Taipa

Taipa ( zh, t=氹仔, ; pt, Taipa, ) was a former island in Macau, presently united with the island of Coloane by reclaimed land known as Cotai. Administratively, the boundaries of the traditional civil parish Freguesia de Nossa Senhora do Carmo are coterminous with that of former Taipa Island.

Geography

Taipa is from Macau Peninsula and east of the Lesser Hengqin Island of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. Macau International Airport, University of Macau, Macau Jockey Club and Macau Stadium are all situated in Taipa.
* Area: ()
* Population: 70,000+

Most Chinese settlement of Taipa occurred during the Southern Song Dynasty, while the Portuguese occupied the island in 1851. Prior to land reclamation, Taipa consisted of two islands: Greater Taipa and Lesser Taipa.

The () is to the east, and () to the west. Central Taipa is a plain as a result of siltation and land reclamation. Initially Taipa was connected to Coloane Island only by the () causeway; but the area called Cotai, built on reclaimed land from 2004 and which is home to mega-resorts, casinos, and convention and exhibition centres, has now connected the two islands into one piece of land. Taipa is connected to peninsular Macau by Governador Nobre de Carvalho Bridge, Friendship Bridge and the Sai Van Bridge.

Taipa is predominantly a growing residential area with many new apartment complexes, mostly up-scale, under construction . As a new town of Macau, Taipa has better city planning than Macau Peninsula; however, many people choose to live in Macau Peninsula since most of the famous schools are located there.

In 2015 the body of the Director General of Macao Customs Service, Lai Minhua, was found in the district.

The names of Taipa

In Cantonese, Taipa has been known by many names over time, including (''Lung Waan'', meaning "Dragon Ring"), (''Gai Geng'', "Chicken's neck"), (''Taam Jai'', "Pool"), and (''Lung Tau Waan'', "Dragon's-Head Ring").

The Portuguese name "Taipa" comes from the Chinese pronunciation of in Min Nan /'/ (similar to "tiamp-a") then became "Taipa". The Putonghua pinyin for is ''dàngzǎi'', and this is how the island is referred to in Mandarin. Both the character and the alternative form 凼 mean cesspit, but are obsolete in modern Chinese, and only used in relation to Taipa and the Macau-Taipa Bridge ( ''àodàng dàqiáo''). The character 氹, or 凼 (often used in Mainland Chinese texts), is often missing from mobile phone and computer input systems.

Another version according to legend, comes from an exchange between early Portuguese settlers on Taipa and local Chinese settlers. The Portuguese asked the Chinese the name (''nome'' in Portuguese) of the place. The Chinese settlers were local grocery shopkeepers and spoke no Portuguese, but took the Portuguese ''nome'' for the Chinese , "sticky rice", which is pronounced similar to ''nome'' in Cantonese. Thinking the Portuguese settlers were asking if they sold sticky rice, the Chinese responded with "", pronounced "daai ba" in Cantonese, meaning "a lot." The Portuguese, hearing the response, took this to be the name of the place. There is, however, no historical evidence to support this story. "Taipa" is also what the Portuguese call the clay-mud, rammed into moulds, used to build mud houses in Portugal in times gone by, in recent times referred to as Rammed Earth.

It is also worth noting that, as the great majority of the population in Taipa and Macau is Chinese; however, there is a growing community of expatriates living in Taipa who work at the casinos in Cotai or at the schools and universities. Most people refer to this island by its Cantonese name, "Tamzai", and most taxi drivers and bus drivers will not understand if asked how to go to "Taipa."

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Public preschool and primary school include:
* Escola Luso-Chinesa da Taipa () – Preschool and primary school

Private tuition-free primary and secondary schools:
* Macau Anglican College – Preschool through secondary
* Escola Cáritas de Macau () – Special education
* Escola Dom João Paulino – Preschool and primary school
* Fong Chong School of Taipa (''Escola Fong Chong da Taipa''; ) – Preschool through senior secondary school
* Hou Kong Middle School Macau Affiliated English School ()
* Taipa Elementary School Branch ()
* (''Escola Secundária Pui Va''; ) – Preschool through secondary school
* (''Escola de Aplicação Anexa à Universidade de Macau''; ) – Preschool through secondary

Private non-free primary and secondary schools:
* The International School of Macao – Located in Block K inside the Macau University of Science and Technology – Preschool through secondary
* School of the Nations (聯國學校; Escola das Nações) – Preschool through secondary with special education

Colleges and universities

Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), Institute for Tourism Studies, and City University of Macau are located in Taipa. University of Macau (UM), on Hengqin Island, which is part of Taipa (Nossa Senhora do Carmo), but geographically separate from Taipa.

Public libraries

The parish has two public libraries operated by the Macao Public Library system. Taipa Library (''Biblioteca da Taipa''; ), which began trial operations on 15 April 2015 and opened officially on 1 September of that year, occupies of space in the basement of Taipa Central Park (''Parque Central da Taipa''; ). Wong Ieng Kuan Library in Taipa (''Biblioteca de Wong Ieng Kuan da Taipa''; ) occupies of space on the second and third floors of Hei Loi Tang Plaza (). The library, which had its construction funded with donations from the Wong Ieng Kuan Foundation (''Fundação Wong Ieng Kuan''; ), opened in January 2005.

File:Macau Library Wong Leng Kuan Taipa Hei Loi Tang Plaza.JPG, Wong Ieng Kuan Library in Taipa
File:New Taipa Library.jpg, Taipa Library

Infrastructures

* Macau Refuse Incineration Plant

Transport

* Macau International Airport
* Taipa Ferry Terminal
* Macau Light Rail Transit

Healthcare

Health centres operated by the Macau government in Taipa include Centro de Saúde dos Jardins do Oceano (), Centro de Saúde Nossa Senhora do Carmo-Lago (), and Posto de Saúde para os Idosos Taipa ().

Other healthcare services include:
* Macau University of Science and Technology Hospital
* Posto de Urgência das Ilhas
* Kiang Wu Hospital Taipa Medical Centre

Tourism

* Altira Macau
* Cunha Street
* Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre
* Macau Stadium
* Museum of Taipa and Coloane History
* Taipa Houses–Museum
* Macau Jockey Club
* Taipa Fort ()

Religious

* Pou Tai Un Temple ( or ): named after bodhi tree
* Kun Yam Temple ()
* Tin Hau Temple ()
* Sam Po Temple (): dedicated to the elder sister of Tin Hau
* Pak Tai Temple (): dedicated to the Taoist God of the North
* Four-faced Buddha (): invited from Thailand in 1985
* Church of Our Lady of Carmel (): Catholic church

See also

* Taipa Ferry Terminal
* List of islands and peninsulas of Macau

References

External links

Heritage on Taipa

Satellite image of Taipa by Google Maps

{{Authority control

Populated coastal places in Macau
Former Portuguese colonies