Getting to know God: a proposed religious tourism on the island of Yim Tin Tsai

Abstract

In 1996, it was announced that the suspension services of organizing the Mass in St. Joseph’s Chapel on the island of Yim Tin Tsai Sai Kung by affiliated Parish. This was a catalyst to gather the villagers and the stakeholders to plan the blueprint of development of their frozen home village and the island.

In 2005, the St. Joseph’s Chapel was received the Award of Merit of “Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation” by the United Nations of Education and Science to praise it the effort of architectural conservation and attributed to the villagers and stakeholders. It is also kept the most prominent landmark on the island as well as one for the Hong Kong Catholic missionary.

This year, five years after the Chapel being awarded, the island is evolved from a relict to a “being defreeze” landscape. It is result from the effort of developing and packaging the island as a tourism destination which is composited themed with “Religious”, “Culture” and “Ecology”.

In the cases as above, it is told that religious deeds can be created the religious tourism with its historic values to the area to worldwide.