Tai O Fishing Village

Tai O is a fishing village on the western coast of Lantau Island that has been preserved — partly by geography, partly by the determination of its residents — as a remnant of the Hong Kong that existed before glass towers and property speculation remade the territory. The village is built on stilts over a tidal estuary, and the houses — corrugated metal, timber, and ingenuity — extend over the water on wooden platforms connected by bridges and walkways.

The village's economy was historically based on fishing and salt production, and the salt-dried fish, shrimp paste, and fermented seafood products that hang from every available surface give Tai O a fragrance that is either intoxicating or overwhelming depending on your relationship with preserved fish. The village market sells these products alongside fresh seafood, and the dried-fish shops — where whole fish flatten in the sun on bamboo racks — are as photogenic as they are pungent.

Tai O is accessible by bus from Tung Chung or by a boat from the Big Buddha area, and the journey — through the mountains of Lantau, past beaches and reservoirs, to this stilt village on the edge of the South China Sea — provides a perspective on Hong Kong's geography that the urban core never suggests. Pink dolphins (Chinese white dolphins) inhabit the waters around Tai O, and boat tours from the village provide one of the last opportunities to see these endangered animals in the wild. The village feels like a different century from Central, which is exactly why Hong Kong residents come here on weekends — to remember what the territory looked like before the construction started.