Tai Po 大埔區 | |
|---|---|
| Tai Po District | |
 Day view of Tai Po in the Tai Po District (2017) | |
 | |
 Location of Tai Po District within Hong Kong | |
| Coordinates:22°27′03″N114°09′51″E / 22.45085°N 114.16422°E /22.45085; 114.16422 | |
| Country | China |
| SAR | Hong Kong |
| Region | New Territories |
| Constituencies | 19 |
| Government | |
| • District Council Chairman | Mo Ka-Chun |
| • District Council Vice-Chairman | vacant |
| • District Officer | Eunice Chan[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 148.05 km2 (57.16 sq mi) |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 316,470 |
| • Density | 2,137.6/km2 (5,536.3/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (Hong Kong Time) |
| Website | Webpage of the Tai Po District Office |
| Tai Po District | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 大埔區 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 大埔区 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jyutping | Daai6 bou3 keoi1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
Tai Po District is one of the18 districts ofHong Kong. It is located in theNew Territories.
The suburban[2] district covers the areas ofTai Po New Town (including areas such asTai Po Market,Tai Po Old Market [yue],Tai Po Industrial Estate,Tai Wo Estate),Tai Po Tau,Tai Po Kau,Hong Lok Yuen,Ting Kok,Plover Cove,Lam Tsuen Valley,Tai Mei Tuk and other surrounding areas, and itsexclavesSai Kung North, in the northern part of theSai Kung Peninsula and including islands such asGrass Island (Tap Mun), andPing Chau (Tung Ping Chau). Tai Po proper and Sai Kung North are divided by theTolo Channel and theTolo Harbour (Tai Po Hoi). The district is located in the EasternNew Territories. Thede facto administrative centre of the district isTai Po New Town.
LikeYuen Long, the area ofTai Po used to be a traditionalmarket town.Tai Po New Town, asatellite town, developed around the area of Tai Po and onreclaimed land on the estuaries ofLam Tsuen andTai Po rivers.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2019) |
The district is named afterTai Po. Tai Po's population dates back to theeleventh century, people would make sufficient money byclamming, pearl harvesting, and fishing.[3] InYuen Chau Tsai, stone axe and pottery have been discovered which were believed to be made inNeolithic era.[4]
Tai Po was the seat of thedistrict officers that oversaw the whole of theNew Territories withIsland House as their official residence. The Island House was completed in 1906,[5] 8 years after theConvention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. The New Territories was later split into the District North and South (Not to be confused with modern-dayNorthern District andSouthern District of Hong Kong),[when?] as well asNew Kowloon in 1937.[6] Tai Po remained as the headquarters of the District North after the split. Theold headquarters of the District is adeclared monument currently. The District North and then[when?] further shrunk, whichSha Tin District,Yuen Long District (includes modern-dayTuen Mun) and the modern-dayNorthern District were split from the District North and District North was renamed Tai Po District, which oversaw Tai Po and nearbyLam Tsuen Valley, as well as an exclave on the northern part of theSai Kung Peninsula. The seats of the Tai Po District branch of theHome Affairs Department as well as the Tai Po District Officer, are currently located in another government building, Tai Po Government Offices Building, in Ting Kok Road,[7] in the northern shore ofLam Tsuen River.
TheTai Po District Council was formed as the Tai Po District Board in the 1980s, with elections held since that decade.
Lam Tsuen River Tai Po is located in the north of Hong Kong, northeast of Sha Tin. Even though the Tai Po Industrial Estate is located in the district, it is still one of the most unpolluted districts in Hong Kong.[citation needed] Tai Po's population density is considerably lower than Kowloon's, having many old, small villages in the mountains.[citation needed]
Tai Po is surrounded by fertile valleys which explains why it has held such a population for over a millennium. Tai Po is covered with bicycle tracks, east ofLam Tsuen Valley and west ofTolo Harbour.East Rail line is the main connection of Tai Po to the rest of Hong Kong.[3]
Tai Po has 460 hectares of purely woodland area, the largest in Hong Kong.[8]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In addition to the mainland part of the district, the followingislands of Hong Kong are under the jurisdiction of Tai Po District:
| Climate data for Tai Po (2000–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 26.1 (79.0) | 29.3 (84.7) | 30.4 (86.7) | 32.4 (90.3) | 34.7 (94.5) | 35.8 (96.4) | 37.0 (98.6) | 36.5 (97.7) | 35.9 (96.6) | 33.2 (91.8) | 30.8 (87.4) | 27.5 (81.5) | 37.0 (98.6) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 18.4 (65.1) | 19.4 (66.9) | 21.6 (70.9) | 25.3 (77.5) | 28.5 (83.3) | 30.6 (87.1) | 31.6 (88.9) | 31.4 (88.5) | 30.2 (86.4) | 27.8 (82.0) | 24.3 (75.7) | 20.2 (68.4) | 25.8 (78.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 15.5 (59.9) | 16.6 (61.9) | 19.0 (66.2) | 22.6 (72.7) | 26.0 (78.8) | 28.0 (82.4) | 28.7 (83.7) | 28.4 (83.1) | 27.6 (81.7) | 25.2 (77.4) | 21.5 (70.7) | 17.1 (62.8) | 23.0 (73.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 12.9 (55.2) | 14.3 (57.7) | 16.8 (62.2) | 20.4 (68.7) | 23.9 (75.0) | 25.9 (78.6) | 26.3 (79.3) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.3 (77.5) | 22.9 (73.2) | 18.9 (66.0) | 14.2 (57.6) | 20.7 (69.2) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 2.8 (37.0) | 4.4 (39.9) | 7.1 (44.8) | 11.5 (52.7) | 15.5 (59.9) | 19.7 (67.5) | 23.0 (73.4) | 23.1 (73.6) | 19.9 (67.8) | 13.8 (56.8) | 7.8 (46.0) | 3.7 (38.7) | 2.8 (37.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 14.2 (0.56) | 43.9 (1.73) | 32.6 (1.28) | 69.7 (2.74) | 163.7 (6.44) | 321.7 (12.67) | 485.0 (19.09) | 379.0 (14.92) | 386.8 (15.23) | 289.6 (11.40) | 109.7 (4.32) | 40.8 (1.61) | 2,336.7 (91.99) |
| Average rainy days | 4.1 | 7.0 | 8.9 | 11.0 | 14.3 | 16.9 | 15.9 | 14.5 | 10.8 | 5.4 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 117.8 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 32.4 | 79.5 | 81.2 | 82.3 | 83.3 | 82.8 | 81.4 | 82.6 | 79.0 | 73.6 | 74.2 | 69.9 | 75.2 |
| Source:Hong Kong Observatory (precipitation 1992-2020, rainy days 2000-2017)[9][10][11] | |||||||||||||
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Because Hong Kong is in a very densely populated region, Tai Po Town has copied the many urban areas of Hong Kong by building high-rise apartments. 320,000 people have residences in the town,[citation needed] making high-rise apartments necessary and mandatory. These high-rise apartments are located inside estates, such as Tai Yuen Estates andFu Heng Estates. These high-rise apartments have floors ranging from the low apartments in Tai Po Old Town to the new estates in northern Tai Po ranging from 20 to 34 levels. The area is serviced by the Tai Po Hui Market, Built in 2004.[12]
The Tai Po area also has many "village houses", resulting from a 1972 Hong Kong legislation which gave any male heir over the age of 18 who could prove he was descended from one of Hong Kong's original villages in 1898 the right to build a small house on a plot of land, either owned by the village itself or on leased government land. These houses are restricted by law to be no more than three stories and 27 feet (8.2 m) in height, and no more than 2,100 square feet (200 m2) in total floor space.
There are also a few private housing developments in the Tai Po area with "detached" and "semi-detached" houses which include communal recreational areas such as swimming pools, tennis courts, and children's playgrounds, and entertainment facilities such as private cinemas, health spas and karaoke rooms. These developments are excluded from the "village house" law, and therefore units are often much larger than 2,100 square feet (200 m2).
Privately owned residential housing in Tai Po included Tai Po Centre,[13] Plover Cove Garden,[14] Uptown Plaza, The Beverly Hills, and many other residential estates.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(May 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Transportation in Tai Po Town is much like any other place in Hong Kong. Due to the high population, Hong Kong has double-decker buses. Some buses lead to the rest of Hong Kong such as the KMB bus route 271 that goes from Fu Heng Estate in Tai Po Town toWest Kowloon Station in Tsim Sha Tsui and bus route 307 which goes from Central Tai Po Town towards theCentral Ferry Piers viaCentral andWan Chai ofVictoria. Some buses lead directly to the airport such as A47X from Tai Po (Tai Wo) to Hong Kong Airport and E41 from Tai Po Centre (Tai Po Plaza and Tai Po Mega Mall) toHong Kong International Airport within 90 minutes.
Two railway stations along theEast Rail line serve Tai Po, namely:Tai Po Market station (in the older district) andTai Wo station (serving newer estates). Trains originate at the Hong Kong-Chinese border, at eitherLo Wu orLok Ma Chau stations, and travel south toAdmiralty station in Hong Kong Island, passing through Tai Po on the way.
The railway, previously known as the KCR British Section, opened in 1910. The old Tai Po Market station opened on that date and was closed in 1983 when the modern station of the same name opened as part of an upgrading of the line by theKowloon-Canton Railway Corporation. Tai Wo station opened in 1989. In 2007 the line was leased for 50 years to the MTR Corporation.
Tai Po Kau station served the Tai Po Kau area between 1910 and 1983. It has since been demolished.
Tai Po District is roughly divided into two primary school districts. The 84 school district for Tai Po New Town and surrounding villages, while Sai Kung North belongs to the 95 school district; theSai Kung District also belongs to the 95 school district.[15]
As of 2018, there were 19 secondary schools in the whole Tai Po District,[16] all located in the Tai Po New Town. The secondary school district of Tai Po District was designated "NET NT6".
Several international schools are located in the Tai Po District. They do not belong to any school district. The Tai Po campus ofHong Kong Japanese School's International Section was opened in 1997.[17]American School Hong Kong was scheduled to open in Tai Po in 2016.[18]Norwegian International School occupied a building formerly known as The Tai Po Bungalow as a campus.
Li Po Chun United World College, located in Ma On Shan of the Sha Tin district, is near the border of the Sai Kung North exclave of the Tai Po district.[19]
The campus of theEducation University of Hong Kong, formerly the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIED), is located in the Tai Po District since 1997. The institute gained university status in 2016. The campus is located just north of Tai Po Industrial Estate. It is the only university in the district.
TheChinese University of Hong Kong is located on the border between Tai Po and Sha Tin districts.
Hong Kong Public Libraries operates Tai Po Public Library in the district.[20]
The government leased agovernment land to the Tai Po Sports Association in 1988, to run another public swimming pool. The swimming pool, which is also known as the "Jockey Club swimming pool", was closed in 1999. A new swimming pool structure was planned to build. However, the construction was not yet finished, as of 2015.[22]
The district had several sports complexes for the local population, they were owned and operated by the government and located in the Tai Po New Town.[23] Another facility opened in 1983, Li Fook Lam Indoor Sports Centre, was operated by the Tai Po Sports Association Limited, a non-profit making limited company.[24]
Tai Po FC is the first district football team ever to make it to theHong Kong First Division League among the 19 district football sides[citation needed] from theHong Kong Third District Division League. The club plays its home games atTai Po Sports Ground and has since won the2008-09 Hong Kong FA Cup.
The district had several football fields (five-a-side,seven-a-side football)[25][23] for amateur football. In 2016, another football field and sports complex (which includes an indoor swimming pool) would be built.[26]
Hong Kong Note Printing, which prints all thebank notes in Hong Kong, is located in theTai Po Industrial Estate, an industrial area of light industries (food processing, printing, etc.)
Hong Kong and China Gas also has its major gas plant in the industrial estate, which supplies most (98%) of the town gas of the city from that plant.[27]
in 2011, there is a plan to develop a spa hotel resort at Ting Kok, nearTai Mei Tuk. The site will occupy 61,000 sq m and has no more than 230 hotel rooms. Tai Po District councilor Yam Kai-Kong admits the benefits from tourism and job opportunities will be good but he is also concerned about themangroves and increased traffic in the area.[28]
.jpg)
The local council of the district,Tai Po District Council, was divided into several subdivisions, known as electoral constituencies.[29][19] However, the border of those electoral constituencies would under review in each election. It was also accused ofgerrymandering for the proposed change of the border for several constituencies in the district for the 2019 election.[30]
In the election of theLegislative Council of Hong Kong, Tai Po District belongs to the cross-district electoral constituencyNew Territories East.
In the past, Tai Po District belonged to theRegional Council, the middle-tier local government between the city's Legislative Council and the district councils. The Regional Council oversees the New Territories, while its counterpart,Urban Council, overseesKowloon (includingNew Kowloon) and theHong Kong Island. However, they were abolished. The executive function of the Regional Council was a takeover by theLeisure and Cultural Services Department and other government departments.
Before the establishment of the Tai Po District, the area belonged to the District Office North (founded as the District Office which also oversees the area around modern-daySha Tin), whichits headquarter is located in Tai Po; the District Officer was also resided in Tai Po in theIsland House onYuen Chau Tsai.
The election for thevillage head, as well as councilors ofHeung Yee Kuk, has its own electoral constituencies, which are based on the boundary of the villages.
Places adjacent to Tai Po District | |
|---|---|
| Hong Kong Island | |
|---|---|
| Kowloon andNew Kowloon | |
| New Territories (excluding New Kowloon) | |
