Tai O is a

fishing town A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 m ...

, partly located on an island of the same name, on the western side of

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located West of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. The village name means ''large

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geogra ...

'', referring to outlet for the waterways (Tai O Creek and Tai O River) merges as it moves through Tai O.

Geography

On the southwest part of

, Tai O

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

splits to the north (as Tai O Creek) and west and at this fork lies the island referred to as Tai O. Two pedestrian

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

s cross the river on its northern and western forks. The village is located mostly on the banks of the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

. The western and northern parts of the island facing the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

are uninhabited.

History

Nearby archaeological sites date back to the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

, but permanent, and verifiable,

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of ci ...

here is only three centuries old. Stories that would be impossible to substantiate have Tai O as the base of many

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

and

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

operations, the inlets of the river providing excellent protection from the weather and a hiding place. In early 16th century, Tai O was once occupied shortly by

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

during the

Battle of Tamão The Battle of Tunmen or Tamão was a naval battle in which the Ming imperial navy defeated a Portuguese fleet led by Diogo Calvo in 1521. Background Portuguese diplomat Fernão Pires de Andrade arrived at the mouth of the Pearl River in June ...

, the remains is known as Fan Kwai Tong (番鬼塘, "Foreign devil pond") today. Tai O is one of five villages of Lantau that were resettled when the coastal restriction of the

Great Clearance The Great Clearance (), also translated as the Great Evacuation or Great Frontier Shift, was caused by edicts issued in 1661, 1664, and 1679, which required the evacuation of the coastal areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, and Shandon ...

was lifted in 1669. The other villages are Tung Sai Chung,

Lo Pui O Pui O (, or ), formerly Lo Pui O (), is an area on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. It is a popular destination for holiday camping in Hong Kong. Visitors may also rent village houses for leisure. Located in the South Lantau, there are four main vill ...

Shek Pik Shek Pik () is an area located along the southwestern coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. When the Shek Pik Reservoir was built, villages at Shek Pik were demolished and the villagers were relocated to other parts of Lantau Island and to Tsuen ...

and

Mui Wo Mui Wo is a rural town on the eastern coast of Lantau Island in Hong Kong. The 2011 Census recorded 5,485 people living in Mui Wo and its environs. Mui Wo is located on Silvermine Bay, so named for the silver mines that were once worked along ...

. At nearby

Fan Lau Fan Lau () is a peninsula and area in the southwest tip of Lantau Island in Hong Kong. It is also the southwest end the territory of Hong Kong. The very end of the tip is Fan Lau Kok (). The peninsula separates water into Fan Lau Tung Wan ( ...

, a fort was built in 1729 to protect shipping on the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...

. Smuggling of guns,

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, drugs and

people A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

remains a documented illegal activity both into and out of

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

. When the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

came to Hong Kong, Tai O was known as a

Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

village. A naval engagement between British and USA naval forces against Chinese piracy was fought in 1855. At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Shek Tsai Po of Tai O was 118; the number of males was 71. The population of Tai O, both land and boat based, was 7,661; the number of males was 4,318. During and after the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

, Tai O became a primary entrypoint for

illegal immigration Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...

for those escaping from the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Some of these immigrants, mostly

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

, stayed in Tai O, and Tai O attracted people from other Hong Kong ethnic groups, including

Hoklo The Hoklo people or Hokkien people () are a Han Chinese (also Han Taiwanese) subgroup who speak Hokkien, a Southern Min language, or trace their ancestry to Southeastern Fujian, China and known by various endonyms or other related terms such a ...

(Hokkien) and

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

. Tai O has a history of

salt production Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

. In 1940, it was recorded that the Tai O

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

es were covering and that the production has amounted to 25,000

picul A picul or tam is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole". History The word ''picul'' appeared as early as the mid 9th century in Javanese. Following Spanish, Portuguese, British and m ...

s (1,512

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...

) in 1938. Currently the fishing lifestyle is dying out. While many residents continue to fish, it barely provides a subsistence income. There is a public school on the island and most young people move away when they come of age. In 2000, a large fire broke out destroying many residences. The village is now mostly squatters huts and dilapidated stilt houses.

Points of interest

1 tai o fishing village hong kong 2015 panorama

Heritage

Graded buildings in Tai O include:List of the Historic Buildings in Building Assessment (as of 17 December 2012)
/ref> *

Yeung Hau Temple Hau Wong or Hou Wang () is a title that can be translated as ''"Prince Marquis"'' or ''"Holy Marquis"''. It is not any one person's name. Hau Wong refers usually to (), a loyal and courageous general. Despite his failing health, he remained in th ...

, built in 1699 (

Declared Monument Declared monuments of Hong Kong are places, structures or buildings legally declared to receive the highest level of protection. In Hong Kong, declaring a monument requires consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, the approval of the Chief Exec ...

) *

Old Tai O Police Station The Old Tai O Police Station is a former police station in Hong Kong. It is located on the small hill next to Tai O Ferry Pier, at the south-western tip of Tai O, which can be considered the most westerly point within Hong Kong. formerly k ...

(

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

) * Kwan Tai Temple, Kat Hing Back Street. Built in 1741. (Grade II) *

Tin Hau Temple Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong are dedicated to Tin Hau (Mazu). Over 100 temples are dedicated (at least partially) to Tin Hau in Hong Kong. A list of these temples can be found below. Famous temples Famous Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong include: ...

, Kat Hing Back Street. Built in 1772, it is connected to the left of Kwan Tai Temple. * Fong Bin Yuen. (Grade III) * No. 23 Kat Hing Back Street. (Grade III) * Shek Lun Kok, No. 33 Kat Hing Back Street. (Grade III) * No. 46-48 Kat Hing Street, pre-war

shophouse A shophouse is a building type serving both as a residence and a commercial business. It is defined in dictionary as a building type found in Southeast Asia that is "a shop opening on to the pavement and also used as the owner's residence", a ...

s. (Grade III) * Wing Hing Petrol Station, No. 99C Kat Hing Back Street. (Grade III) Other historical buildings include: * Hip Wo Se Hok, No. 151 Tai Ping Street, a former school. *

Hung Shing Temple Hung Shing Temples or Tai Wong Temples are temples dedicated to Hung Shing Tai Wong (). Hung Shing temples have been widely built in southern China, especially Guangdong province The table provides a partial list of these temples. Hung Shing Fe ...

, Shek Tsai Po Street. Built in 1746.

Tourism

Also known as the "Venice of Hong Kong", Tai O is a tourist spot for both foreigners and residents of other parts of Hong Kong, despite damage by a fire in July 2000. The ''

pang uk ''Pang uk'' () is a kind of stilt house found in Tai O, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. ''Pang uk'' are built on water or on small beaches. A fire broke out in 2000 destroying some of the houses in Tai O, and some were later rebuilt. They were once f ...

s'', a kind of

stilt house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The ...

, built right over the waterway are still quite scenic. A

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

tended by local women used to be quite popular with visitors, but it was replaced with a steel pedestrian bridge in October 1996. The traditional

salted fish Salted fish, such as kippered herring or dried and salted cod, is fish cured with dry salt and thus preserved for later eating. Drying or salting, either with dry salt or with brine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish unt ...

and

shrimp paste Shrimp paste or prawn sauce is a fermented condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisines. It is primarily made from finely crushed shrimp or krill mixed with salt, and then fermented for several weeks. They are eithe ...

are sold at storefronts in Tai O. For a small fee, some residents will take tourists out on their boats along the river and for short jaunts into the sea. Many tourists come to Tai O specifically to take these trips to see

Chinese white dolphin The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (''Sousa chinensis'') is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese white dolphin in mainland Chi ...

s, also known as "Pink Dolphins". It is also a good place to see the sunset.

, a Grade II historic building, has been turned into a boutique hotel called ''Tai O Heritage Hotel'' by Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation. The hotel has nine rooms and a restaurant. The hotel has been open and operational since 2012. Tai O Rural Committee Historic and Cultural Showroom, located within the centuries-old fishing village of Tai O, exhibits relics of the local community's past, including fishing tools and dismantled old structures. The showroom was founded by the Tai O Rural Committee and all the items in its collection were donated by local residents.

Education

There are two kindergartens, one primary school and one secondary school. They are CCC Tai O Primary School and

Buddhist Fat Ho Memorial College Buddhist Fat Ho Memorial College is a co-educational secondary school in Hong Kong. The school opened in 1977 and as of 2016 had approximately 350 students. It is run by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association and sponsored by Po Lin Monastery. It ...

. Most of Lantau Island, Tai O included, is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 98, which contains multiple aided schools on Lantau Island, including two in Tung Chung; no government primary schools are in this net.

Transport

Tai O can be reached by bus (

New Lantao Bus The New Lantao Bus Company (1973) Limited, commonly known as New Lantao Bus or NLB, is a franchised bus company operating in Hong Kong. It mainly operates bus routes on Lantau Island. History NLB was formed in 1973 through the merger of three b ...

) from the following places: *

– Bus no. 1 *

Tung Chung Tung Chung, meaning " eastern stream", is an area on the northwestern coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. One of the most recent new towns, it was formerly a rural fishing village beside Tung Chung Bay, and along the delta and lower courses of T ...

– Bus no. 11 *

Ngong Ping Ngong Ping () is a highland in the western part of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It hosts Po Lin Monastery and Tian Tan Buddha amidst the hills which is about 34 m tall. There are several hills nearby which are also an attraction to tourists. It is ...

– Bus no. 21 There are ferry piers on Tai O, close to Tai O Bus Terminus. It operates daily as the following routes connecting Tai O: *

Tuen Mun Tuen Mun or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the more re ...

(

Tuen Mun Ferry Pier Tuen Mun Ferry Pier (屯門碼頭), or Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal, is a public pier located in the southern area of Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. Tuen Mun Ferry Pier, Tuen Mun Pier Head, and Tuen Mun Ferry Pier stop (MTR Light Rail) refer to the street-lev ...

) - service by

Fortune Ferry Fortune Ferry Company Ltd is a ferry operator in Hong Kong. It is based in North Point. Routes The company operates the following ferry routes: * Tuen Mun to Tung Chung, Sha Lo Wan and Tai O * North Point to Kwun Tong and Kai Tak * Central to ...

* Tung Chung ( Tung Chung New Development Ferry Pier) - service by

Sha Lo Wan Sha Lo Wan () is a bay in the northwest Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The bay faces north to Hong Kong International Airport. The area is occupied by indigenous inhabitants. There is no vehicular access to the area and thus their communication is o ...

- operated by

Notable People

Cilla Kung Cilla Kung also known as Lok Tung (樂瞳), birth name is Gung Sin-tung (龔茜彤), born in 1986, is a former Hong Kong actress, singer, model, and current businesswoman. She started out as a contestant in Beautiful Cooking. She gained recognition ...

, actress and singer; she was born and raised in Tai O.

In popular culture

A 1998 Hong Kong drama ''

A Place of One's Own ''A Place of One's Own'' is a 1945 British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulc ...

'' by

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...

starring

Adia Chan Nadia Chan (; born 21 January 1971) is a Hong Kong actress, singer, model, and spokesperson. Life and career Chan was born to Chinese Ethnic Indonesian parents. Chan's parents are Indonesian Chinese and her family moved to Hong Kong when she ...

and

Mariane Chan Mariane Chan () (born 1 August 1972) is a Hong Kong actress. Television series *'' Love is Beautiful'' (TVB, 2002) *'' Lost in Love'' (大囍之家) (TVB, 2000) *''Witness to a Prosecution'' (TVB, 1999) *''Life for Life'' (命轉情真) (TVB, 1 ...

is set in Tai O. A 2021 Hong Kong drama '' Ossan's Love (HK version)'' by

ViuTV ViuTV is a Cantonese language general entertainment television channel in Hong Kong operated by HK Television Entertainment (HKTVE), whose parent company PCCW also operates the IPTV platform Now TV and the media streaming service Viu. The chann ...

starring

Edan Lui Edan Lui Cheuk-on ( zh, t=呂爵安; born 21 January 1997), better known by his mononym Edan, is a Hong Kong singer, presenter, actor, and a member of the Hong Kong boy group MIRROR. Apart from his group activities, Edan has presented various tel ...

and

Anson Lo Anson Lo Hon-ting (; born 7 July 1995) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer and actor. In 2018, Lo made his debut as a member of the Hong Kong boy group Mirror (group), Mirror. Lo made his solo debut in February 2020 with his first single "A Lifelong ...

is set in Tai O.

References

External links