Take Bus 11 at Tung Chung (東涌) MTR Station.
Tai O is one of the oldest fishing towns located on the West coast of Lantau Island. It is known for the traditional industries making shrimp paste and salted fish. After cleaning and gutting, the whole fish is inserted into salt vertically for one to two days and then sun-dried until ready. The process takes approximately one week to be complete.
Daily Life
(Old house)
(Lady sun-drying shrimp paste)
(Sun-dried salted egg yolks)
Rituals
The traditional water wedding:
Bride is dressed in auspicious red wearing golden ornaments. The groom rides on another small boat sending 36 boxes of wedding gifts to the bride's stilt house. He then taps on the bride's head with a paper fan. This gesture symbolizes the blissful messages of auspiciousness, obedience and reproduction. Lanterns are hung on over the sampans. Celebrating music is playing.
Snack Time!
1. Fish ball (魚蛋):
2. Tea egg (茶葉蛋):
3. Mountain Begonia Drink (紫貝天葵):
Villagers harvest and brew Mountain Begonia into a herbal tea. This beautiful purple red color local drink is a popular thirst quencher.
4. Tea cake (茶果):
Local snack.
5. Tai O Char-Grilled Egg Waffles (大澳炭燒雞蛋仔):
In the past, egg waffles were mostly made of duck eggs. These eggs are mainly used to produce salted egg yolks. Due to the high cost and limited quantity of duck eggs, chicken eggs have replaced them. Traditional char-grilled egg waffles are rare these days. Shops in city use gas or electric power. Char-grilled egg waffles taste so much better!!!
Stilt Houses (棚屋)
The stilt houses were built by the Tanka people (蜑家), a community of fishing folk These structures are interconnected creating a community living on the water.
Constructed by the British government in 1902, the Old Tai O Police Station initially housed marine policemen guarding the western border between China and Hong Kong. It also overlooks the South China Sea.
The colonial style building was divided into 3 sections.The main building contains 2 floors with 5 rooms each level and century-old fireplaces. On the ground floor, there were a report room, 2 cells and an armory. On the first floor, there were quarters for expatriate inspectors and a turret projected from the roof. During the early days, the upper floor was used by European police officers only and Chinese inspectors were not allowed to be there. The Outhouse housed facilities such as the laundry and the kitchen. In order to improve the working environment, a one-story annex was built in 1961-1962: the Later Extension Block. It included dormitories, a canteen and a guard tower on top.
In 1996, the marine police vacated the station and became a patrol post for land police. It lasted until 2002. The site was restored in 2009. It operates as a non-profit social organization since 2012. The Tai O Heritage Hotel project has been awarded an Award of Merit at UNESCO 2013 Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The hotel has 9 rooms and 1 restaurant. In order to support the sustainable growth of the village, the project provides local employment and uses local ingredients. The food is yummy and not too expensive. Check out the afternoon tea set menu starting from 2:30 PM.
Pork chop bun with marinated shrimp paste + potato wedges:
Pita sandwich + potato wedges:
Dinner Time
School Food @Festival Walk (又一城), Kowloon Tong (九龍塘)
Korean cuisine, not too expensive.
(Rice cake + carbonara sauce)
(Octopus maki, yummy!)
Dessert Time
Chung Kee Dessert (松記糖水店)@Sham Shui Po (深水埗)
Sources: Tai O Heritage Hotel
