Tai O: a fantastic place to watch sunset magic
The allure of Tai O is more than stilt houses
Story of an ancient village
The allure of Tai O is more than stilt houses over tide movements. Although I’ve visited before, I sought a deeper dive into the historical story of this ancient village.
With camera and curiosity in place, I travelled the easy way – by bus, which sped along the road connecting Tung Chung to south Lantau. The ride over the mountain took about forty minutes.
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I arrived while the tide was still out and the air heavy with the smell of fish. Egrets fluttered and dove in the muddy river effluent.
Tai O fishing tradition
A fisherman was sitting under an awning on his junk in the bay, folding nets in readiness for the afternoon’s sail. A sampan sped out of the inlet, a stocky fisherwoman squatting at the prow.
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An old man was carefully folding paper around dried fish at a nearby stall, preparing it to hang on display. All these were reminders that I had arrived at an ancient fishing village.
Tai O is properly ancient, the Kwan Tai Old Temple was originally built in the Hongzhi reign (1488-1505) of the Ming dynasty. It was rebuilt in the sixth year of the Qing dynasty’s Qianlong (1741) reign.
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Dedicated to the God of War, it is the oldest temple in Tai O and is named after Kwan Tai, a military general renowned for his loyalty and who protects devotees from evil.
Tanka heritage
The original inhabitants of Tai O were the Tanka people, a nomadic seafaring community who settled during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
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Fishing has always been a core part of their livelihood and cultural identity. This long association with the sea and its unique way of life has shaped the village’s character.
Stilt houses
The distinctive stilt houses, built over the water, are a testament to their adaptation to the coastal environment.
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The benefits of living in houses on stilts over water include convenient access to their boats, protection from floods and tides, and better ventilation and cooler living conditions.
Sampan transport
For centuries, transportation was by sampans or a rope ferry, the only way for pedestrians to cross the inlet that divided the village (until it was replaced by a bridge in 1996).
Chinese rule of Hong Kong began to degrade during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). In 1842, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in perpetuity following China’s loss in the First Opium War.
In 1860, after the Second Opium War, part of the Kowloon Peninsula was also ceded. In 1898, the British extended their colony with a forced ninety-nine-year rent-free lease of the New Territories.
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The New Territories included Lantau Island (an island larger than Hong Kong Island), other surrounding outlying islands, and the rest of the Kowloon Peninsula.
Salt production
Fishing was the dominant industry, followed by large-scale salt production that flourished in the twentieth century. Both fishing and salt production reached their peak during the 1920s and 1930s.
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Before the lease on the New Territories expired on the handover on 30 June 1997, Tai O Bay represented the boundary between the British and Chinese governments. But that boundary was infested by pirates attracted by the prosperity brought by the fishing and salt-making industries.
To protect their interests and to combat pirates, the British Colonial Government established a police presence with the Tai O Police Station, converted from a traditional Chinese courthouse in 1899, one of the first of seven police stations in the New Territories.
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A permanent station was built in 1902 with heavy metal shutters to protect officers from attack. The police station was equipped with cast-iron cannons for military and defensive purposes.
In 1948, the Tai O Police Station became the Marine Police Station. The officers stationed at this westernmost outpost had many adventures and stories to tell.
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The book Along the Southern Boundary: A Marine Police Officer’s Frontline Account of the Vietnamese Boatpeople and their Arrival in Hong Kong, written by Former Marine Police Officer Les Bird, recounts some of the more harrowing tales.
Tai O police station
Land Police took over the station in 1996 as a patrol post. Then, in 2008, after having served the community for nearly a century, given the low crime rate and shrinking population, the Tai O Police Station closed.
In 2009, the Antiquities and Advisory Board listed the old station perched on a small hill at the waterfront of Shek Tsai Po Street as a Grade II historic building.
A collaborative revitalisation project of the HKSAR and non-profit social enterprise, the Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation, converted the original architecture and transformed the century-old former police station into the Tai O Heritage Hotel.
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The hotel has operated as a not-for-profit enterprise committed to community involvement since 2012. It is the first and only hotel in Hong Kong to receive the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation: Award of Merit.
The elegant nine-room hotel has a spectacular view from its tranquil hilltop. For day-trippers, Tai O Lookout restaurant provides a welcomed respite with refreshments, meals and afternoon teas with its glass-roof and panoramic views of the South China Sea.
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The colonial-styled decor was created with vintage wood-crafted furniture that previously belonged to the now-closed, still memorable China Tee Club that once operated in the venerable Pedder Street building in Central Hong Kong.
The old change room where criminals’ cases were reported and recorded and detention cells are now the hotel reception with displays illustrating the story of the station. Two tiny cells, when used, apparently can hold as many as ten people.
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The cast-iron cannons and mounts are significant components of the station’s history and have been retained and preserved at their original positions on the hillside.
Tourism Tai O
Over the last fifty years, as the demand for fish and salt declined, so too did the number of jobs for young people. As the old ways made way for new and transportation to other urban areas allowed for residents to move out, many have.
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Although some fisherfolks are still actively going out to sea to bring in a daily catch for their own consumption or to sell locally, the village now functions mainly as a home for older residents and as a tourist destination.
Tai O is the only local place to see houses on stilts. Once referred to as the Venice of Hong Kong, the charm of the stilt homes, which were once made primarily of wood, was severely blemished in a massive fire in 2000.
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The fire was devastating, lasting over six hours. Fire completely consumed the closely spaced wooden buildings, which frequently exploded when heat touched the LPG cylinders.
The 2000 fire burned through a vast swathe of houses, leaving hundreds of villagers homeless. In 2013, another fire broke out with similarly devastating effects.
Residents rebuilt their homes after each fire. However, the materials they used were less traditional – concrete and tin sheets. These materials are less combustible; however, the aesthetic appeal of traditional wood stilt houses was lost.
This is why many stilt homes have a shiny, silver metallic exterior. The look is incongruent with the otherwise ancient fishing village atmosphere.
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Regardless of its modern rendition, with the right light, the view of these huts of grey sheet metal standing on stilts is suggestive of unsteady storks navigating a rocky river estuary.
The ancient Kwan Tei Temple on Kat Hing Back Street remains open to the public and continues to offer protection to devotees. The mangroves are a memento of the salt-making industry, which ended when the saltpans closed in 1969.
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When the salt industry faded, the marshes merged fresh water and seawater, turning it into a brackish wetland habitat for mangrove trees.
The distance from the hotel to the heart of Tai O village is a leisurely thirty-minute walk. Along this picturesque path are vestiges of the industries that once played an essential part in the daily lives of the community.
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Seafront homes with gardens and fruit trees – one with hundreds of bonsai trees and displays of curios – show that, at its core, the village is still home to many.
A series of stone grinders, drying seafood and vendors selling locally produced shrimp sauce and paste are reminders that the sea was the primary reason and source of sustenance for the fisherfolks who came here to live for centuries.
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The village’s narrow lanes are lined with shops that sell dried seafood – a local speciality. There are numerous street foods on offer.
Giant fish balls, grilled delicacies such as squid and oysters, and quaint coffee shops and restaurants with menus of local dishes entice foodies ready for a tasty, flavourful experience.
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Another tradition originating from Tai O is dried salty duck yolks. It is still possible to see them drying in the sun.
This is a holdover from using duck eggs to repair fishing nets. Duck egg white is very viscous.
Fishermen would apply a layer of duck egg white to fishing nets and then soak them in boiling water to strengthen them.
Not wanting to waste the egg yolks and the preponderance of salt, salted egg yolks became a traditional food of Tai O.
Situated at the western tip of Lantau Island, Tai O is the place to see spectacular sunsets. The iron footbridge that replaced the rope ferry in 1996 is the perfect spot for golden hour photos.
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As tour boats return, the setting sun creates a flattering ambience. It is here that photographers jostle for the best vantage point.
A short walk towards the Tai O Waterfront Promenade, the setting sun is more fully in view and is breathtakingly awe-inspiring.
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From the promenade, one can see the mangrove on one side and the sweep of mountains on the other. As the sun sets, the view, with its deepening shades of grey from pearl to charcoal, resembles a traditional Chinese painting.
From the village, on a clear day, the huge orb of the sun languidly drops down to earth at dusk and then skirts the horizon before it disappears beyond Lantau Channel, Macau and Zhuhai.
It is no wonder that many well-equipped photographers come ready with a camera and tripod and wait patiently for the end of the day. An amazing twilight photo is guaranteed.
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Local tourists often come here to buy dried seafood as part of a hiking journey. Tai O is one leg of the extensive Islands Nature Heritage Trail.
The trail promotes eco-tourism and is a thirty-five km hike in four sections: Peng Chau, Mui Wo, and Ngong Ping. The Tai O section connects the village to Tung Chung.
From Tung Chung, where there is the MTR station and the Citygate Mall, it is a fourteen km long hike which takes three to five hours to complete. I have done this hike, and it is a day’s worth of adventure with secluded villages, abandoned structures, woodlands, and frequent peeks of the coastal landscape.
On weekends, Tai O gets crowded, meaning the wait for a bus home can be long. Weekend buses are more frequent, but expect to wait.
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This time, I took the second easiest route home, a ferry. It operates several times a day, with more sailings on the weekends and public holidays. This is a popular option, and the ferry fills up quickly. I was the last passenger allowed to go on the post-sunset sailing.
The ferry trip was only thirty minutes and provided glorious views of the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge.
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Watching a sequence of planes sink silently on their final approach to the airport provided a grand show.
As we rounded closer to Tung Chung pier, a roaring jet took off from the end of the runway, marking a triumphant finale to the end of my day’s exploration into the historical story of Tai O.
Text & Photo Cammy Yiu
