Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of

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 Delta i ...

. The suburban district covers the areas of

Tai Po New Town Tai Po New Town, or Tai Po Town, is a new town (satellite town) and non-administrative area in Tai Po District, in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The area is a planned town that surrounding the existing indigenous market towns Tai Po Hui ( ...

(including areas such as Tai Po Market, ,

Tai Po Industrial Estate Tai Po Industrial Estate (, branded as ) is an industrial estate on the reclamation in Tai Po Hoi, Tai Po District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is administered by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. Location Tai Po Ind ...

, Tai Wo Estate), Tai Po Tau,

Tai Po Kau Tai Po Kau () is an area and a villages south of the town of Tai Po in Hong Kong, which was the site of the former Tai Po Kau station on the Kowloon–Canton Railway. It is located at a river estuary that empties into Tolo Harbour. Administrat ...

, Hong Lok Yuen,

Ting Kok Ting Kok is the name of an area and a village in the northeastern part of Hong Kong. It is located on the northern shore of Plover Cove * Lee Ancestral Hall (). Built in the late 19th century. Not graded. There are more than 10 ancestral halls i ...

, Plover Cove, Lam Tsuen Valley,

Tai Mei Tuk Tai Mei Tuk (officially known as in Chinese; formerly and still commonly known as ; also written as or ) is a place close to the Plover Cove Reservoir in the Tai Po District, New Territories, Hong Kong. Administration Tai Mei Tuk is a reco ...

and other surrounding areas, and its exclaves

Sai Kung North Sai Kung North refers collectively to the areas on the southern side of Tolo Harbour and the northernmost part of the Sai Kung Peninsula. Part of this broad area is served by Sai Sha Road, a motorway between Sai Kung and Ma On Shan. Geograph ...

, in the northern part of the

Sai Kung Peninsula The Sai Kung Peninsula () is a peninsula in the easternmost part of the New Territories in Hong Kong. Its name comes from Sai Kung Town in the central southern area of the peninsula. The southern part of the peninsula is administrated by Sai ...

and including islands such as Grass Island (Tap Mun), and

Ping Chau Tung Ping Chau () is an island in Hong Kong, part of Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark. It is also known as Ping Chau (). ''Tung'' (, meaning ''east'') is prepended to the name at times so as to avoid possible confusion with '' Peng Chau' ...

(Tung Ping Chau). Tai Po proper and Sai Kung North are divided by the

Tolo Channel Tolo Channel or Chek Mun Hoi Hap () is a channel south of Plover Cove in Hong Kong connecting Tolo Harbour to Mirs Bay. At Mirs Bay end, it is named North Channel. The Chinese name ''Chek Mun'' means Red Gate. ''Hoi Hap'' is the modern term for ...

and the

Tolo Harbour Tolo Harbour, or Tai Po Hoi (, historically ) is a sheltered harbour in northeast New Territories of Hong Kong. Geography Tide Cove aka. Sha Tin Hoi is to the south of the harbour, and Plover Cove, Three Fathoms Cove and Tolo Channel are to ...

(Tai Po Hoi). The district is located in the Eastern

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

. The ''de facto'' administrative centre of the district is

. Like

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north N ...

, the area of

Tai Po Tai Po 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 () (the original "Tai Po Market") on the north of Lam Tsu ...

used to be a traditional

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

, a

satellite town Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have m ...

, developed around the area of Tai Po and on

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

on the estuaries of

Lam Tsuen Lam Tsuen () is an area in Tai Po District, Hong Kong, noted for its Lam Tsuen wishing trees. The nearby Lam Tsuen River, empties into Tolo Harbour, Tai Po Hoi. Villages Lam Tsuen is not a village in the political sense but rather a union o ...

and

rivers. It had a population of 310,879 in 2001. The district has the third lowest population density in Hong Kong.

History

The district is named after

. Tai Po's population dates back to the eleventh century, people would make sufficient money by

clamming Clam digging is a North American term for a common way to harvest clams (edible infaunal bivalve mollusks) from below the surface of the tidal sand flats or mud flats where they live. It is done both recreationally (for enjoyment or as a so ...

, pearl harvesting and fishing. In Yuen Chau Tsai, stone axe and pottery have been discovered which were believed to be made in

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

era. Tai Po was the seat of the district officers that oversaw the whole of the

with Island House as their official residence. The Island House was completed in 1906, 8 years after the

Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory The Convention between the United Kingdom and China, Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory, commonly known as the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory or the Second Convention of Peking, was a lease signed between Qing C ...

. The New Territories was later split into the District North and South (Not to be confused with modern-day Northern District and Southern District of Hong Kong), as well as

New Kowloon New Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong, bounded in the south by Boundary Street, and in the north by the ranges of the Eagle's Nest, Beacon Hill, Lion Rock, Tate's Cairn and Kowloon Peak. It covers the present-day Kwun Tong District and Wong T ...

in 1937. Tai Po remained as the headquarters of the District North after the split. The old headquarters of the District is a declared monument currently. The District North and then further shrunk, which

Sha Tin District Sha Tin District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. As one of the 9 districts located in the New Territories, it covers the areas of Sha Tin, Tai Wai, Ma On Shan, Fo Tan, Siu Lek Yuen, and Ma Liu Shui. The district is the most popu ...

Yuen Long District Yuen Long District (formerly romanised as Un Long) is one of the districts of Hong Kong. Located in the northwest of the New Territories, it had a population of 662,000 in 2021 Geography Yuen Long District contains the largest alluvial pla ...

(includes modern day

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 ...

) and the modern day Northern District were split from the District North and District North was renamed Tai Po District, which oversaw Tai Po and nearby Lam Tsuen Valley, as well as an exclave on the northern part of the

. The seats of the Tai Po District branch of the

Home Affairs Department The Home Affairs Department is an executive agency in the government of Hong Kong responsible for internal affairs of the territory. It reports to the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Home Affairs. Purpose The D ...

as well as the Tai Po District Officer, is currently located in another government building, Tai Po Government Offices Building, in Ting Kok Road, in the northern shore of

Lam Tsuen River The Lam Tsuen River () is a river in Tai Po District, Hong Kong, with a length of 10.8 kilometres and a catchment area of approximately 21 square kilometres.Tai Po District Council was formed as the Tai Po District Board in the 1980s, with elections held since that decade.

Geography

Lam Tsuen River The Lam Tsuen River () is a river in Tai Po District, Hong Kong, with a length of 10.8 kilometres and a catchment area of approximately 21 square kilometres.Lam Tsuen Valley and west of

East Rail line The East Rail line () is one of ten lines of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system in Hong Kong. It used to be one of the three lines of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) network. It was known as the KCR British Section () from 1910 to 199 ...

is the main connection of Tai Po to the rest of Hong Kong. Tai Po has 460 hectares of purely woodland area, the largest in Hong Kong.

Islands

In addition to the mainland part of the district, the following

islands of Hong Kong Hong Kong comprises the Kowloon Peninsula and 263 islands over , the largest being Lantau Island and the second largest being Hong Kong Island. Ap Lei Chau is one of the most densely populated islands in the world. Hong Kong Island is historic ...

are under the jurisdiction of Tai Po District: *

A Chau A Chau () is a small uninhabited island in the inner most of Starling Inlet (Sha Tau Kok Hoi), off Nam Chung, in the north-eastern New Territories of Hong Kong. It is under the administration of North District, and falls within the Closed A ...

(丫洲, Centre Island) * Breaker Reef – Tai Po * Bun Sha Pai () * Cham Pai () * Chau Tsai Kok () * Che Lei Pai () *

Chek Chau Port Island or Chek Chau () is an island of Hong Kong, under the administration of Tai Po District. It is located in Tolo Channel, in the northeastern New Territories. Its name literally means red island; after the sedimentary rocks rich in ...

(赤洲, Port Island) * Flat Island () * Hau Tsz Kok Pai () * Hin Pai () * Kung Chau () * Ma Shi Chau () * Ma Yan Pai () * Mo Chau () *

() * Sam Pui Chau () * Sha Pai () * Shek Ngau Chau () * Tang Chau () * Tap Mun Chau (塔門洲, Grass Island) * Tit Shue Pai () * Wai Chau Pai () * Wu Chau () * Yeung Chau ()

Climate

Housing

Because Hong Kong is in a very densely populated region, Tai Po Town has copied the many urban areas of Hong Kong by building high-rise apartments. 320,000 people have residences in the town, 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. The area is serviced by the Tai Po Hui Market, Built in 2004. The Tai Po area also has many " village houses", resulting from a 1972 Hong Kong legislation 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 stories and in height, and no more than in total floor space. There are also a few private housing development in the Tai Po area 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 . Privately owned residential housing in Tai Po included Tai Po Centre, Plover Cove Garden, Uptown Plaza, The Beverly Hills and many other residential estates.

Transportation

Buses

Transportation in Tai Po Town is much like any other places of Hong Kong. Due to the high population, Hong Kong has double-decker buses. There are some buses that lead to the rest of Hong Kong such as the KMB bus route 271 that goes from Fu Heng Estate in Tai Po Town to

West Kowloon Station West Kowloon station (abbreviated WEK), also known as Hong Kong West Kowloon, is the southern terminus of and the only station on the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link (HSR). The station con ...

in Tsim Sha Tsui and bus route 307 which goes from Central Tai Po Town towards the Central Ferry Piers via Central and Wan Chai of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. There are also buses that lead directly to the airport such as A47X from Tai Po (Fu Heng) to Hong Kong Airport and E41 from Tai Po Centre (Tai Po Plaza and Tai Po Mega Mall) to Hong Kong International Airport within 90 minutes.

Railway

Two railway stations along the

serve Tai Po, namely:

Tai Po Market station Tai Po Market (; : ) is an MTR station on the in the New Territories, Hong Kong. Located between Flagstaff Hill and Wan Tau Tong Estate in Tai Po, and adjacent to the eponymous market town, the station has three tracks and four platforms. ...

(in the older district) and Tai Wo station (serving newer estates). Trains originate at the Hong Kong-Chinese border, at either

Lo Wu Lo Wu or Lowu is an area in North District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It lies on the border between Hong Kong and mainland China, specifically the Luohu District of Shenzhen in mainland China. The area is most notable as the location of th ...

Lok Ma Chau Lok Ma Chau or Lokmachau is an area in Hong Kong's New Territories. It is the site of a major pedestrian (linked directly to the Hong Kong rapid transit network) and road border crossing point between Hong Kong and mainland China. Administra ...

stations, and travel south to Admiralty station in Hong Kong Island, passing through Tai Po on the way. The railway, previously known as the KCR British Section, opened in 1910. The old Tai Po Market station opened on that date and was closed in 1983, when the modern station of the same name opened as part of an upgrading of the line by the

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC; ) is a Hong Kong wholly government-owned railway and land asset manager. It was established in 1982 under the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation Ordinance for the purposes of operating the Kowloon– ...

. Tai Wo station opened in 1989. In 2007 the line was leased for 50 years to the MTR Corporation. Tai Po Kau station served the Tai Po Kau area between 1910 and 1983. It has since been demolished.

Education

Tai Po District are roughly divided by two primary school districts. The 84 school district for Tai Po New Town and surrounding villages, while Sai Kung North belongs to the 95 school district; the Sai Kung District also belongs to the 95 school district. As of 2018, there were 19 secondary schools in the whole Tai Po District, all located in the Tai Po New Town. The secondary school district of Tai Po District, was designated "NET NT6". Several international schools are located in the Tai Po District. They do not belong to any school district. The Tai Po campus of Hong Kong Japanese School's International Section was opened in 1997.About JIS

Archive
. Hong Kong Japanese School. Retrieved on 12 January 2015. American School Hong Kong was scheduled to open in Tai Po in 2016. Norwegian International School occupied a building former known as The Tai Po Bungalow as campus. Li Po Chun United World College, located in Ma On Shan of the Sha Tin district, is near to the border of Sai Kung North exclave of the Tai Po district. The campus of the Education University of Hong Kong, formerly the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIED), is located in the Tai Po District since 1997. The institute gained university status in 2016. The campus is located just north of Tai Po Industrial Estate. It is the only university of the district. The

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and ...

is located in the border between Tai Po and Sha Tin districts.

Sports

* Tai Po Sports Ground, an outdoor

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

ground, owned by the government and operated by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LSCD) * Tai Po Swimming Pool, an outdoor swimming pool that next to the sports ground, owned by the government and operated by the LSCD The government leased a government land to the Tai Po Sports Association in 1988, to run another public swimming pool. The swimming pool, which also known as the "Jockey Club swimming pool", was closed in 1999. A new swimming pool structure was planned to build. However, the construction was not yet finished, as of 2015. The district had several sport complex for the local population, they were owned and operated by the government and located in the Tai Po New Town. Another facility, opened in 1983, Li Fook Lam Indoor Sports Centre, was operated by the Tai Po Sports Association Limited, a non-profit making limited company.

Football

Tai Po FC Tai Po Football Club (), also known as Wofoo Tai Po due to sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong professional football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. In the 2018–19 season, Tai Po successfully won their first t ...

is the first district football team ever to make it to the

Hong Kong First Division League The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation ...

among the 19 district football sides from the

Hong Kong Third District Division League Hong Kong Third 'District' Division League was a division of the third overall tier of the Hong Kong football league system organised by the Hong Kong Football Association in Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Third 'A' Division League. It was fo ...

. The club plays its home games at Tai Po Sports Ground and has since won the 2008-09 Hong Kong FA Cup. The district had several football fields (

five-a-side ''Five-A-Side'' is the debut album by the pop rock band Ace, released by Anchor Records in 1974. The album landed on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, reaching #11 in 1974. The single " How Long" reached #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the ...

seven-a-side football Seven-a-side football is one of the minifootball variations of football, which is played among seven players in each team. In the game consists of one goalkeeper and six outfield players. The pitch of seven-a-side football is bigger than the fi ...

) for amateur football. In 2016, another football fields and sport complex (which includes an indoor swimming pool) would be built.

Economy

Hong Kong Note Printing Hong Kong Note Printing Limited is a company which prints the bank notes of all the three note-issuing banks in Hong Kong. The banknote printing plant was founded in 1984 by Thomas De La Rue in Tai Po Industrial Estate. In April 1996, the Hong Ko ...

, which prints all the bank notes in Hong Kong, is located in the

, an industrial area of light industries (food processing, printing, etc.) Hong Kong and China Gas also has its major gas plant in the industrial estate, which supplies most (98%) of the town gas of the city from that plant.

Spa Resort Development

There is a plan to develop a spa hotel resort at Ting Kok, near

. The site will occupy 61,000 sq m and has no more than 230 hotel rooms. Tai Po District councilor Yam Kai-Kong admits the benefits from tourism and job opportunities will be good but he is also concerned about the

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s and increased traffic in the area.

Place of interests

* The Hong Kong Railway Museum * Tai Po Waterfront Park * Tsz Shan Monastery Notable people: * Chan Hok man ( 陳學文）： former principal of valtorta college * Tang Chun man ( 鄧俊文）： athlete of badminton team

Electoral subdivisions

The local council of the district, Tai Po District Council, was divided into several subdivisions, known as electoral constituencies.List and map of electoral constituencies 2 (large PDF file, 2015)
/ref> However, the border of those electoral constituencies would under review in each election. It was also accused of

gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

for the proposed change of the border for several constituencies in the district for 2019 election. In the election of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...

, Tai Po District belongs to the cross-district electoral constituency New Territories East. In the past, Tai Po District belonged to the Regional Council, the middle-tier local government between the city's Legislative Council and the district councils. The Regional Council oversee the New Territories, while its counterpart, Urban Council, oversee Kowloon (including

) and the Hong Kong Island. However, they were abolished. The executive function of the Regional Council was takeover by the

Leisure and Cultural Services Department The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), is a department in the Government of Hong Kong. It reports to the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism. It provides leisure and cultura ...

and other government departments. Before the establishment of the Tai Po District, the area belonged to the District Office North (founded as the District Office which also oversee area around modern day

Sha Tin Sha Tin, also spelt Shatin, is a neighbourhood along Shing Mun River in the eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Sha Tin District. Sha Tin is one of the neighbourhoods of the Sha Tin New Town project. The ...

), which its headquarter is located in Tai Po; the District Officer was also resided in Tai Po in the Island House on Yuen Chau Tsai. The election for the village head, as well as councilors of

Heung Yee Kuk The Heung Yee Kuk, officially the Heung Yee Kuk N.T., is a statutory advisory body representing establishment interests in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The council is a powerful organisation comprising heads of rural committees which repre ...

, has its own electoral constituencies, which based on the boundary of the villages.

References

External links

* {{Districts of Hong Kong Districts of Hong Kong