Funny you should mention animals and uninvited strangers - my fiancee was born in Lam Tsuen and back when she lived there some 20 years ago they quite often had monkeys and mainland Chinese coming down from the mountains and into peoples' gardens/kitchens/chicken coops etc...
I should think the situation has improved slightly since then though
Was there in 2004 and noticed a few distinctive gwailo houses - you could tell because they were fenced in and were the only ones with grass lawns...!
