Photo Features

A taste of nature in leisure farms

Photo and text by Maggie Yu and Zip Cheung

Urban dwellers visit leisure farms for a change of scene on weekends or holiday breaks with their families, basking in the fields of green and animals. They also learn about farming and other related matters such as handicraft-making and organic lifestyle in workshops given in those farms.

Holiday Farm, one of the leisure farms in Hong Kong , provides activities of different themes for visitors in several sections including a lawn, a barbecue area, a gathering room and a small orchard.

The 21-acre farm in Sheung Shui has oriented itself towards ˇ§natural education interactive farmˇ¨ to attract visitors. It used to be a field growing vegetables and keeping livestock.

ˇ§We have changed the style (of our business) to make a living,ˇ¨ said owner Lai Kam-keung. Though the farm still does some farming, its main source of income comes from the tourist business.

Visitors, by paying $50 each, can spend a day in the farm, playing with various facilities, such as pedalling to operate a waterwheel, riding on a rickshaw, grinding a milling, or simply resting on a hammock.

Running a leisure business apparently brings in more money than carrying out traditional farming. Those leisure farms charge their visitors $10 to $50 each for touring their places. Their incomes are comparatively much higher than that of traditional farmers, who earn just a few dollars for each catty, or about 500 grams, of vegetables.

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