Nga Tsin Wai is a local walled village. The community was jointly built by villagers surnamed Ng, Lee and Chan whose founding ancestors were respectively Ng Shing Tat, Lee Shing Kwai and Chan Chiu Yin. These three men originally lived in Dongguan of Guangdong, settling near Hau Wong Temple in Kowloon City in the late 14th century. The trio eventually moved to the present site of Nga Tsin Wai in the early 15th century. During the Shunzhi era (1643-1661) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), the Qing court ordered a boundary relocation in order to combat piracy. Their decision forced many citizens from Guangdong and other coastal provinces to withdraw inland. Nga Tsin Wai’s three-surname villagers obeyed the order and left their village, causing a steep decline in its population. Descendants of the original three-surnamed villagers eventually returned to the site of the original village in the early 18th century. Upon doing so, they began to redevelop Nga Tsin Wai, building the Tin Hau Temple in 1724 as a common property and solidarity symbol of the three-surname clansmen. During the evacuation many of the three-surnamed villagers moved away and dispersed to other villages. For example, many Ng Clansmen moved to Siu Lek Yuen, while some Lee Clansmen relocated to Sha Kok Mei and several Chan Clansmen made their homes in Nga Tsin Long. As the majority of the villagers who eventually returned to Nga Tsin Wai were mainly surnamed Ng, the Chans and Lees were subsequently in the minority. Before the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese army in 1941, the Ngs already accounted for the largest number of residents in the village. Such dominance meant they had better clan organisations and stronger influence in Nga Tsin Wai. As a result, most Village Headmen came from the Ng line. Demographic changes in Nga Tsin Wai in the 20th century were even greater with the three-surname villagers’ moving out of the village. This was because of improved educational standards and employment and emigration opportunities. In the period between the late 1930s and the 1960s, a large number of immigrants moved into the village. Some of the influx of new arrivals even bought houses from the original indigenous inhabitants. By the 1970s, residents with other family names owned around 60% of all village properties. Although indigenous inhabitants no longer live together as clans, older clansmen retain their strong sense of kinship with those who share the same surname.