Tai Po

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Junction of Kwong Fuk Road and Wan Tau Street, Tai Po. Notice the old low-level buildings in the foreground, compared with the high-rise apartments in the distance

Tai Po (English pronunciation: /ˌtaɪˈpoʊ/) is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui (大埔舊墟) (originally Tai Po Market or Tai Po Town) and the Tai Wo Town (Tai Wo Market) on the other side of the Lam Tsuen River, near the old Tai Po Market Station of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). Administratively, it is part of the Tai Po District.

Both market towns became part of the Tai Po New Town in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In present-day usage, "Tai Po". may refer to the area around the original market towns (i.e. Tai Po proper), the new town, or the entire Tai Po District.

There is an apocryphal story that Tai Po was originally called Tai Po (大步), lit. big step. Once upon a time it was a big forest with tigers. People wanted to pass through the forest faster by walking in big steps. 大步 and 大埔 are pronounced similarly in Cantonese.

[edit] History

From the Tang Dynasty in AD 963, the indigenous inhabitants of Tai Po lived by clamming and making pearls. The pearl making business reached its peak in the Song Dynasty and started to decline gradually in the midst of the Ming Dynasty. Tai Po had been developed as a fishing port around the late Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.

Thanks to battles and political struggles in modern history, a lot of people migrated to Hong Kong from China; one of the destinations for them was Tai Po. People first began to settle around the riversides of Lam Tsuen River and finally Tai Po Old Market and Tai Wo Town were developed.

In the 1970s, the Hong Kong government began to develop satellite cities: the first industrial estate in Hong Kong was built in Tai Po in 1974; Tai Po was named as a "new town" in 1979; the first public housing estate in Tai Po - Tai Yuen Estate - was established in 1981. The population has soared to 320, 000 and Tai Po began to prosper following the completion of the Tolo Highway which enhanced communication with the older urban areas. Tai Po Industrial Estate, an estate of industrial plants east of Tai Po New Town, was the first industrial estate in Hong Kong. Plants and companies such as Vita Soy (famous internationally for their different types of juice) are located there.

Information credits from http://www.taipotour.com/history

[edit] People

While being a new town, Tai Po is populated with many people of Hakka origin. Before the 1970s, immigrants from Guangdong Province in China migrated to Hong Kong. Many of the Hakka people moved to Tai Po, Fanling and Sheung Shui. In Tai Po, you will notice a large population of Hakka people in Tai Po Market (大埔墟), especially around the area of "Little Park" (公園仔). However you will also notice a lot of people of the Guangdong province, especially from the Guangzhou area and many small villages that dot along Guangdong. Most claim to be from the Han ethnic group, the largest Chinese ethnic group out of the other 55. There may be other South Asian traces, but most is lost. The appearances of some locals may look similar to some pacific islanders.

[edit] Housing

Because Hong Kong is a very populated region, Tai Po has followed the many urban areas of Hong Kong by building high-rise apartments. Also, Tai Po houses 320,000 people, making high-rise apartments necessary and mandatory. These high-rise apartments are located inside estates, such as Tai Yuen Estates and Fu Heng Estates. These high-rise apartments have floors ranging from the low apartments in Tai Po Old Town to the new estates in northern Tai Po ranging from 20 to 34 levels. People prefer renting in these apartments than buying them since Hong Kong apartments are very expensive to buy.

Tai Po also has many "village houses", resulting from a 1972 Hong Kong law which gave any male heir over the age of 18 who could prove he was descended from one of Hong Kong's original villages in 1898 the right to build a small house on a plot of land, either owned by the village itself or on leased government land. These houses are restricted by law to be no more than three storeys and 27 feet in height, and no more than 2,100 square feet in total floor space.

There are also a few private housing developments in Tai Po with "detached" and "semi-detached" houses which include communal recreational areas such as swimming pools, tennis courts and children's playgrounds, and entertainment facilities such as private cinemas, health spas and karaoke rooms. These developments are excluded from the "village house" law, and therefore units are often much larger than 2,100 square feet, with a notable example being The Beverly Hills development, which has units as large as 11,000 square feet. Due to the rarity of such accommodations in Hong Kong, these developments are considered by locals to be part of the extreme high-end of the luxury property market, and are generally populated by very wealthy residents.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Buses

Transportation in Tai Po is much like any other region of Hong Kong. Due to high population, Hong Kong still has double-decker buses after Great Britain no longer ruled over the region as a royal territory. If you go to Hong Kong, you can notice that the driving system is the direct opposite of China and USA and follows the British way: the cars drive on the left side of the road. There are some buses that lead to the city center such as the bus 271 that goes from Fu Heng Estate in Tai Po to Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and bus 307 which goes from Tai Po Central towards Central Ferry Piers via Central and Wan Chai. There are also buses that lead directly to the airport such as E41 from Tai Po Center (Tai Po Plaza and Tai Po Mega Mall) to Hong Kong International Airport.

[edit] MTR System (East Rail Line)

Currently, there are two station in the East Rail Line for the entire Tai Po New Town, Tai Po Market Station (old district) and Tai Wo Station (for Tai Wo Estates and other new estates in Tai Po above Lam Tsuen River). These trains go from the border point at either Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau and go to the metropolitan east of Tsim Sha Tsui. It was formerly run by Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCR) but has been leased for 50 years. These trains are operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (Mass Transit Railway) since the end of 2007 and come from Lo Wu Station or Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and go to Tsim Sha Tsui East Station. The same goes for trains comimg from East Tsim Sha Tsui Station and trains go to either the Lo Wu Border Control Point (Luo Hu in the Mainland customs in Shenzhen) or the Lok Ma Chau Border Control Point (Le Mau Chou in the Mainland customs in Shenzhen). Mainly, trains toward the Lo Wu Station only take 3-4 min. between each train while trains to Lok Ma Chau Station take about 6 min. between each train. There are two interchanges in the line, one in Kowloon Tong Station with the Kwun Tong Line towards either Tiu Keng Leng or Yau Ma Tei and at Tsim Sha Tsui Station with Tsuen Wan Line towards either Tsuen Wan or Central (Hong Kong Station is considered another station, yet it only takes a few minutes to walk between Central Station and Hong Kong Station).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tai Po District Council
• Tai Po Rural Committee
• Traditions and Heritage in Tai Po (in 12 chapters)