhoon.
Villagers told the Post yesterday afternoon that the collapsed structure was a section of the house’s exterior wall measuring two metres by three metres. No injuries were reported, and the surrounding buildings remained unaffected.
The structure of the house had deteriorated with age, often relying on creeping vines from nearby trees to prevent it from collapsing on its own, the villagers said, who admitted that a partial collapse had occurred once before.
Public Security Police (PSP) officers and officials from the Lands and Urban Construction Bureau (DSSCU) went to the village yesterday afternoon to investigate the collapse of the house.
According to the villagers, the owner of the house returned to the village two years ago with plans to rebuild it. However, due to the lack of water and electricity supplies at the location, the owner ultimately abandoned the reconstruction plan.
It has only been two weeks since another property in the village made headlines. On July 9, an open space at 5 Pátio do Espinho (茨林圍) was suddenly fenced off, and to this day, the landowner has still not complied with the government’s order to remove the fence. The villagers said they wished it had been the fence – not the old house – that had been destroyed by Typhoon “Wipha”.
The villagers told the Post that the typhoon-damaged village house will provisionally be taken over by the Lands and Urban Construction Bureau and what remains of it will be demolished, a necessary measure to protect the village, they said.
The Post published a story about the fence on July 9, headlined “Chi Lam Vai villagers face suddenly fenced-in plot”. https://www.macaupostdaily.com/news/25365
Chi Lam Vai (“Potato Field Courtyard”) is known in Portuguese as Pátio do Espinho (“Thorn Courtyard”).
This photo taken yesterday afternoon shows the fenced-in plot of land next to a café dedicated to Na Tcha, one of China’s most popular protection divinities, at 5 Pátio do Espinho in Chi Lam Village behind the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ruins of St Paul’s. – Photos: Armindo Neves
A villager and DSSCU official look at the cordoned-off old house damaged by Typhoon “Wipha” in Chi Lam Village yesterday afternoon.
