TAI O – Located on the northwestern coast of Hong Kong’s Lantau Island is a small fishing village. It’s often referred to as the “Venice of Hong Kong”, or the “Venice of the Orient” due to its famous pang uks, or stilt houses, that sit on top of a waterway. Despite its nickname, it’s quite different from the romantic imagery of its famous Italian equivalent. Seemingly built from whatever the villagers could find – broomsticks, wooden planks, Styrofoam, and bits of sheet metal, the houses show an authentic side of Tai O’s past as a modest fishing village. In fact, during the British occupation of Hong Kong in the 1800s, Tai O was known as a Tanka Village (a village of boat dwellers or sea gypsies who traditionally lived on junk in coastal parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, and Zhejiang provinces of China). Nonetheless, to some, this is the small village charm that’s become increasingly hard pressed to find in the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong.
Tai O’s renowned dried seafood, salted fish, shrimp paste, along with countless seafood vendors and other locally made products can be found at every corner of the street market. Along with its long history of salt production, these were traditionally the villagers’ main source of income. Unfortunately, due to a collapse in Tai O’s agriculture and fishing industry in the 1960s, the traditional village is finding new life as a tourist destination.
Weathered by typhoons, floods, fires, and threatened by Hong Kong’s rapid change and development, the crumbling village has been for years struggling to stay afloat. Like so many traditional villages around the world, Tai O faces a declining population as younger generations prefer to live in the city. And with sales waning and an unstable income, the village turns to tourism. Street signs and menus are accompanied with English translations. Endless number of speedboats carry tourists around the village. The Tai O police station with a 108 year heritage has been claimed and reopened as a boutique hotel. Furthermore, the Hong Kong government has pledged for renovations for the village with plans to build a helipad, a riverside promenade, and a museum. With an influx of more tourists and the village’s rapid development, concerns have been raised about maintaining Tai O’s cultural identity.