Tai Po

In Chinese, the place, Tai Po ({{zh|t=大埔|labels=no}}), was formerly written as {{zh|t=大步|labels=no}}. Treating the Chinese characters separately, the pronunciation of Po in the third tone ({{zh|t=埔|j=bou3|cy=bou|l=port}}) in Cantonese are shared with many words, not only Po in the sixth tone ({{zh|t=步|j=bou6|cy=bouh|l=Step}}). For example, the "Po" ({{zh|t=埗|labels=no}}) of Sham Shui Po, literally deep water port. Moreover, according to the Kangxi Dictionary, the word {{zh|t=埠|l=port|labels=no}} can be written as {{zh|t=步|labels=no}}. As a coincidence, Tai Po is a seashore town. The name Tai Po Hoi ({{zh|t=大步海|l=Tai Po sea}}) was appeared in Nanhai Zhi ({{zh|t=南海志|labels=no}}) of the Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368 of Gregorian calendar), which stated that pearl was the product of the Tai Po sea.{{cite book|script-title=zh:南海志|date=1304|author=陳大震|language=lzh|url=https://archive.org/details/02086324.cn/page/n42|via=archive.org|access-date=3 January 2019}} In Ming dynasty's {{ill|Yue Daji|zh|粵大記}} ({{zh|t=粵大記|j=jyut6 daai6 gei3|cy=yuht daaih gei}}), recorded the names Tai Po Hoi and Tai Po Tau ({{zh|t=大步頭|labels=no}}).{{cite book|script-title=zh:粵大記|title=Yue Daji|date=1595|language=lzh|author=郭棐}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1uCnDgAAQBAJ|script-title=zh:香港史新編|page=49|isbn=9789620438851|edition=revised|author1=王賡武|date=3 December 2016}} In the attached map of that book, the sea next to Tai Po Tau was labelled with "can shelter hurricane" ({{zh|t=可泊颶風}}). In early Qing dynasty Kangxi 27th Year edition of Xin'an Xianzhi (literally Gazetteer of the Xin'an County), Tai Po Tau Hui ({{zh|zh=大步頭墟|l=Tai Po Tau market}}) as a market centre ({{zh|t=墟市|labels=no}}), Tai Po Tau as a village (under the administration of {{lang|zh|六都}}) and Tai Po Hoi as water body, were recorded.{{cite book|script-title=zh:新安縣志|script-chapter=zh:地理志|edition=Kangxi Years|date=1688|language=lzh}} According to Hong Kong sinologist and historian Jao Tsung-I, the character Po in Tai Po, should be interpreted as port or seaside.{{cite journal|url=http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/archive/files/b111d5400556bcfc312947e9cc76bcb6.pdf|script-title=zh:港、九前代考古雜錄|author=Jao Tsung-I|author-link=Jao Tsung-I|journal=新亞學術集刊 [New Asia Academic Bulletin]|language=zh-hk|year=1983|volume=4|pages=170–171|via=HKU Library digital scan}}

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".{{cite magazine|url=http://hklitpub.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/news/iss150/index.htm|script-title=zh:葉靈鳳「香港史系列」|department=館藏精粹 column|magazine=香港文學通訊|issue=150|language=zh-hk|publisher=Chinese University of Hong Kong Library|date=31 January 2016|access-date=10 December 2019}}

{{See also|Tai Po Market|Tai Po New Town}}

Tai Po as a populated place, could be traced back to the Stone Age. An archaeological site in Yuen Chau Tsai, had discovered stone axe and pottery which was believed to be made in Neolithic era.{{cite book|url=https://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/tp/english/links/files/TaiPo_Book1.pdf|script-title=zh:大埔風物志|script-chapter=zh:歷史沿革|edition=revised |date=2007|publisher=Tai Po District Council|language=zh-hk|author=蕭國健}} 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{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} and started to decline gradually amid the Ming dynasty. Tai Po had been developed as a fishing port around the late Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} While a village that belongs to the modern day Tai Po area, Wun Yiu ({{zh|t=碗窰}}), had developed into a center of the porcelain industry in the Ming dynasty.{{Cite web|title=Pottery Kilns at Wun Yiu Village, Tai Po - Declared Monuments - Antiquities and Monuments Office|url=http://www.amo.gov.hk/en/monuments_20.php|access-date=2020-06-05|website=www.amo.gov.hk}}

Tang clan migrated from the area north of the border of modern-day Hong Kong to the modern-day New Territories of Hong Kong in the Song dynasty of China. A branch of the Tang clan was split from Lung Yeuk Tau 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; {{zh|j=daai6 bou3 gau6 heoi1}}).

During the British colonial rule, a District Office, a police station, two railway stations: Tai Po Market railway station and Tai Po Kau railway station (in Tai Po Kau; {{zh|j=daai6 bou3 gaau3}}) 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" in 1979,{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} 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 of Tai Po New Town: Tai Yuen Estate – was established in 1981. The population has{{when|date=December 2020}} soared to 320,000,{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} 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.

{{main|List of schools in Tai Po District}}

File:KingLawKaShuk Frontview.jpg]]

In historical eras clan villages organised private study halls or sishu ({{zh|t=私塾|p=Sīshú|j= si1 suk6 |cy= sī suhk }}). 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.amo.gov.hk/en/monuments_67.php|title=King Law Ka Shuk |publisher=Antiquities and Monuments Office|location=Hong Kong|access-date=3 January 2019}} Village schools opened with government subsidies in the early 20th century.Poon, Shuk Wah. "[http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/tp/publications_links/TaiPo%20Book%20%28Eng%20Ver%29%2008%20Chap%2011.pdf Education in Tai Po: From the Founding of Rural Normal School to the Demise of Village Schools]" ([https://web.archive.org/web/20150112153544/http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/tp/publications_links/TaiPo%20Book%20(Eng%20Ver)%2008%20Chap%2011.pdf Archive]). [http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/tp/en/publications_links.html Traditions and Heritage in Tai Po]. p. 256. In the 1920s and 1930s secondary schools in the vernacular medium opened in Tai Po.{{cite book|last=Hase|first=Patrick H.|author-link=Patrick Hase|title=Custom, Land and Livelihood in Rural South China: The Traditional Land Law of Hong Kong's New Territories, 1750-1950|series=Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Studies Series|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2013|isbn=978-988-8139-08-8|page=18|chapter=Introduction: The Traditional New Territories, Land and Society|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yK0P0WC5ZdcC}} 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).{{cite web|url=https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/edu-system/primary-secondary/spa-systems/primary-1-admission/school-lists/2023dpnet-84b.pdf|title=POA School Net 84|publisher=Education Bureau|access-date=2022-10-09}}

Several international schools are also located in the district.

The Spanish Primary School, which has education in Spanish, English, and Mandarin under the National Curriculum for England, was organised by Adriana Chan. It opened in September 2017.{{cite web|last=Cremer|first=John|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2121437/mum-achieves-primary-objective-opening-school-daughter|title=Mum achieves primary objective by opening school for daughter |newspaper=South China Morning Post|date=2017-11-04|access-date=2022-02-18}}

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 (EYFS).

• Yim Tin Tsai (Tai Po District), a village near Tai Po town
• Sha Lan Tsuen, a village near Tai Po town

{{Reflist}}

• Cheung, Kwok-hung Stephen ({{lang|zh-Hant-HK|張國雄}}). "[http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/39937/15/FullText.pdf?accept=1 Traditional folksongs in an urban setting: a study of Hakka Shange in Tai Po, Hong Kong]" ([https://web.archive.org/web/20140817101201/http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/39937/15/FullText.pdf?accept=1 Archive]). University of Hong Kong, 2004. - [http://hdl.handle.net/10722/39937 Information]

{{Commons category|Tai Po}}

{{Tai Po District}}

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Category:Tai Po District