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Sai Kung, the friendly town where everyone's a local

Sai Kung has always been popular with expats, but birthplace has never been an issue and traditions are widely respected

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Locals buying fish from sampans tied up at Sai Kung pier. Photo: Dickson Lee

In Sai Kung town centre everyone is a local, even though some might not look it.

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"We are locals in all aspects," says Guy Shirra, a retired expatriate police superintendent who has lived in Hong Kong since 1967 and speaks fluent Cantonese. "Our wives are from here, our children were born here."

Historically an anchor point for the fishing community, Sai Kung, in the southeast New Territories is made up today of clusters of old apartment blocks, a wet market, small local stores and the occasional international chain outlet, such as McDonald's.

Despite a large contingent of foreign-born "locals", however, tradition still rules in many aspects.

Throughout the day, dozens of sampans line the pier with fisherfolk touting buckets and tanks of live local fish and home-dried seafood products. People call out from the dock and bargain, and finally goods are transferred up in a bucket on a pole.

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Smaller villages, many over 100 years old, are hidden away in the lush country parks and along the scenic coastline.

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