People perform a traditional dance at the opening ceremony of the Countryside Harvest Festival in the village of Kuk Po, Hong Kong, Jan. 18. AFP-Yonhap

Four thousand people are expected to visit a once-abandoned 300-year-old hakka village near the Hong Kong border with mainland China for a festival this weekend and next, as the city taps countryside resources for tourist attractions.

Stephen Tang Man-Bun, the head of the Countryside Conservation Office, which organized the event at Kuk Po village, said on Saturday he hoped to bring people a new experience that was different from their daily lives.

The Countryside Harvest Festival: Kuk Po "Sound-Sight-Taste Fusion" Tour opened to the public on Saturday and will run for two consecutive weekends. The event includes arts installations, workshops and performances.

"Based on our calculations, the four-day event will have about 4,000 participants, which means there will be 1,000 people a day," Tang said.

"About half of the participants are members of the public who signed up for the event, the others are villagers who learned about the festival and are coming back specifically for it, as well as our different partnering organisations."

Tang said the event combined elements of nature, beautiful scenery, history and local customs.

"We hope through this immersive experience, we can bring a new experience that is different to everyone's daily life, no matter if they are tourists or residents."

Kuk Po is located at the northeastern fringe of the New Territories near Plover Cove Country Park, with Starling Inlet to the north.

Paul Chan Chi-yuen, co-founder of Walk in Hong Kong which organises walking tours and collaborates with the office on the tours, said visitors could not only access the scenic village, but also traditional wisdom, cultural heritage and architecture of the restored destination.

"It is a combination of natural landscape, history and human stories of the once-lost village," he said. "This echoes the government's policy of island hopping and everywhere is a tourist attraction."

Nestled in a valley, Kuk Po had some key restoration work done in the past couple of years in a collaboration between the office, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University.

Attractions include a two- story ancestral house built almost a century ago for a Lee family and restored by Chinese University architecture students. A school for village children has also been restored.

Between the 17th and 18th century, Kuk Po served as a rice and poultry trading hub in Sha Tau Kok for the rest of Hong Kong, with more than 500 residents.

The opening ceremony for the Countryside Harvest Festival: Kuk Po "Sound, Sight, Taste Fusion" Tour, Jan. 18, at Kuk Po in Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong / Captured from Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

However, urbanization and the construction of Plover Cove Reservoir more than 50 years ago stifled farming activities. The village was subsequently deserted.

Village chief Yeung Yuk-fung, 72, who was born and raised in Kuk Po, said he was "very happy" to see people back there and described it as "a paradise in Hong Kong."

"Kuk Po village has been neglected for dozens of years, we used to be thriving," he said. "I am very happy to see people here, I am so touched that I could almost cry from the bottom of my heart."

Among the visitors at the festival on Saturday were retirees Gabee Yuen and her friend.

Yuen, 60, said her impression of the area had changed after seeing it for the first time.

"I am quite surprised there is something so special here ... the natural environment here is very beautiful," she said.

Yuen said she hoped there could be more transport arrangements and more promotion of the village to the public.

Visitors are required to apply for a permit to get into the Sha Tau Kok restricted area, which has a daily quota of 2,300 for individuals.

Groups are confined to 700 visitors a day on weekends and public holidays, but none on weekdays. In the restricted area, they need to take a speed boat to get to Kuk Po in about five minutes.

Asked about future festivals, Tang said the office would review and consolidate the experience after hosting the event for the first time.

"Hong Kong has a lot of different beautiful countryside locations, we hope to use different ways to show it to everyone. We hope that everyone will find their own fun and destinations in the countryside once they fall in love with it," he said.

Read the full story at SCMP.