What happened
Tat Tak School was founded in February 1931 by the Tang clan of Ping Shan together with local benefactors; it first occupied an ancestral hall, and in 1965 it moved to a new building on a hillside. In 1975 it had more than 700 pupils, reportedly making it the largest primary school in the Yuen Long district. Falling enrolment led to its closure in 1998, and it has stood empty behind a locked gate ever since. It soon became Hong Kong's most famous ‘haunted’ place, and in 2013 CNN named it among Asia's ten scariest places. Stories tell of a headmistress who hanged herself in a school toilet after an assault, of Japanese soldiers who supposedly massacred and buried people here during the occupation, and of villagers killed and buried on the hillside during the fighting of 1899. A woman in red is said to be seen in the building. In 2011 twelve teenagers came here at night; several fainted or became hysterical, which the press reported widely.
Witnesses
Teenagers and thrill-seekers visiting the school, including a group of twelve students in 2011; Hong Kong media and CNN.
Explanations and hypotheses
None of the stories has been confirmed: the police had no record of a headmistress's suicide, and a former pupil, the fashion designer William Tang, had heard that the headmaster's wife died at home, not at school. Neither the occupation-era massacres nor the graves from 1899 have been verified. An academic commenting on the 2011 incident put it down to fear, suggestion and possible hallucination. Former pupils remember the school as an impressive, ordinary building – its ‘haunting’ began only after it closed.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- South China Morning Post – 5 Hong Kong ghost stories, from a haunted mahjong game to a spooky school (2023)
- CNN – Photos: Asia's 10 scariest places (2013)
- 明報 – 12人探鬼屋 少女暈倒咬人 (2011)
More: Wikipedia (en)