A Chinese house and modern house in Hong Kong

North Lantau Highway viewed from Shun Long Road

Tai Ho Wan or Tai Ho Bay (, also ) is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

on the north shore of

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao or Lan Tau) 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 ...

in the

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

of Hong Kong. It is located west of Siu Ho Wan, and northeast of

Tung Chung Tung Chung ( " 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 Tung C ...

and . The surrounding land was originally planned to be part of the

North Lantau New Town Tung Chung New Town, formerly named North Lantau New Town, is the newest of the nine New towns of Hong Kong, new towns in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, located on the northern coast of the Lantau Island in the New Terri ...

scope, but there is a current slowdown in its plans because of the lack in population growth and environmental groups opposed to the next in abeyance. Tai Ho was originally a rural area. To the northern part there is a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

extend and to the southern part is the foot of

Lin Fa Shan Lin Fa Shan ( Chinese: 蓮花山) is the seventh highest mountain in Hong Kong. With a height of 766 m on Lantau Island, it is situated between Mui Wo and Sunset Peak. Name The Cantonese name Lin Fa Shan ( Chinese: 蓮花山; Jyutping: Li ...

. Slopes are covered with grassland and shrub forests. There are monsoonal nature of swamps, as well as a stream named Tai Ho Stream which flows into the Tai Ho Bay.

Villages

Villages in the area include

Pak Mong Pak Mong () is a village on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, located near Tai Ho Wan, a bay on the northern shore of Lantau Island, and northeast of Tung Chung. Administration Pak Mong is a recognized village under the New Territories Small House Polic ...

, Ngau Kwu Long, Tai Ho Village aka. Tai Ho Tsuen (), Tai Ho New Village aka. Tai Ho San Tsuen () and Tin Liu (). At the time of the 2011 Census, the population of the area was about 150 persons. Pak Mong, Ngau Kwu Long and Tai Ho are recognized villages under the

Small House Policy The Small House Policy (SHP, ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories. The policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 ye ...

. The three villages historically formed the San Heung () community.

History

In 1989, the British Hong Kong Government announced that the

Airport Core Programme The Airport Core Programme was a series of infrastructure projects centred on the new Hong Kong International Airport during the early 1990s. The programme was part of the Port and Airport Development Strategy, commonly known as the Rose Gar ...

, which includes the north through the Tai Ho,

North Lantau Highway North Lantau Highway is an expressway forming part of Hong Kong's Route 8, linking Hong Kong International Airport and Lantau Island with the rest of the territory. The road has three lanes in each direction for its entire length with fu ...

, and the development of Tai Ho into

new towns A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

. The plans for the

Tung Chung line The Tung Chung line () is one of the ten lines of the MTR system in Hong Kong, linking the town of Tung Chung with central Hong Kong. It was built in the 1990s as part of the Airport Railway project, part of the construction of the new ...

was released at this time which also called for the construction of a Tai Ho station. However, in the late 1990s, due to the slow down in the development of Tung Chung, the expected slow down in population growth, coupled with environmental concerns that the development of Tai Ho will affect the local environment and ecology, large-scale construction is still under review. A part of the bay and a stream flowing into it were designated as a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

in 1999. Private

property developers Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

Sun Hung Kai and

Swire Properties Swire Properties Limited () is a property developer, owner and operator of mixed-use, principally commercial properties in Hong Kong and mainland China. Founded and headquartered in Hong Kong in 1972, Swire Properties is a property develope ...

have stated in 2000 having started purchasing land in the area "many years ago". It was reported in 2014 that about 70 per cent of private land in the Tai Ho area had been sold to developers, the majority of it being owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties. Villagers have protested against some aspects of the environmental protection plans of the area, which might constrain their right to farm and build small houses. Protests involved the blocking of private roads and footpaths leading to the bay, as well as the destruction of mangrove in 2014.

Nature

Tai Ho Stream () runs past Tin Liu, Tai Ho San Tsuen and Ngau Kwu Long to Tai Ho Wan. It has been reported as the stream supporting the greatest diversity of

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are fish species that spend some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes, ponds and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine habitats in many wa ...

and

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuary ...

fish in Hong Kong, with 68 species recorded. In 1999, the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...

designated Tai Ho Stream as the 63rd

(SSSI) due to the discovery of the

Ayu Ayu or AYU may refer to: * Ayu (given name) * Ayu sweetfish (''Plecoglossus altivelis''), a species of smelt * ''Ayu'', a local name for the African manatee * Ayu (singer) or Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese singer * Ayu Islands, a small archipelago in ...

(''Plecoglossus altivelis'') in the river, which cannot be found anywhere in the world except for waters in

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

, and Hong Kong. Other freshwater fish species recorded include ''

Anguilla marmorata The giant mottled eel (''Anguilla marmorata''), also known as the marbled eel, is a species of tropical anguillid eel that is found in the Indo-Pacific and adjacent freshwater habitats. Description Similar to other anguillids, the giant mottled ...

'', ''

A. japonica A is the first letter of the Latin and English alphabet. A may also refer to: Science and technology Quantities and units * ''a'', a measure for the attraction between particles in the Van der Waals equation * ''A'' value, a measure of s ...

'', '' Awaous melanocephalus'' and ''

Pisodonophis boro The rice-paddy eel (''Pisodonophis boro''; also known commonly as the Bengal's snake-eel, the estuary snake eel, or the snake eel) is an eel in the family Ophichthidae (worm-snake eels).

''. The SSSI covers an area of about 5 hectares that includes Tai Ho Stream and several tributaries, as well as the southern end of Tai Ho Bay, featuring

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

and

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

. Other species that have been recorded in the area include

Horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only surviving xiphosurans. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or even crustaceans; they are chelicerates, more closely related to arachnids like spiders, ticks, and scor ...

s, that are commonly found in the ''

Halophila beccarii ''Halophila'' is a genus of seagrasses in the family '' Hydrocharitaceae'', the tape-grasses. It was described as a genus in 1806. The number of its contained species, and its own placement in the order Alismatales, has evolved. Description Th ...

'' seagrass beds of Tai Ho Wan,

tokay gecko The tokay gecko (''Gekko gecko'') is a nocturnality, nocturnal arboreal locomotion, arboreal gecko in the genus ''Gekko'', the true geckos. It is native to Asia and some Pacific Islands. Etymology The word "tokay" is an onomatopoeia of the sou ...

(''Gekko gecko''), rare or uncommon butterflies including red lacewing (''

Cethosia biblis ''Cethosia biblis'', the lacewing biblis or red lacewing, is a species of heliconiine butterfly belonging to the family Nymphalidae. Subspecies * ''C. b. biblis'' - Assam, central India – south-western China * ''C. b. insularis'' C. & R. Feld ...

'') and amphibian species including Romer's tree frog (''Liuixalus romeri'') and short-legged toad ('' Megophrys brachykolos'').

Infrastructure

Tai Ho Wan was partially

reclaimed Land reclamation, often 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 reclamation ...

in the 1990s. It is now crossed by the

, Cheung Tung Road, the

Airport Express The AirPort Express is a discontinued Wi-Fi base station product from Apple Inc., part of the AirPort product line. While more compact and in some ways simpler than another Apple Wi-Fi base station, the AirPort Extreme, the Express offers au ...

and the

of the

MTR The Mass Transit Railway system, known locally by the initialism MTR, is a rapid transit system in Hong Kong and the territory's principal mode of Rail transport in Hong Kong, railway transportation. Operated by the MTR Corporation (MTRCL), ...

. The land reclamation is also the site of the interchanges between North Lantau Highway and Shun Long Road (), part of the

Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link The Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link (, abbreviated as TM–CLKL) is a road project in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It comprises two elements: the "Northern Connection" and the "Southern Connection". The Northern Connection comprises an undersea t ...

Other features

A site in Pak Mong and a site in Tai Ho Village have been listed as a Sites of Archaeological Interest. The area features three graded historic structures: the watchtower of Pak Mong (Grade II), the watchtower of Tai Ho (Grade III) and the Entrance Gate of Pak Mong (Grade III).

Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Secretary for Development, Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monum ...

List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings with Assessment Results
/ref>

References

External links

Aerial photograph of Tai Ho Bay in 1992

Map of the Tai Ho Outline Zoning Plan S/I-TH/1 as exhibited on March 24, 2017

Pictures of Tai Ho Wan
{{coord, 22.299266, 113.978260, display=title, region:CN_type:waterbody Lantau Island Bays of Hong Kong