Tai Po is an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

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 refers to the vicinity of the 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 rura ...

s 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 Tsuen River and the Tai Po Hui (the current Tai Po Market; historically Tai Wo Shi, literally ''Tai Wo market'') on Fu Shin Street on the south of the Lam Tsuen River, near the old Tai Po Market railway station of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). 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, the Tai Po New Town (), or the entire

Tai Po District Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. The suburban district covers the areas of Tai Po New Town (including areas such as Tai Po Market, , Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Wo Estate), Tai Po Tau, Tai Po Kau, Hong Lok Yue ...

Etymology

In Chinese, the place, Tai Po (), was formerly written as . Treating the Chinese characters separately, the pronunciation of Po in the third tone () in Cantonese are shared with many words, not only Po in the sixth tone (). For example, the "Po" () of

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po () is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...

, literally ''deep water port''. Moreover, according to the ''

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' () is a Chinese dictionary published in 1716 during the High Qing, considered from the time of its publishing until the early 20th century to be the most authoritative reference for written Chinese characters. Wanting ...

'', the word can be written as . As a coincidence, Tai Po is a seashore town. The name Tai Po Hoi () was appeared in ''Nanhai Zhi'' () of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

(1271 to 1368 of

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian cale ...

), which stated that pearl was the product of the Tai Po sea. In

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

's ' (), recorded the names Tai Po Hoi and Tai Po Tau (). In the attached map of that book, the sea next to Tai Po Tau was labelled with "can shelter hurricane" (). In early

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

Kangxi 27th Year edition of '' Xin'an Xianzhi'' (literally ''Gazetteer of the Xin'an County''), Tai Po Tau Hui () as a market centre (), Tai Po Tau as a village (under the administration of ) and Tai Po Hoi as water body, were recorded. According to Hong Kong sinologist and historian Jao Tsung-I, the character Po in Tai Po, should be interpreted as port or seaside. However, there was another urban legend version of the meaning of Tai Po. In the urban legend, the area around Tai Po was a habitat of a wild animal, which people have to "Big-Step".

History

Tai Po as a populated place, could be traced back to the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. An archaeological site in Yuen Chau Tsai, had discovered stone axe and pottery which was believed to be made in

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

era. The indigenous inhabitants of Tai Po lived by clamming and pearl farming in Tai Po Hoi (literally ''Tai Po Sea''; Tolo Harbour) since at least AD 963. The pearl making business reached its peak during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

and started to decline gradually amid the

. Tai Po had been developed as a fishing port around the late Ming dynasty and the

. While a village that belongs to the modern day Tai Po area, Wun Yiu (), had developed into a center of the porcelain industry in the Ming dynasty.

Tang clan The Tang Clan of Hong Kong () is one of the Five Great Clans of the New Territories. The others are Man (), Hau (), Pang () and Liu (). The Tangs are one of the region's oldest families and can trace their lineage back 30 generations in Hong ...

migrated from the area north of the border of modern-day Hong Kong to the modern-day

of Hong Kong in the

of China. A branch of the Tang clan was split from

Lung Yeuk Tau Lung Yeuk Tau (), commonly known as Lung Ku Tau () and also called Lung Ling () is an area located northeast of Luen Wo Hui in Fanling, New Territories, Hong Kong. Administration For electoral purposes, Lung Yeuk Tau is part of the Queen's Hil ...

of the modern-day New Territories, to establish the village in Tai Po Tau. The Tai Po Tau branch and Lung Yeuk Tau branch also founded the first Tai Po Hui market town (also known as Tai Po Tau Hui), despite it is now defunct and the area now known as Tai Po Old Market. The area around the first market town also lived other people that were not from the Tang clan. They formed an inter-villages alliance Tai Po Tsat Yeuk (literally ''Tai Po Seven Alliances''; each alliance contained one or more villages). The inter-villages alliance founded another market town Tai Wo Shi (literally ''Tai Wo market'') after the Qing government ruled that Tai Po Hui (Tai Po Tau Hui) belonged to Tangs, other clans cannot open shops in Tang's market town. However, Tai Wo Shi replaced the original Tai Po Hui (Tai Po Tau Hui) as the main market and took the name Tai Po Hui (anglicized as Tai Po Market). The old market town thus became Tai Po Kau Hui (anglicized as Tai Po Old Market; ). During the British colonial rule, a District Office, a

police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...

, two railway stations: Tai Po Market railway station and

Tai Po Kau railway station Tai Po Kau (), also signed simply as Tai Po,Tai Po Kau; ) and other public facilities were built within the modern-day area that belongs to the new town and the administrative district. Most of them were in close distance to the market town of Tai Po at that time. In the 1970s, the Hong Kong government began to develop satellite towns: Tai Po Industrial Estate, the first industrial estate in Hong Kong was built in the reclaimed land of the former Tai Po Hoi in 1974; Tai Po was named as a site to build "

new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

" in 1979, which the government obtains lands by reclamation of the river mouth and Tai Po Hoi. The new town was also designed to incorporate and interact with the existing market town. The first

public housing estate Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

of Tai Po New Town: Tai Yuen Estate – was established in 1981. The population has soared to 320,000, and Tai Po New Town began to prosper following the completion of the Tolo Highway which was integrated with the older urban areas. At present, due to the development of the new town, the place name Tai Po may refer to Tai Po New Town or the historical area centre Tai Po Market, or the Tai Po District (excluding exclave Sai Kung North) that covers the new town and Lam Tsuen Valley and another area. However, the boundary of Tai Po was not defined. In contrast, the namesake election constituency of Tai Po Market had its legally defined boundary, as well as Tai Po District; Tai Po New Town also had its officially defined boundary in urban planning regulation and law. Moreover, Hong Kong police, as well as primary and secondary schools district, had their own boundaries. In February 2023, model Abby Choi Tin-Fung was found murdered in Lung Mei, Tai Po.

Education

In historical eras clan villages organised private study halls or '' sishu'' (). King Law Ka Shuk, is a declared monument of Hong Kong. It is the ancestral hall of the Tang clan Tai Po Tau branch, and historically a study hall. Village schools opened with government subsidies in the early 20th century.Poon, Shuk Wah.
Education in Tai Po: From the Founding of Rural Normal School to the Demise of Village Schools

Archive
.

'. p. 256. In the 1920s and 1930s secondary schools in the vernacular medium opened in Tai Po. Many village schools opened after World War II. Due to a decline in the birthrate, by the 1990s the number of school students was declining and many village schools began to close. In the present day, Tai Po is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 84. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and Tai Po Government Primary School (大埔官立小學). Several international schools are also located in the district.

Schools

The Spanish Primary School, which has education in Spanish, English, and Mandarin under the

National Curriculum for England The National Curriculum for England is the statutory standard of school subjects, lesson content, and attainment levels for primary and secondary schools in England. It is compulsory for local authority-maintained schools, but also often followed b ...

, was organised by Adriana Chan. It opened in September 2017. Mulberry House International Kindergarten aims to equip children with the essential skills and confidence to thrive in the 21st century. This bilingual institution, with English and Mandarin as core languages, provides a holistic early childhood education based on the UK's

Early Years Foundation Stage The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the statutory framework for early years education in England, or, as stated on the UK government website: "The standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and ca ...

(EYFS).

References

External links

{{Authority control Tai Po District