Living and dying in Tai O : sustaining the heritage of stilt houses

Title in the fishing village of Tai O

Author(s) Fong, Wai-yin, Karen;

Fong, W. K. []. (2014). Living and dying in Tai O :

sustaining the heritage of stilt houses in the fishing village of Tai
Citation O. (Unpublished thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam,
Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b5347001.

Issued Date 2014

URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/208077

Rights Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License

 Living and Dying in Tai O:
Sustaining the Heritage of Stilt Houses
in the Fishing Village of Tai O

by

FONG, Wai Yin Karen

HKU No.: 2012991914

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree

of Master of Science in Conservation at the University of Hong Kong

August 2014
ABSTRACT

The government plans to redevelop Tai O into a tourist spot. Recently, the
government is seeking strategies to maintain the existing community of Tai O and
retain the cultural heritage, natural environment and local economy of the place.
This will shift Tai Os major economy from fishing to tourism. The stilt houses
are an important element of the history and the fishing village character of Tai O.
Under the Government plan, all stilt houses in Tai O will be kept as one main
tourism attraction, however the Government does not have intention to help the
residents in the ongoing maintenance of the stilt houses.

The conditions of the stilt houses for most of the households, especially the
elderly need to be improved. If the vulnerable states of the stilt houses are not
well-identified, they could soon fall apart and disappear within our generation.
This should force us to consider the preservation of the stilt house. Also, with the
rebuilding project ahead, some signs of history will disappear if not controlled and
conserved. As such the vulnerable factors need to be identified and suggestions
are needed for the preservation purpose.

In order to thoroughly understand the vulnerable factors of the stilt houses,

interviews with residents and members from Tai O Rural Committee, Young
Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Tai O Alliance Church and Tai O
Residents Rights Concern Group were carried out in order to seek their views on
the vulnerable factors of the stilt house and their opinion towards Tai O stilt house
development and cultural & heritage conservation.

The dissertation is as attempt to address key queries such as:

Impact on Tai O stilt house resulted from disaster, natural degradation and
Government policy
Human impact relating to the stilt house, including depopulation,
environmental condition and tourist
Opinions regarding improving Tai O stilt house from residents
Future of Tai O Stilt house.

i
For the development of the Tai O stilt house, the opinion of local residents and
actual situation in Tai O should be considered. In view of better development of
stilt house in Tai O, cooperation and compromise between Government, Tai O
Rural Committee, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Tai O Alliance
Church, Tai O Residents Rights Concern Group and residents would be more
constructive for stilt house in Tai O.

ii
Declaration

I declare that this dissertation represents my own work, except where due
acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis,
dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institution for a
degree, diploma or other qualification. All illustrations (maps, drawings and
photographs) reproduced in this dissertation, except where due acknowledgement
is made, are the original work of the author.

Signed ____________________________________________
Wai Yin Karen FONG

iii
Acknowledgements

First and foremost, my sincere thanks to my family and friends who have been a
constant source of support throughout the course of my study and research work. I
am particular wish to thank my parents and my brother, Felix, for his continuous
encouragement.

Equally important is my supervisor Professor Lynne DiStefano for her valuable

discussions, her patience, guidance and encouragement thank you Lynne! I also
wish to express my warmest gratitude to Dr. Hoyin Lee, I now know how much
heart you have put into your students.

I wish to thank the generosity and kindness of the villagers in Tai O, who spent
time on me during my field research and interviews.

My beloved ACP classmates thank you for giving me a most wonderful, most
memorable two years of experience in ACP. This has been one of the best times
of my life!

My group of close friends, Stephanie, Vivian, Sue, Isabel and Sarah a huge
thank-you for your friendship and loyal support.

My most dearest children Abigail, Gabriel and Joshua . you are the motivation
of my life, and thank you for praying for me when I most need it.

Last but not least, a very special thanks to my beloved husband, Thomas, for your
love, respect, and for believing in me - without you my life would not be
complete.

iv
Contents

Preliminaries
Abstract i
Declaration iii
Acknowledgements iv
Contents v

Chapter 1
Research Framework: Issue, Scope and Focus, Objective,
Research gap and Methodology 1

Chapter 2
The Evolution of the Tai O Stilt House 9

Chapter 3
Vulnerable Factors of the Stilt House: Relating to Disaster
and Natural Degradation 26

Chapter 4
Vulnerable Factors of the Stilt House: Relating to Human Impact 41

Chapter 5
Summary of the Vulnerable Factors 61

Chapter 6
Conclusion: A Proposal to Sustain Tai O through a Local
Management Committee 74

Appendix 1
Interviewee Records 80

Appendix 2
First Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory of Hong Kong Items 116
Related to Tai O

Bibliography 126

v
Chapter 1
Research Framework: Issue, Scope and Focus,
Objective, Research gap and Methodology

Introduction

Tai O is one of the remaining intact fishing villages in Hong Kong, which still
reflects the fishermans way of life. The attraction of Tai O lies in its tranquil
natural attributes and cultural resources. Anyone who goes to there will hear about
the beautiful name of Tai O Hong Kong Oriental Venice. The stilt houses are an
important element of the history and the fishing village character of Tai O. The
stilt house is not only the character defining element but is also on essence the
spirit of Tai O. The stilt houses in Tai O are unique and therefore it should be
preserved.

This chapter explores issue about the research on the Tai O stilt houses, followed
by the scope and focus, objective, research gap and the methodology.

Issue

Recently, Tai O has experienced rapid change. There are two major factors
governing the changes which are government development plans and the disaster.
Firstly, the government plans to redevelop Tai O into a tourist area which would
cause many changes to Tai Os infra-structure, overloading the peaceful fishing
village. The government commissioned numerous studies into revitalisation
strategy in Tai O. They are listed in below:

1
1. Draft Tai O Town Centre Outline Zoning Plan by Planning Department1
2. The Recommended Revitalisation Strategy. Planning Department2
3. Tai O Sheltered Boat Anchorage Environmental Impact Assessment. by
Civil Engineering and Development Department3
4. Government permits rebuilding of licensed stilt houses in Tai O. by
Development Bureau4
5. Grading of Tai O stilt house by Technical Working Group of Antiquities
Monument Office5

They were also listed in the Legislative Council Paper,6

The proposals made under the proposed Concept Plan can be categorized
into three principal enhancement themes, i.e. "Local Connectivity",
"Heritage/Culture" and "Nature". In order to address local needs, The
Administration intends to implement the following proposals to improve
the local infrastructure:

(a) information and directional signage;

(b) temple garden upgrade at Yeung Hau Temple and Kwan Tai Temple;
(c) improvement of existing roads, streetscape within the Tai O inner-core
area
(d) advance works for an Entrance Plaza (new paving, tree planting and
landscape hardworks);
(e) promenade and garden for improved circulation and views;
(f) Inner Loop Heritage Trail;
1
Planning Department. Draft Tai O Town Centre Outline Zoning Plan. Last modified July 25,
2014. Accessed July 30, 2014.
http://www.info.gov.hk/tpb/en/plan_making/Attachment/20140725/S_I-TOTC_1_plan_gn_and_so
a_eng.pdf
2
Planning Department. The Recommended Revitalisation Strategy. Accessed Nov 15, 2013.
http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/p_study/comp_s/tai_o/a-web-recommendation/3strategy.htm
3
Civil Engineering Department. Tai O Sheltered Boat Anchorage Environmental Impact
Assessment. 1998. Accessed 15 Nov 2013.
http://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_0422000/theme/02.pdf
4
Development Bureau Press Release. Government permits rebuilding of licensed stilt houses in
Tai O. July 2000. Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200007/25/0725190.htm
5
Antiquities Advisory Board AAB/3/2013-14 meeting minutes. Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
http://www.aab.gov.hk/form/AAB163_minutes_e.pdf
6
Background brief on improvement works at Tai O, LC Paper No. CB(1)1717/09-10(01),
accessed June 1, 2014.
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr09-10/english/panels/dev/papers/dev0427cb1-1717-1-e.pdf
2
 (g) Outer Loop Nature Trail;
(h) footbridges for improved circulation in Yim Tin and Po Chue Tam;
(i) new coach parking area;
(j) new jetties/improvement to existing jetties;
(k) event space for community and cultural events at Yim Tin; and
(l) improvement to the existing helipad.

It is hoped that this would increase the population by encouraging the fishermen
and the younger generation to return to Tai O, making it more sustainable for the
future. The government would like to find a way to maintain the existing
community of Tai O and keep the cultural heritage, natural environment and local
economy. The aim is to shift Tai Os major economy from fishing to tourism. In
the Government development plan, the stilt house area remains untouched. It
recommended the improvement of the infrastructure, namely emergency access,
fire extinguishing systems and improved sewage systems would help the
sustainability of the stilt houses.

The second cause of the rapid change was due to the two recent fires.7891011 The
location of the fire is shown in Figure 1. In July 2000, a fire broke out destroying
some 90 stilted houses at Sam Chung and Sha Tsai Min. Many of the stilt house
residents homes were ruined in the fire. After the fire, the Government agreed
in-principle to allow the people to rebuild the stilted house in-situ in the year 2000
4
and some of the villagers started to rebuild. Some of the villagers awaiting
government permits that would allow them to rebuild their homes due to the
restriction of Government Policy. Unfortunately, there was another fire in 2013,

7
South China Morning Post. Tai O fire leaves 300 homeless. July 2000. Accessed Nov 15,
2013.
http://www.scmp.com/article/320397/tai-o-fire-leaves-300-homeless
8
South China Morning Post. Gutted Tai O village's fire extinguishers not properly maintained.
May 2013. Accessed Nov 15, 2013.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1229523/gutted-tai-o-villages-fire-extinguishers-no
t-properly-maintained
9
South China Morning Post. Tai O villagers safe after fire, but where's the money to rebuild?
June 2013. Nov 15, 2013.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1259363/tai-o-villagers-safe-after-fire-wheres-mon
ey-rebuild
10
Oriental Daily. . May 2013. Nov 15, 2013.
http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20130503/00176_005.html
11
South China Morning Post. Tai O: The Venice of Hong Kong is stilt standing. Jan. 2013. Nov
19, 2013.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1124968/tai-o-venice-hong-kong-stilt-standing
3
and about 10 families were left homeless. Villagers were then left awaiting
government permits that would allow them to rebuild their homes again.

2013 Fire
2000 Fire

Figure 1: Showing the distribution of the fire site. (Source from the GeoInfo Map, 12 edited by the
author)

Having the chance to rebuilding, most of the villagers used the traditional way to
rebuild the stilt house. However one house was rebuilt in an unusual way and not
in the same style as the other stilt houses in Tai O. The housing conditions of most
of the households, especially the older dwellings, need to be improved. Some are
in vulnerable states of disrepair and are not well preserved. They may soon fall
apart and disappear within our generation. This should force us consider the
immediate important of preservation of the stilt house. Also, with the rebuilding
project ahead, some historical housing methods may disappear if not controlled
and conserved.

12
GeoInfo Map 2014. Accessed June 10,2014.
http://www2.map.gov.hk/gih3/index.jsp
4
Research Gap

There are many reports from various government departments concerning the
development of Tai O as a tourist attraction but none of them addresses the issue
of the vulnerable state or the maintenance plan of the stilt house. The Planning
Department proposed the Recommended Revitalisation Strategy to upgrade the
local water supply and sewage capacities to serve the population and visitors,
subject to further study. The Civil Engineering Department studied the on-going
project for Tai O and Environmental Impact Assessment of the Tai O Sheltered
Boat Anchorage.1314 The Development Bureau studied the rebuilding of licensed
stilt houses in Tai O.4 The Planning Department undertook the study on
revitalization of Tai O and examine possible planning strategy to revitalize Tai O.
But the strategy was mainly on the infrastructure for flooding protection while
avoiding the loss of stilt house, the sheltered boat anchorage space, the transport
facilities and the location of the helipad. The wellbeing of the stilt house has not
been studied.

From the education and profession organization, several studies were attempted to
study the different aspects of Tai O.151617 For example, Wong Pui-kee has studied
the area based conservation in Hong Kong : a case of Tai O fishing village in
200218; the teaching and learning committee of Hong Kong University has
studied Cultural Heritage in Asia Series Lifestyle Heritage of Tai O in 2012 16 and
the Hong Kong Institute of Architects had studied the architectural structure of
stilt house, but none of these reports address the vulnerable state and maintenance
plan of the stilt house. As the stilt houses are an important part of the history and
fishing village character of Tai O developing. Documenting the vulnerable factors

13
Civil Engineering and Development Department. Project Overviews: Improvement Works at
Tai O. May 2013. Nov 19, 2013.
http://www.revitalisation-taio.com/en/project_overview.html
14
Civil Engineering and Development Department, On-going Projects. July 2013. Nov 19,
2013.
http://www.cedd.gov.hk/eng/projects/major/hki/hki7417ro.htm
15
Teaching and Learning Committee, University of Hong Kong. Cultural Heritage in Asia
Series (Volume 3) Lifestyle Heritage of Tai O. October 2012.
16
Kong, Kam-wai. Impact of transport provisions to the development of Tai O. MA thesis, The
University of Hong Kong, 2008.
17
Nicolson Kenneth N. Conserving Hong Kongs heritage cultural landscapes. MSc thesis, The
University of Hong Kong, 2005.
18
Wong, Pui-kee. Area based conservation in Hong Kong: a case of Tai O fishing village. MSc
thesis, The University of Hong Kong, 2002.
5
and suggestion for improvement in future maintenance plan would be beneficial
for the stilt house.

Scope and Focus

Based on the established Research Gap, the scope of this research is mainly on the
vulnerable state of the stilt houses in Tai O, the distribution of the stilt house was
shown in figure 2, the boundary of this studies is the stilt house along the creek.
The focus is on the correlation of the fishermen and the stilt house, in particular
the evolution of the fishing boat and the evolution of the stilt house. The research
emphasizes on the vulnerable factors of the stilt houses and the future sustainable
development of the stilt house.

Figure 2: Showing the distribution of the existing stilt house. (Source from the Planning
department,19 edited by the author)

Methodology

Theoretical Framework

According to the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic

19
Planning Department. Accessed Dec 15, 2013.
http://www2.map.gov.hk/gih3/index.jsphttp://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/p_study/comp_s/tai_o/
a-web-recommendation/3strategy.htm
6
Places in Canada (2003),20 the focus of preservation is on maintenance and
repair. Maintaining can slow down the deterioration, prevent damage and extend
life. Preservation is the most cautious of conservation treatments; it promotes
minimal intervention. It also included documenting, protecting, maintaining,
retaining, stabilizing, repairing and replacing with similar materials.

Its all about preserving the heritage to slow deterioration, prevent damage and
extend life. For the Tai O stilt house, the best way to preserve it is to maintain and
slow down the deterioration. The most critical part of the plan for the preservation
of the stilt house would be identifying the vulnerable state of the stilt house, and
identifying the relevant parties able to deal with the issues highlighted. For that
reason, the focus of this research would be the studying the vulnerable factors of
the stilt house and the relationship among them, finally proposed a suggestion for
the issue. The below chart shows the vulnerable factors, which would be further
discussed in the next chapter.

CHART OF POSSIBLE VULNERABLE FACTOR

DISASTER GOVERNMENT POLICY HUMAN IMPACT

Rebuilding Limitation
Fire De-population

Typhoon
Environmental
Condition

Runoff

Flooding

Tourist

Natural Degradation

(Graphics by the author)

20
See: http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/pages/standards-normes.aspx
7
Objective and Research Question

The biggest challenge faced in conserving the Tai O stilt houses is maintaining
and repairing while retaining their original character. The author hopes that by
understanding the vulnerable factors of the stilt house, Government, local concern
groups and the residents can take some action to preserve their cultural heritage
and natural attributes. In other words, how do the various stakeholders in the Tai
O community can come together and contribute towards a comprehensive and
holistic grand strategy for the sustainability of the cultural heritage of Tai O? This
is the key research question.

Data Collection

Primary Information
Interview with residents and members from Tai O Rural Committee, Founder of
Tai O Cultural Workshop Tai O Alliance Church and Tai O Residents Rights
Concern Group were carried out in order to seek their views on the vulnerable
factors of the stilt house and their opinion towards Tai O stilt house development
and cultural & heritage conservation.

Secondary Information
To perform library, internet and newspaper research on the drawings, photographs
and written materials about the historical, social and economic circumstances that
relates to the Tai O stilt house.

8
Chapter 2
The Evolution of the Tai O Stilt House

Introduction

Tai O has always played a significant role in history in term of military, economy
and tourism. Tai O has long been a naval and military center. A guard station
(yamen) existed there in 1899.21 Economically, Tai O is a famous fishing village
and has been associated historically with salt production, one of the earliest
industrial activities recorded in Hong Kong. Recently, the mode of the fishing
has changed from large scale (business type) to a small scale fishing (individual).
The local economy is now dependent on small scale fishing and small businesses
catering for tourist. As traditional livelihoods became impractical in Tai O,
tourism industry has grown to become a new livelihood for Tai O residents.
Traditional stilt houses still remain in the village and it has become an important
tourist attraction.

In this chapter, we will look into the history and the background information of
the stilt house, the building form and the evolution of the stilt house through
generations. This helps to understand about the structure of the stilt house and
thus be able to identify the vulnerable factors in the next chapter.

Distribution of the Stilt House in Hong Kong

Traditionally, all the fishing villages in Hong Kong had the stilt houses such as
those in Cheung Chau, Ping Chau, Sai Kung, Aberdeen and Tuen Mun. During
the development of these areas some of the stilt house were demolished and
replaced by some government housing or private housing. Nowadays, some
remote parts of Hong Kongs coastal regions still have the stilt house like Ma
Wan, Tung Chung, Lamma Island and Tai O. Being a traditional fishing village,
Tai O remains the largest stilt house area. Due to its remote location, it has not yet

21
Hayes 1977: 91.
9
been suppressed by the modernization. In actual fact, Tai O is a typical Hong
Kong village facing the fate of dilapidation rather than destruction via demolition.

The Distribution of the Stilt House in Tai O

Tai O is a fishing famous village partly located on Tai O island and partly on the
western side of Lantau Island in Hong Kong. The Tai O creek gives a
well-protected area for typhoon shelter and settlement for the fishing boat and the
stilt house. The stilt houses are grouped into zones in cluster form. Thus, most of
stilt house were developed along both sides. The zones linked together by
walkway and bridges while each houses are linked by intricate corridors. Stilt
houses were firstly settled in Yat Chung, Yi Chung and Sam Chung. Then follow
by Sha Tsai Min, Sun Sha, Sam Due, Tai Chung, Sun Kit, Kut Hing Street and
Yim Tin, which is along the river bank between Tai O Island and Lantau Island.
The stilt house typology was gradually developed to adapt to the environment and
their living style.

10
Figure 2.1: Map of Tai O. (Source: YWCA)22

22
This sketch is taken from a 1982 survey carried out by the YWCA of Tai O.
11
History of the Stilt House in Tai O

These stilt houses are the habitation of Tanka, the boat people of South China. Tai
0 has long been an important fishing village, indeed the principal and only one
of any size on Lantau Island. The stilt houses may have existed there for more
than three hundred years. The history of Tai O can be proven from the map
Coastal Map of Kwang Tung by Kwok Fei in Yuet Tai Kee in late16th Century
(Fig.2.2), the name of Tai O marked in the map.

Fig. 2.2: Tai O in the Coastal Map of Kwang Tung by Kwok Fei in Yuet Tai Kee in 16th Century.
(Source: Mapping Hong Kong: a historical atlas,23 edited by author)

Historically, the boat people lived in their boats. The construction of the stilt
house has evolved from fishing boat, and most of the stilt houses are home of the
fishermen. The early stilt houses were made of broken boats which were out of
service and could no longer be used. The fishermen would make use of these
surplus boats by mooring them to the waters edge and then converting them into
homes. In the early day, it was very straight forward to make a stilt house.
According to one of the interviewees Mr. Poon, his uncle use of a broken boat to
start his habitat in Yat Chung and later he convert his broken boat into a stilt
house. Another interviewees father also tried to use the broken boat to make a
habitat in San Kit but was unfortunately refused by the government officer as
people did need not to pay a license fee to live in broken boat. However once a
broken boat was connected to the land, it was treated as if it as occupied the land
thus requiring a license for thedwelling. The interviewees his father was advised

23
Empson 1992: 84.
12
not connect his broken boat dwelling to land, as he did not have a license to live
within it. Instead, they used a temporary until formal license approval was granted.
A permanent access was then created and the boat was converted into a stilt house.
The later stilt houses were, in fact, constructed above the water. Like the
interviewee Mr. Cheung, more boat people then extended their stilt houses onto
the land especially in San Kit Street and Kit Hang Street.

Tai O fishermen lived and worked entirely on board their vessels in the early days,
and some of the boats were anchored right next to their stilt houses. Later they
changed their living patterns as the young generations started to study at school.
The young generation would stay in the stilt houses and be looked after by the
elderly and the womenfolk, while the men lived in the boats and the stilt house
would be the second home of the them. These stilt houses are now regarded as the
cultural heritage of Tai O and the ancestral houses of the local fisherman. It is a
unique and an important component of the fishing village character of Tai O and it
has been in keeping for a long period of time.

The Cultural Value of the Tai O Stilt House

The definitions of ICH from UNESCO:

The intangible cultural heritage means the practices, representations,

expressions, knowledge, skills as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts
and cultural spaces associated therewith that communities, groups and, in
some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This
intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is
constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their
environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides
them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for
cultural diversity and human creativity.24

According to the Antiquities Advisory Boards meeting minute in June 201325,

24
UNESCO_ Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Paris, 2003,
MISC/2003/CLT/CH/14: 2
25
Antiquities Advisory Board. AAB/3/2013-14 meeting minutes. Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
13
 Members considered Stilt Houses in Tai O has a cultural landscape of high
heritage value and supported to accord a grading for the whole area and the
stilt houses at Tai O were one of the best examples of pile dwellings in
China. Members generally recognized the heritage value of the stilt houses
at Tai O.

The stilt house construction technique is listed in the first intangible cultural
heritage inventory of Hong Kong by the Heritage museum,26 which shown that
the stilt house not just consider as the tangible cultural heritage but also intangible
cultural heritage.

The Cost of Stilt House License

The cost of living in the stilt house is very low, because there is no tax nor
management cost, the only cost would be the license of the stilt house permit.

From Hayes article, One of the early administrative reports of the District
Officer, South (1911) mentions taking over responsibility from the Harbor
Office for issuing licenses to stilt house at Tai 0 Creek, when 221 new stilt
houses permits were issued at $1 p.a., and in 1916 it was stated that there
were 'still as many as 350' stilt houses there.27

From the interviewees, the costs of the permit were from HK$5 to HK$12 per
annual from 1960s according to the size of the stilt house, and the cost was never
changed from the initial cost. The change of building form is based on the
habitant's desires of space and the control guidelines of the Land's
Department.

http://www.aab.gov.hk/form/AAB163_minutes_e.pdf
26
The first intangible cultural heritage inventory of Hong Kong. Accessed Jul 1, 2014.
http://www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk/downloads/first_ICH_inventory_e.pdf
27
Hayes 1977: 95.
14
Figure 2.3: An example of a Crown Land Permit for a stilt house in Tai O. The name of the
licensee has been obscured by request of the descendant of the licensee. (Source: Ms. Cheung,
descendant of the licensee, with permission)

15
The Classification of Stilt House

There are two types of stilt houses: one is completely standing over the sea, and
another one is partly on land and partly over the sea. They both share the
characteristic of gathering into a cluster that gives an irregular and extended shape
along the creek. The size of the stilt house depends on the individual wealth and
the size of the family. The stilt house comprises 3 basic units. They are the living
room and bedroom, the kitchen and the toilet. The key elements of the stilt house
are foundation, wall and floor, and roofs. The traditional construction method of
stilt house has not changed much until recently. However there is an evolution
of the material used and the typology. The typology has been evaluated by the
Hong Kong Institute of Architects in 2000, which is also point out by the
interviewee.

Most of the early stilt houses had rounded roofs and used stone pillars as
foundation. The roof is covered with palm leaves. The stilt house is made
entirely of wood. There was no standard size of stilt houses but only
depended on the wealth of the owner. The construction of the stilt houses
changed in the 60's to take on the present-day design. The new stilt houses
often have flat roofs with slightly tilted angle for roof drainage because it
can gain more headroom to divide the house into two stories. The verandah is
railed and is sometimes covered and sometimes not.

16
The Evolution of the Stilt House in Tai O

Tai O stilt house is a unique architectural typology that evolved from the
construction of fishing boat, although, in the eye of the government the stilt house
is the temporary dwelling for the fishermen. The evolution of the stilt house can
be identified as five phase, the first four phases had been discussed by the Hong
Kong Institute of Architect.28 The fifth phase is from the observation by the
author.

The First Generation

The foundation is the most important part of the house, the stone pillars was used
as foundation support. In the early days, once the stone pillars slightly moved can
caused the stilt house to collapse. The tradition method of construction has not
changed much until recently.

Typology: Vaulted single story

Wooden structural framework
Rectangular compartment
Support: Stone pillar from Chek Lap Kok
Floor: Hard wood such as reddish brown ironwood, it is known in Cantonese
Qwan Din ()
Window: Wooden slide window (similar to the boat window)
Roof: Bamboo arch roof cover by palm leave and bark of cedar later cover
with metal cladding
Height: 6-7 feet

28
Hong Kong Institute of Architects. Save Tai O Workshop. 27-28 May 2000. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong Institute of Architects, 2000.
17
Figure 2.4: Showing the first generation stilt house in Yi Chung. (Source: the author)

18
The Second Generation

The major different for the second generation is replaced the stone pillars to
become the foundation of the later generation of house.

Typology: Single storey

Wooden structural framework
Rectangular compartment
Support: Stone pillar from Chek Lap Kok
Floor: Reddish brown ironwood
Window: Wooden window
Roof: Pitched roof
Height: 6-7 feet

Figure 2.5: Showing the second generation of stilt house in Yi Chung. (Source: the author)

19
The Third Generation

Typology: Single storey

Wooden structural framework
Rectangular compartment
Support: 8 inches in diameter Qwan Din replace the stone pillars to become the
foundation of the of house
Floor: Fir
Roof: Pitched roof with galvanized sheet covering
Window: Metal frame glass window
Height: 6-7 feet

Figure 2.6: Showing the third generation of stilt house in Yi Chung. (Source: the author)

20
The Fourth Generation

Typology: Two storeys

Wooden structural framework
Balcony over front deck
Support: 6-8 inches in diameter Qwan Din wood with cement as base
Floor: Wooden
Roof: Flatted roof with galvanized sheet covering
Window: Iron frame and glass window
Height: 12 feet (before 2000), 15 feet (after 2000)

Figure 2.7: Showing the fourth generation of stilt house in Yi Chung. (Source: the author)

21
The Fifth Generation

The major different of the fifth generation is the sewage of stilt house is properly
connected to the drainage The galvanized metal sheet is replaced by a more
durable stainless steel sheet. Also a water proofing layer was used to prevent
leaking. Some of the stilt house supports were stainless steel tube with cement
filled the interior as support to replace Qwan Din wood with cement to become
the foundation of the of house.

Typology: Two storeys

Wooden structural Framework
Support: Stainless steel and cement / Reddish brown ironwood with cement as
base
Floor: Wooden
Roof: Flatted roof with stainless steel sheet covering
Window: Aluminum frame and glass window
Height: 15 feet

22
Foundation

Figure 2.8: Showing the stainless steel and Qwan Din wood as foundation of
the fifth generation of stilt house in San Kit area. (Source: the author)

Figure 2.9: The foundation support were made of stainless steel pile and Qwan
Din wood filled with cement. (Source: the author)

23
Sewage

Figure 2.10: The stilt house sewage have a proper connect to the drainage in
San Kei Street. (Source : the author)

Cladding

Figure 2.11: Showing one of the 2013 rebuild stilt house making used of the
stainless steel as the cladding. (Source : the author)

24
According to the interviewee, the owner of the rebuild stilt house in San Kei
claimed that having the stainless steel together with the Qwan Din wood and
cement, the foundation of the stilt house could last for hundred years. The
interviewee also mentioned that the new stilt house with the proper sewage
connect making it more attractive to the young generation, and he said he would
come back more frequent to visit his mother.

In this chapter, we know more about the building form, material used and the
evolution of the stilt house, which would provide information for us to further
study on the vulnerable factors of the stilt house in the next chapter, especially for
those relating to the disaster and the natural degradation.

25
Chapter 3
Vulnerable Factors of the Stilt House: Relating to
Disaster and Natural Degradation

Introduction

For the fishermen who live on board, the stilt house is their second home, the stilt
house residents treasure their home. Unfortunately, there are plenty of factors that
have affected the well-being of the stilt house. The condition of the stilt house will
decline rapidly due to the unoccupied and the nature deterioration. In this chapter,
we will discuss about the vulnerable factors of stilt house regarding the disasters,
the natural degradation and limitation of rebuilding.

Disaster

Disasters were a hazard for the stilt houses, namely, fire, typhoon, flooding and
runoff, respectively. Any of them could cause a serious loss of life and property.
The stilt houses condition would be deeply affected by those factors and we will
discuss it in detail individually.

Fire

The stilt house has a greater risk of fire, as timber-framed damage a greater area
than properties of a different construction. In the early days stilt houses were built
with wood and palm leaves. Fires were always a hazard to these and the stilt
house residents were burning the wood for cooking, which increased the risk of
fire. There was a severe fire in 1916 and later there was another severe fire in
1926 when 300 stilt houses were destroyed.29 Fortunately there was no loss of
life. According to the interviewer, in the old days when there was a fire, people
would bring their own bucket to help to firefighting, if it was in low tide, villagers

29
Hayes 1977: 88.
26
will form a line and pass the bucket to the disaster field. There was also a fire in
San Ki Street in 1976, where many stilt houses together with a shipyard were
ruined in a fire. There were two recent fires, one in July 2000 where Tai O
suffered a blaze that burned down about 90 stilt houses, equal to one-third of the
30
settlement, leaving about 300 residents homeless, and the other in May 2013,
where fire ripped through a cluster of about 10 households stilt houses.31 Figure
3.1 showing the fire site of 2013. The Government has agreed in-principle to
allow the fire victim to rebuild the stilt house in-situ.

Figure 3.2: Showing the fire site of 2013. (Source: the author)

30
South China Morning Post. Tai O fire leaves 300 homeless. July 2000. Accessed Nov 15,
2013, http://www.scmp.com/article/320397/tai-o-fire-leaves-300-homeless
31
South China Morning Post. Gutted Tai O village's fire extinguishers not properly maintained.
May 2013. Accessed Nov 15 2013.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1229523/gutted-tai-o-villages-fire-extinguishers-no
t-properly-maintained

27
The 2000 Fire in Tai O

The electricity wires were untidy in the stilt house area, which was another source
of fire hazard. The fire could be caused by the over-heating from the electricity
wire or the electrical appliance. In 2000, the fire broke out caused by the short
circuit of the air-conditioner according to the interviewee, who lived next to the
victim house, therefore untidy of electricity wire could be a vulnerable factor for
the stilt house.

According to the interviewee, there is insufficient of firefighting facilities within

the stilt house area and there are lack of on-site training for the firemen which
taken much longer time to set up the firefighting action if there is a fire. After the
fire in 2000, the Rural Committee placed a few fire extinguishers in the stilt house
area. Recently, it was found that all of these fire extinguishers had expired.

----2013 Fire Site

-----2000 Fire Site

Figure 3.3: Showing the recent fire location. (Source: the author)

28
Typhoon

Typhoons were a constant menace to the stilt house. In 1927, the year after the
big fire, the typhoon caused great damage to the stilt houses.32 In 1969, the
Typhoon Viola damaged the Tai O Seawall, Army had to come and helped to
repair it. According to the interviewee, in typhoon season, they always keep the
torch and candle with them, because there is always electrical failure during the
typhoon season. The major power cable across the creek would be damage and
caused the power failure. During the typhoon, some of the fishing boats might be
flushing out of the creek, their anchor might damage the power cable and
telephone connection cable. It usually caused suspension of the electricity and
telephone service.

Flooding

Floods are one of the most severe weather events that can occur and a top reason for
weather related deaths. In 2008, Typhoon Hagupit causing a storm surge, which
swamped Tai O with floods of up to three meters in low-lying area and up to chest
in most of the area. Hundreds of households were affected. Apart from the
Hagupits case, there was always some threat of flooding during the typhoon
season. It can cause a severe damage to the stilt house residents, as the water can
coming from anywhere of the stilt house and their belonging would drifting to the
sea easily, the interviewees mentioned that they were always being prepared for
the flooding, especially in the midnight.

Surface Water Runoff

Surface water runoff caused damage to the stilt houses, especially when some
large objects hit the supports of the stilt houses. According to the interviewers,
there were once or twice of runoff every year. They had to stay alert of any solid
objects running down into the stilt house area. If there were any, the residents had
to redirect them away from the area. It was mentioned by the interviewer, some of
the fishing boats were flushing out of the creek a few times by the runoff, their

32
Hayes 1977: 88.
29
anchor might damage the power cable and telephone connection cable. It usually
caused suspension of the electricity and telephone service.

All interviewers agreed that the run-off was minimized due to the construction of
the Shek Pik Reservoir. The construction work commenced in 1957 and was
completed in 1963, the current appearance of Shek Pik Reservoir shown in figure
3.4. As the reservoir intercepts, it collects rain water flowing from the neighboring
mountain ridges on its three sides.

Figure 3.4: Showing the current appearance of Shek Pik Reservoir. (Source: the author)

According to the interviewers, when the reservoir was full, Water Department
would make a diversion for the surface water, if the diversion goes to Tai O
accidentally, there would still be a runoff. Therefore Tai O still experience runoff
occasionally. In 1992, there was a huge runoff, the Wang Hang Bridge was
collapsed in that incident, According to the interviewer, on that day, there were two
families holding funeral service, and they were on the way to cemetery via the
Wang Hang Bridge, as soon as they pass the bridge, it collapsed. After the funeral
service, they have to go back via the Hang Mei Bridge. Fortunately there was no
loss of life caused by the runoff.

30
Figure 3.5: Showing the location of the New Wang Hang Bridge. (Source: the author)

Natural Degradation

No one could possibly stop the natural degradation; perhaps some human
intervention could slow down the degradation, but cannot stop it, especially in the
natural environment. The stilt house in Tai O also facing the same process. The
vacant or the dilapidated stilt house would accelerate the degradation process. We
will look into detail of the result of the natural degradation in this section.

Materials Used

In old days the palm leave together with the bamboo stick were used for the roof
and the wall was used the wooden planks, and the supporting material was either
stone pillar or the Qwan Din wood as support. In general, the interior materials
used for the stilt house are mainly wooden material and exterior are metal sheet in
later days. Both of them would subject to deteriorate, which would cause a
vulnerable factor for the stilt house. The author was very thankful to the
interviewee for showing the only existing first generation of the stilt house in Yi
Chung. According to the interviewee, the roof was damaged by typhoon, and due

31
to the owner move out from the stilt house, the nature degradation became more
serious due to lack of maintenance. It can be used as a case study for the natural
degradation of the stilt house. In that stilt house we could identify difference level
of degradation in various building structures.

Roof

Figure 3.6: Broken roof, half of the metal sheets were missing. (Source: the author)

Roof

Figure 3.7: Showing palm leave under the metal sheet were missing due to lack of
protect from the cladding. (Source: the author)

32
The
timber
beam

Figure 3.8: Showing the timber structure is corroded, causing by the leaking roof.
(Source: the author)

Bamboo
arch

Figure 3.9: Showing the bamboo arch was damage causing by the insect infestion
and leaking roof. (Source: the author)

33
Wooden
Structure

Figure 3.10: The wooden structure was also deteriate causing by the leaking roof.
(Source: the author)

Floor

Figure 3.11: The wooden plank on the floor was subjected to deteriorate by the
pest infestion. (Source: the author)

34
Wooden Material

The oldest support was the stone pillars which were very durable material, but
those pillars could be collapse during the serious floods. Later the support were
made used of Qwan Din wood, it is a very hard, heavy, and very dense timber. It
has high natural resistance to decay because of resinous substances in the wood.
Although, its resistance to termite attack especially when it is fresh, but the
efficiency of the resistant would be dropping off if the precaution is not effective,
the Qwan Din would still suffer from the termite attack. The support is the most
important part of the stilt house, if the support fails, the stilt house would collapse.

The wood planks for the structure are also subject to degradation caused by the
pest, the most common problem is the termite attack. Usually the quality of the
wooden planks is not as good as the foundation support. One of the interviewees
stilt house was suffered from the termite attack in both the foundation support
beam and the wooden planks, and she had to call the pest control company to help
controlling of the termite and to replace the wooden plank. It is not easy to replace
the wooden planks, if it suffers from the pest problem. In some case, residents had
to dismantle a large part of the house or change the wooden planks completely. It
would cost a lot of money, not everyone would do it, as it would be similar to
rebuild the stilt house.

Metal Sheet

The galvanized metal sheets were used to cover the wooden structure of the stilt
house. But it is subject to corrosion. Corrosion of the metal sheet would cause the
leaking problem for the stilt house. Therefore the galvanized metal sheet play an
important role in the wellbeing of the stilt house, residents need to repaint it from
time to time to avoid the metal corrosion. Some of the resident would repaint it
every year, some would repaint it every two years, and its all depended on the
resource of the owner. If the stilt house residency live with some young
generation, their stilt house are generally more tidy, as the young generation
would take up the maintenance works or some will even change the galvanized
metal sheet to stainless steel metal sheet, because it is more durable and no
painting is required, but the cost is very expensive, not everyone can afford it. In
35
general, most of the residents are elderly, they would rather save their capital for
daily living instead of the maintenance works, and therefore the appearance of the
stilt house is dilapidated. If the metal sheet fall leaking would be occur, which
would further damage the stilt house.

Figure 3.12: Showing the corrosion in the metal sheet causing the leakage to the house. (Source:
the author)

The metal sheet could be damaged by the typhoon or even strong wind (Figure
3.12), as it was just making use of the iron nail to fix it. Once the iron nail fail, the
metal sheet could be dismantled by strong wind. The iron nail is subjected to
corrosion as well, so the wellbeing of the metal sheet is not only depending on the
lifetime of itself but also depending on the lifetime of the iron nail and the
weather. According to the interviewee, it would subject to be replaced every eight
to ten years.

36
Limitations in Rebuilding the Stilt House

On some occasions, the stilt house needs rebuilding, for example damage by
disaster, severer of degradation beyond repair or getting a new permit with
different size. There are a few criteria to consider for the rebuilding of the stilt
house.

- get the license from government for rebuild

- clarify the ownership of the stilt house, especially when the owner of the stilt
house has pass away
- identify the building master for rebuild
- wait for the best time to start the construction
- cost for the reconstruction fee
- find a temporary stay
-
Among them, factors including the rebuilding cost, size limitation and the
Government policy would be discussed in the following, as they would contribute
the most significant part in the rate of the rebuilding process.

Rebuilding Cost

Due to the increase in cost of materials and craftsmanship, the villagers are
concerned about the rebuilding costs. Unlike urban housing, there is no bank loan
for the rebuilding of stilt houses neither of them can pay by installment. The
owner has to pay before the starting of the building process. The elderly may not
be able to afford it, however they may not want to burden the younger generation.
The stilt house has no land value, as all the stilt houses are licensed under the
Lands (miscellaneous) provisions Ordinance. Unlike villagers in the New
Territories, stilt house residents are unable to sell the building right to others, no
matter how much they insist that they hold the inherited rights to the area, (as their
fishermen ancestors lived for more than three hundred years).

In 2000, Mr. Fan spent most of the money to buy the Qwan Din wood from
Aberdeen, and four of his sons were helping in the construction process, which

37
would save some of the labour cost. In the end, he spent about two hundred
thousand dollars to rebuild his stilt house. According to the victim of the 2013 fire,
the rebuilding cost is yet to be calculated, as they are still in a building stage, one
of the residents mentioned that he spent more hundred thousand dollars just to buy
the Qwan Din wood from China. The interviewee mentioned that the way they
brought the Qwan Din wood was the cheapest way, as they contact the fishermen
in China to send the Qwan Din wood to Tai O for them. He predicted that the
rebuilding cost of the stilt house would be more than four hundred thousand
dollars.

Not everyone can afford the high building cost. As some of the victims were
unable to pay for the rebuilding cost, therefore rebuilding is pending according to
interviewee. For 2013 fire, one of victim had a son and a stepson. One can afford
the building cost and the other one was unable to afford the building cost therefore,
they have to rebuild it in different stage. The financial issue definitely slow down
the rebuilding process.

Size of Structure Limitation

There is another factor slow down the rebuilding process, which is concern on the
size of the stilt house. In old days, the stilt house is much small comparing to
nowadays. The size of the stilt house is restricted even the stilt house need to be
rebuild, the size is restricted to its original size. Before the year 2000, the building
height was limited to 12 feet only. After the stilt house residents requested the
relaxing of the building height for their houses, the Government made a
concession on the building height from 12 to 15 feet in 2000.

38
Figure 3.13: Showing the crown permits to show the size of accommodation and kitchen, the
building height is 12 feet only. (Source: the author, with permission from the descendant of the
licensee)

Government Policy

The stilt houses are licensed under the Lands (Miscellaneous) Provision
Ordinance, although villages insisted they hold inherited right to the area where
the fishermen ancestors live more than three hundreds, but Government refuse to
grant the right of the land to the fishermen as in New Territory.

Many years ago, the owner could apply for a new license of stilt house, as the
household particulars of housing may have changed over time, with the addition
of family members, the Lands Department would issue a new license for building
a stilt house. Two of the interviewee was making use of the changed of household
particulars and got the permit to build a new stilt house in Yim Tin in 1968.
According to the Chairman of the Rural Committee, since the 1980s, the Lands
Department do not issue any new license for the stilt house.

39
Transfer of the License

Another concern about the policy is about the transfer of the license of the permit.
Government only allows the transfer of the permit for the lineal relative. Some of
the fire victims were unable to get the permit, because they were either not the
lineal relative or they were unable to provide the proof document. One of the
interviewees father was pass away and reported it to the Lands Department, and
then the ownership of the stilt house was allowed to transfer to his mother in1961.
The Chairman of the Rural Committee memotioned that one of the 2013 fire
victim was pass away, and he had a son and a stepson, they were unable to
provide the document to proof their relationship, so the Rural Committee have to
help them to certify the relationship and to negotiate with the Lands Department.
The Chairman said that there is some unsuccessful case as well.

Conclusion

In terms of the living condition, the stilt house might not be as good as the land
house, especially in an extremely weather but it has its favorable condition in term
of space and the open community. With knowing the vulnerable factors caused by
the disaster and natural degradation. Also the constrain from the government.
More vulnerable factor would be discuss in the chapter 4, which would be
involved the human intervention.

40
Chapter 4
Vulnerable Factors of the Stilt House: Relating to
Human Impact

In this chapter, we will discuss the vulnerable factors of stilt house relating to
human impact, including depopulation, environmental conditions, loss of internal
transportation and tourism. Depopulation plays an important role in the condition
of the stilt house, therefore their relationship with the declining population and
loss of the transportation within Tai O will be discussed in detail.

Factor 1: Declining Fishing Industry

Declining Population

For the census information, Tai O total population kept declining since 1961 and
the decrease trend did not ceased even after the construction of the Tai O Road in
1971, which provide a direct bus to Mui Wo and further connecting to the city.
This pattern suggests Tai O residents would like to seek job opportunity. The
trend change slightly change in 2001, the population in Tai O had slightly
increased to more than three thousand, which might be due to the operation of the
new airport at Chap Lap Kok, which enhanced the employment opportunity in the
region, therefore the more young generation would stay in Tai O.

41
 Changing of Populations (from 1961 to 2011)
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
Changing of populations
4000 (from 1961 to 2011)
3000
2000
1000
0
1961 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011

Figure 4.1: Showing the population from 1961 to 2011. (Source: graphics by the author)

In 1982 YMCA carried out a survey on population, totally 407 households had
been interviewed. Among them, 186 were from the stilt houses, 41 from villages,
55 from Lung Tin Estate and 125 from the main streets of the town center. The
population could be mainly classified into two groups, half of them were
landed people and another half was the boat people.

Number of household population

Stilt houses 497 2366

Villages 107 376

Lung Tin Estate 168 803

Main Street 427 1623

total population 5170

Table 4.2: Table showing population in various parts of Tai O in 1982. (Source: YWCA)33

There are many factors for the depopulation, the major factors related to the
declining of fishery and salt pan industry. Although many residents continue to
fish, but it hardly provides a subsistence income due to over fishing. Also apart
from the fishery industry, Tai O is lack of employment opportunities leading to
depopulation. There are other factors that cause the out-migration, such as:

33
The statistical data in the table are taken from a 1982 survey carried out by the YWCA of Tai
O.
42
 Lack of employment opportunities,
lack of social welfare services,
lack of medical services lack of industrial,
lack of public transport
lack of pre-vocational education,
Poor physical environment and sanitation of stilt house.

Having the above difficulties, the young generations have to move to urban area
for their living. It reflected that the outmigration affecting the occupy of the stilt
house.

Declining Fishing Boats

Tai O used to rely on the fishing industry. In old days, the fishing boat is probably
a whole family living in it, no matter eating, sleeping, or working the family were
together. Sometimes there are as many as ten to twenty people, including the
children and their grandchildren. Due to the slow development of facilities in the
fishing industry in the 70s, most of the fishing related industry had moved out of
Tai O to sheltered harbors in Hong Kong such as Cheung Chau, Tuen Mun, Shau
Kei Wan and Aberdeen. There are many factors causing the decline of fishing
boats, according to the interviewer, one of the reasons is due to the fishing boats
were getting bigger, and the yield of fish was getting lower due to over-fishing.
On the other hand, the fishermen were changing their fishing patterns, from
inshore to offshore from days to months, which is not favor for family with young
children, therefore people rather move away to the city for a better opportunity.

The fishing industry will not move back to Tai O, even though recently the
government improved anchorage space for fishing boats and enhanced the
condition of the ferry pier. The people have already settled in a new place with
their families. As a result of the decline in fishing industry, people who worked in
the fishing industry needed to move out in order to seek a better job, many of
them move out to the city leaving the elderly and the children behind. When the
old people died, the younger generation will gradually move out and leaving the
stilt house unoccupied.

43
Lack of Typhoon Sheltering

Tai O is positioned on north Lantau where there are no other available anchorages
for typhoon shelters. According to the interviewee, long time ago fishing boats
would came to Tai O from elsewhere during typhoons, because Tai O creek can
be used as a typhoon shelter, for example fishing boats from Cheung Chau will
come before the typhoon shelter was built in Cheung Chau. Later, the numbers of
the fishing boat have increased causing the shortage of anchorage space.

In old days, the fishing boat was small, which could anchorage in the creek,
whenever a fishing boat went into the creek, the hand-pull ferry would be
suspended, and the operators had to use two blocks of bricks to sink down the
rope to avoid the propeller catches the rope while it pass through. As ship
building has gone through technological changes recently. Motors have
replaced the old ragged sails. The modern fishing boats are much bigger than
the old ones. The depth of the creek is getting shallow, which limit the fishing
boats to go into the creek for typhoon shelter. As the inner creek was a wide
shallow expanse of sheltered water that was only a few feet at low tide, therefore
it is unable to anchorage in the creek anymore. Resulting in the migration of
mooring of some boats in Tuen Mun, Aberdeen and Cheung Chau, which is
another cause for the declining of population.

Figure 4.2: Showing the small fishing boat was mooring within the creek. (Source: Kelvin Leung,
used with permission)

44
Figure 4.3: Showing the bigger fishing was unable to moor within the creek. (Source : Kelvin
Leung, used with permission)

Lack of Boat Repairing and Maintenance Facilities

Ship building has gone through technological changes in 1960s. Motors have
replaced the old ragged sails. The modern junks are definitely bigger than the old
ones. The shipyards in Tai O used to build new boat as well as repairing the boat.
There were seven shipyards in Tai O: four in Kat Hing Street, two in Shek Tsai Po
and one in San Ki. The interviewee owns the only existing shipyard in San Ki,
which is still in operation. All of the shipyards were close down gradually until
1997 except for the interviewees shipyard which is still in operation.

In the past decades, Tai O locally built boats mainly include sampans,
purse-seiners and modern trawlers. According to the interviewee, the boat
building master is responsible for selecting and acquiring the wood. The building
procedures include keel laying, hull construction, framing, setting up the beam
and deck. The boat owner will select the best commencement date for the
construction and the commissioning ceremony. In early day, the shipyard in Tai O
also built the dragon boat for the dragon boat water parade.

The ship building industrial was gradually declined due to the need of building
fishing boat decrease in 1980s. Thereafter the shipyards were focused on the ship
repairing. The interviewees shipyard could host boats up to 60 feet long for

45
repairing. Fishing boat beyond this limit had to go to Aberdeen or Cheung Chau
for maintenance. This was one of the reasons the fishing boats left Tai O. As the
boat was getting bigger, more fishing boats were beyond the capacity of the
shipyard. Later, the interviewees shipyard closed down the maintenance service
for the wooden boat after 1995 and shifted the business to the fabrication of
fiberglass speed boats due to the shortage of fishing boats left in Tai O and also
for the increase on the demand of the speed boat.

Lack of Engine Repair and Maintenance Facilities

There were not many engineering workshop in Tai O, all of them were follow the
apprentice training. The majority of the engineering service was the installation of
the engine onto the fishing boats, most of them were second hand engines usually
came from the engine of a bus. The features of the fishing boats were changing
due to the operational needs.

The interviewee described the feature of the fishing boat in Tai O as follows :

Year Engineer size Building materials Size/ Place of operation

1955 5 horse power Wooden boat Inshore

1967 5-72 horse power Wooden boat Inshore

1970 48-72 horse power Wooden boat Inshore

1980 Two engines Wooden boat, Size :60 to 80 feet the size
2x 108-150 horse power (new style) limit by the wood material
Operation : offshore, South/
East China Sea

1990 Two engines Wooden boat Size : Over 80 feet

2x 108-240 horse power, (new style) Operation : offshore, South/
East China Sea

1990-2000 Three engines Metal boat Over 80 -100 feet

2x 240 horse power (new style) Operation : offshore, South/
1x 500 horse power East China Sea

Table 4.2: The table summarized the features of the fishing boat in different stages. (Source: data
from interviews)

46
Factor 2: Loss of the Sampan as an Internal
Transportation System

Sampans are generally used for transportation in Tai O, and are often used as
traditional fishing boats. According to the interviews, there were a few tens of
Sampans used for public transportation, and there were about eight public landing
steps for the villagers to go round the region (Figure 4.4 to Figure 4.5). They
provide transportation service for the fishermen to and from their fishing boat,
sign seeing boat ride for the tourist, and the cross the creek service for working
group but the service demand declined, especially after the bridges were built.

Figure 4.4: The location of the sampan landing steps. (Source: Google Map 2014 edited by the
author)

47
Figure 4.5: Showing the sampan was waiting for passenger in the landing steps. (Source Kelvin
Leung, used with permission)

Decline of Demand

According to the interviewee, there is another factor affecting the reduced of the
sampan. The sampan is propelled by a single long sculling, which requires a
skillful person and it is also a highly intense job, therefore not many young
generations choose to opt into this job market. Also, due to the industrialization,
the motor boat is replacing the single long sculling sampan.

Sampans were once used as the major means of transportation within the Tai O
creek. Every family had a sampan for their own use, or some used the sampans as
sea taxis, Its used to connect the people at sea and on land, for example for the
people who live on fishing boats to land and visitors from the ferry to land. Many
fishermen were living on boats, the sampan was used as a means to transport them
to land, especially when they have to do the shopping on land. But there is a
significant decline in the number of fishing boats in Tai O in 1980s, therefore the
need of the sampan is also diminished.

According to the interviewers, it used to be more than thirty sampans were in

operation. Most of the people who operated them were women. They could make
their living at the same time as looking after the family. The sampan mainly
48
provided a service for the locals, but after the construction of Tai O road, more
visitors came to Tai O, which shifted the operation of service to tourists. The
composition of tourists included foreign and local visitors. Sampan operators
liked foreign visitors as they usually paid more than the locals. Due to the low
education level, most of the operators did not speak English. At that time, there
was only one operator who could speak basic English, who was incidentally one
of our interviewers. She is still able to say, Hello, Sampan, Ten Dollars,
Yes , No and Very Good. She mentioned that she would let tourists and the
villagers pay according to their wishes. Later she charged the local paid five
dollars, and the foreign visitors would be charged for ten dollars. Nowadays, a
small speed boat is still being used for passenger transportation within Tai O.

Figure 4.6: Showing the sampan tour. (Source : Chow Mei Lui, used with permission)

49
Lack of Repair and Maintenance Facilities

According to the interviewee, once every two months, the sampan had to carry out
the maintenance works including checking for leak and removing the
bio-organism like the oyster from the bottom of the sampan. They also need to do
the gap filling and repainting to avoid leaking. Since most of the shipyards for the
small boat were closed down gradually. The sampan operator needed to do the
maintenance works in land while it is in low tide, where they can turn the sampan
upside down for service, which was very labor intensive. According to the
operator, most of them were elderly and they had to help out each other do the
maintenance work together. Later, operators found that it was too difficult to
maintain the sampan, and they gradually gave up the business.

Population Decline

Due to the decrease of population in Tai O, there was no need for such
transportation. According to interviewees, there were many small factorys in San
Ki Street, people lived in Yat Chung, Yi Chung and Sam Chung area would take
the sampan to San Ki area for work, which was the quickest way to cross the
creek, as it only took about five to ten minutes. Instead, if they walk, it would took
them more than half an hour, therefore a lot of stilt house residents would took the
sampan. The interviewee would took the sampan for work every day, as he just
paid fifty cents per trip, if he took the hand-pull ferry, he had to paid twenty cents .
As both of the population in the stilt house and the number of factory in San Ki
area decrease, less people would take the sampan to cross the creek. For those
people who lived on land would rather walk to their destination.

Termination of the Public Ferry Service

In the early days, there is no pier for the ferry, the ferry had to moor at sea, and
the sampan was used to pick up the passages to land. After the construction of the
ferry pier, people still used sampan as their internal transportation, especially if
they have goods with them, as it is a long way from the ferry pier to their home. It
provides a means of convenience transportation for them. Small sampans are no
longer used for passenger transportation between piers (landing steps) in Tai O,
50
Owing to the population is declined, the Yau Ma Tei Ferry service has been
suspended, which is another major cause of the reduced need of the sampan. The
ferry subsequent to the Yau Ma Tei Ferry was Koon Fook Kaito ferry, it would
stop by in the location of the hand pulled ferry, therefore passengers no need to
travel a long way to the center part of Tai O.

Construction of Footbridges

Another major reason for the sampan not being used as transportation was due to
the construction of the footbridge, which used to link up Lantau Island and Tai O
Island. There were three footbridges in Tai O, namely San Ki Bridge, Hang Mei
Bridge and the steel footbridge for replacing the Hand-pulled ferry. In 1976,
villagers built San Ki footbridge to link up the walkway from San Ki Street to Kit
Hing Street. Before the steel footbridge was built, there was a hand-pulled ferry to
link up Tai O Island and Lantau Island. On some public holidays, there would be
two hand-pull ferries operated at the same time due to the increase of number of
visitors. In 1996 the government built a steel footbridge to link up the two sides to
replace the hand-pulled ferry, which cause the fading out of the sampan service.

Figure 4.7: Photo showing the operation of hand-pulled ferry services, tended by local women.
This was once popular with visitors. (Source: Leung Kam Wing, used with permission)

51
Figure 4.8: Showing the hand-pulled ferry service during the public holiday. (Source: Leung Kam
Wing, used with permission)

Factor 3: Conditions of the Living Environment

Sewage Disposal

Sanitation and hygiene are probably among the most important considerations for
an agreeable living environment. In Tai O, domestic waste has been dumped
straight into the sea for decades, which causes poor living condition for the stilt
house residents. In figure 4.9 and 4.10 during the low tide, there is no water under
the stilt house, all the direct dumping would be stay there until high tide flashing it
away. Therefore the sewage of the rebuilt stilt houses has to redirect to further
away to reach the creek.

The marked area was dry land during low tide, the dumping would not be able to
flash away until high tide. In 2000, one modification was made for the sewage, it
was hoping that the sewage would be properly connected to drainage, but it is
hard to implement the drainage and sewerage, as the stilted houses were weak and
irregularly built, it would be difficult for them to support and connect to the
sewerage mains. The sewage pipes of the stilt houses are therefore not connected
to the mains, but redirected to further out at sea.

52
Figure 4.9: Photo showing the redirection of sewage pipe from the inner stilt house area, where has
no water under the stilt house in low tide. (Source: Kelvin Leung, used with permission)

Figure 4.10: Showing there is no water under the stilt house in low tide. (Source: Poon Chi-hung,
used with permission)

53
Hygienic Concern

The stilt house residents would discharge waste directly into Tai O Creek
disregarding whether it was solid or liquid waste, as there was no rubbish
collection point within the stilt house area. With the advancement of the
knowledge of hygiene and higher standard of living conditions, the younger
generation is not able to tolerate the condition of the stilt houses. Also, there was
always a bad smell coming from the mud under the stilt houses when the tide was
low, especially in summer.

Figures 4.11 and 4.12: Photos showing water cover the land under the toilet area during low and
high tide. (Source: Source: Poon Chi-hung, used with permission)

54
Through the education, the local resident would concern about the hygiene and
sanitation. They would like to use the toilet with proper sewage. The need of the
toilet is just a basic need for people in developed countries, but it seems quite
difficult in Tai O stilt house. Nowadays, there is a kind of bio gradable toilet,
which is a lining of urea crystals in the bag helps transform the waste into fertilizer.
But it is not suitable for use in Tai O case.

Water Pollution

Domestic waste has been dumped straight into the sea for decades, as Tai O stilt
houses have never had sewerage facilities, therefore all the discharge went
directly into the Creek. According to the interviewees, they were just feeding the
fishes and they were expecting tidal would wash away all the waste. In old days,
the Tai O river keeps an constant flow to wash away the stink sludge. Since the
water was redirect to the Shek Pik Reservoir, the flow was weakened. On the
other hand the amount of the production waste was increase due to the change of
the lifestyle. Thereafter, the water pollution was getting critical. Residents would
like to improve the living condition, but they were unable to resolve the problem.
It is hard to implement the drainage and sewerage, as the stilted houses were weak
and irregularly built, it would be difficult for them to support and connect to
sewerage pipes. For the rebuilt stilt house in 2000, the drainage and sewage was
just redirected further away from the houses, which would eventually reach
somewhere in the creek.

55
Figure 4.13: Photo showing the drainage and sewage was redirected further away from the stilt
houses, but eventually went into the creek. (Source: the author)

Internal Comfort Level of the Stilt House

The living condition of the stilt house is not as stable as the house on land. The
insulation of the stilt house is not as good as houses built with concrete. They are
very hot in the summer, due to the heating up of the metal sheet, and they are very
cold during winter due to the limitation of the design of the stilt houses.
According to the interviewers, in the winter the wind could blow from the gap of
the wooden plank under the stilt houses which make it not favorable for living
comparing it with the land house. According to the interviewee, Mr. Fan, for the
resolution the above problem, they are installing the insulation layer to cope with
the problem, making it more favorable for living, his stilt house might be the first
one with the insulation layer. Most of the residents would not be able to afford it,
they are doing it on their own, because it would save up the labor cost and there is
no such work been done before.

56
Ruined Stilt house

According to the interviewee, stilt houses became ruined after they were left
vacant. According to the interviewees the vacant stilt house could mainly
classified into three categories, first the occupant move away and leave the vacant.
Second, the occupied pass away. The third one was the occupant surrendering
their stilt house licenses to the Government in order to get public housing and
therefore left their houses vacant. From the above two catalogues, the government
might not have a clear information about the status of the stilt house. For the last
category, the Government should have very clear information about the status of
the stilt houses. Therefore, the Government could take some appropriate action to
identify their status or appropriate work to remove or to make use of the vacant
stilt houses.

The ruined stilt houses were high risk in the pest problem and when it fall, it
might damage the nearby walkway, causing safety problem for the residents. In
some case the veranda of the stilt house was part of the walkway, so there was a
safety concern on the ruined stilt house. In figure 4.14, showing the collapsed stilt
house and caused the blockage of the walkway.

57
Figure 4.14: showing the collapsed stilt house and caused the blockage of the walkway. (Source:
the author)

Factor 4: Tourism Development

The Government put a lot of effort, trying to revitalize Tai O through nature and
heritage conservation for the benefit of the local community. One of their aim was
enhancing the livelihood of residents in the longer term. The stilt houses are an
important component of the fishing village of Tai O. They also play an important
role as a tourist attraction. Therefore, the stilt houses should be retained and
upgraded for the preservation of the tradition of the Tai O. The opposite happened
having attracted tourists, the visitors in fact have worsened the vulnerable
factors for the stilt house as well. For example, they accelerate the deterioration of
the current walkway and also make the resident feel less secure. In the design of
the stilt house some of the walkway is part of their living room, so they would not
cover up their access and it is impossible to do so. Furthermore, the resident got
used to open the door most of time and they even put their electronic applicant in
the common area, for example the TV and other electronic applicants because
they were not prepared for some many strangers to go into their community. The
visitors definitely cause a threat for them. From the below photographer, one can
imagine the residents are not welcome the visitors to go into their veranda,
58
because they claimed that it was their property, they build the walkway and it is
within their housing boundary.

Figure 4.15: Photo showing the walkway was between the main structure of the stilt house and the
kitchen area. (Source: the author)

Figure 4.16 : Showing the walkway is a private area.

59
Conclusion

In this chapter, we identified the vulnerable factors caused by human impact,

namely the declining fishing industry, loss of the sampan as an internal
transportation system, conditions of the living environment and the tourism
development. Among them, the depopulation is the most severe one, because it
would speed up the dilapidated of the stilt house or it would lead the stilt house
become a vacant house, in both cases it would affect the wellbeing of the stilt
house and make it more vulnerable.

60
Chapter 5
Summary of Vulnerable Factors

Introduction

Tai O stilt house is facing the fate of dilapidation. Through on site survey,
observation and interviews, the vulnerable factors of the stilt houses are identified.
The thesis is responded to these vulnerable factors and purpose a possible
suggestion of Tai O stilt house.

According to a Chinese saying, , This is translated as when

there is a crisis, there is an opportunity, and I believe that it applies to the state of
the stilt houses today. There are so many vulnerable factors found in the stilt
house. In order to gather more information regarding the vulnerable factors
affecting the stilt houses, relevant parties have been invited for interviews which
included the stilt house residents, different occupation operators, Chairman of Tai
O Rural Committee, Vice President of Tai O Residents Rights Concern Group,
conservationist, Pastor of the Tai O Alliance Church and the staff in YWCA. In
the following, the interview summary was tabulated.

61
Problems relating to Disaster

Problems by Details of problem Suggestion and constraint

Categories
i) Fire Insufficient of Suggestion: Install more fire hose and fire
firefighting facilities extinguisher in the stilt house area. At the same
within the stilt house time teach the residents of their application.
area Constraint: Most of the residents are elderly; it
would be difficult for them to learn and to
operate them.
Concerned Party: Fire Service Department and
Residents.
ii) Fire The firemen is not Suggestion: Arrange regular on-site training for
familiar the setting of the firemen.
the stilt house, Constraint: The natural setting of the stilt house
Firemen had to spent was irregular caused the difficult for the
some time finding operation. There is only single walkway which
paths, which taken would also cause difficulty for firefighting.
longer time to set up Concerned Party: Fire Service Department.
the firefighting
action.
iii) Lack of The residents do not Suggestion: Provide fire drill for the resident
knowledge of know where is the regularly, so that the resident aware of the
emergency shelters suitable place for emergence shelter.
gathering (emergence Constraint: The elderly people is not willing to
shelter), when there join the fire drill, and most of the working group
is a fire. go out for work and unable to join the fire drill.
Concerned Party: Fire Service Department and
Residents.
iv) Electricity wire The electricity wire Suggestion: Tidy the electrical wire and
untidy in the stilt upgrade it if necessary.
house area, which Constraint: It takes times to local the position
cause high risk for of the wire, and it will cause inconvenience
fire while suspension of electricity.
Concerned Party: Resident.

62
v) Typhoon Strong wind may Suggestion: Alert the resident about the typhoon
damage the stilt in advance and help the elderly resident to move
house, especially away from the stilt house to shelter if necessary.
dismantling of the Constraint: It is unable to predict the cause of
metal sheet and cause typhoon. The elderly might not want to leave
leaking. home.
Concerned party: Hong Kong Observatory and
Social Welfare Department, Resident.
vi) Flooding Flooding caused Suggestion: Implement the flood prevention
damage not only to works and alert the resident of the potential of
the stilt house buy flooding.
also for the wellbeing Constraint: The flooding is unpredictable.
of the elderly. Concerned party: Social Welfare Department
and Hong Kong Observatory,
Resident.
vii) Surface Water Occasional runoff Suggestion: Control the diversion of the water
Runoff due to the severe does not flow towards Tai O Area, when the
storm or while from Shek Pik Reservior is full. If diversion is
diversion Shek Pik needed, the department should inform the
Reservoir are full resident before the diversion.
Constraint: The building up of the runoff is
unpredictable.
Concerned Party: Waters Department, District
Board and Residents.

63
Natural Degradation

Problems by Details of problem Suggestion and constraint

Categories
i) Wooden Supports Wood degradation Suggestion: Regular monitoring of the pest
and wooden planks caused by the pest problem for example termite.
Constraint: An expert is required for such
operation. Most of the residents are elderly, it is
difficult for them to check on the support of the
stilt house, as it is under the stilt house and is not
readily available unless walk on the muddy
surface on the low tide condition.
Concerned party: Residents, NGO, Island
District Council and Tai O Rural Committee.
ii) Metal sheets Corrosion of the Suggestion: Apply paint coating regularly.
metal sheet causing Constraint: Some of the recess area is unable to
the leaking problem paint.
Concerned party: Residents.

64
Limitation of Rebuilding

Problems by Details of problem Suggestion and constraint

Categories
i) Size of the stilt Due to increase in Suggestion: Government should relax the
house family size building height.
Constraint: It may cause a chain reaction for
other stilt house.
Concerned party: Lands Department and
Island District Council.
ii) Financial problem The stilt house Suggestion: Government should provide
for rebuild or resident was unable assistance to affected residents
maintenance to get any financial Option 1.Consult the public on the use of public
assistant from resources for preservation of the stilt houses
Government neither Option 2. Review the eligibility for grants under
of them could get the Financial Assistance Scheme for
bank loan. maintenance of privately owned historic
buildings.
Option 3. Introduce partner scheme with NGOs
to help the residents, eg Tai O Stilt House
Restoration and Community Development
Project from Habitat for Humanity China and
YMCA aims to improve the living conditions the
local community of Tai O by restoring and
repairing stilt homes for low-income families.
Constraint: Unable to identify the tenant.
Concerned party: Development Bureau, Lands
Department, Rural Committee and Residents.
iii) Supplying the The residents are Suggestion: Government should facilitate the
maintenance material unable to afford the NGOs to provide subsidies on the building
cost building material material for the low income resident.
for maintenance 1.consult the public on the use of public
resources for preservation of the stilt houses.
2. review the eligibility for grants under the
Financial Assistance Scheme for maintenance of
privately owned historic buildings.
Constraint: Difficult to access the need of the
residents.
Concerned party: Social Welfare Department,
Island District Council NGOs.

65
iv) Ownership of the Transfer of the Suggestion: Consider to provide guarantee
license of the stilt license to the lineal duration for the rebuild stilt house.
house relative only Constraint: Difficult to change the policy. The
stilt houses are licensed under the Lands
(Miscellaneous) Provision Ordinance, although
villages insisted they hold inherited right to the
area where the fishermen ancestors live more
than three hundreds.
Concerned party: Lands Department.
v) Duration of license No right of inherited Suggestion: Consider to provide guarantee
and the license may duration for the rebuild stilt house.
be terminated by the Constraint: Difficult to change the policy. The
licensing authority by stilt houses are licensed under the Lands
giving such notice as (Miscellaneous) Provision Ordinance, although
may be specified in villages insisted they hold inherited right to the
the license. area where the fishermen ancestors live more
than three hundreds.
Concerned party: Lands Department.

66
Population Decline

Problems by Details of problem Suggestion and constraint

Categories
i) Decline of Fishing Lack of shipyard and Suggestion: Facilitate the fishermens need, and
boat engineering company provide assistant if necessary.
to provide support for Constraint: The fishing industry will not move
the fishing boat back to Tai O, since the fishing already settles
down in other region.
Concerned party: Agricultural and Fisheries
Department and Residents.
ii) Depth of creek The depth of the Suggestion: Government should clear sludge
creek is getting from the bottom of a creek.
shallow, which limit Constraint: May increase the risk of the
the fishing boats to stability of the stilt house.
go into the creek for Concerned party: Marine Department, Island
typhoon shelter. District Council.

iii) Public The capacity of the Suggestion: A bigger ferry should be used to
Transportation existing ferry accommodate more passengers during the public
(Fortune Ferry) is not holiday.
sufficient Constraint: Difficult to identify the service
provider.
Concerned party: Marine Department,
Fortune Ferry, Transportation Department and
Island District Council.
iv) High Local residents Suggestion: The resident should get a resident
transportation cost should be allow to card as a proof as resident and allow to pay a
pay the unite fare in standardize fare instead of higher rate during the
weekend and public holidays.
weekday Constraint: Difficult to identify the residents, a
resident card may be required.
Concerned party: Fortune Ferry, New Lantao
Bus Co. Ltd, Tai O Rural Committee and
Residents.

67
v) Landing steps Insufficient of public Suggestion: Build more public steps to for
landing steps connecting people along the waterways.
Constraint: Not enough space to construct the
landing steps.
Concerned party: Civil Engineering
Development Department, District Council and
Tai O Rural Committee.
vi) Job Opportunity Decline in population Suggestion: To create more job opportunity for
due to there was not local people, or let the local have the priority for
enough working future employment on other part of Lantau
opportunity Island.
Constraint: Most of the remaining villagers are
relatively low education standard.
Concerned party: Labor Department.
vii) Lack of Other Insufficient of other Suggestion: To create more other education and
Education and education and training opportunity, like vocational and
Training training opportunity industrial education program.
Constraint: May be not enough number of
same levels of trainee.
Concerned party: Education Department and
Island District Council.
viii) Training scheme Lack of training Suggestion: To assist local people to fit into
scheme future occupational structure, to broaden the
base of local employment.
Constraint: Most of the remaining villagers are
relatively low education standard.
Concerned party: Education Department,
Labor Department, Island District Council and
Residents.
ix) Dilapidated stilt Lacking sufficient Suggestion: To help the elderly for the routine
house maintenance causing maintenance.
the rapid Constraint: Government does not have
deterioration schemed to assist the temporary housing.
Concerned party: Tai O Rural Committee
NGO and Residents.
x) Vacant stilt house High risk for pest Suggestion: Government should identify the
problem, which vacant stilt house.
would cause problem Constraint: These owners died making the
for the neighborhood government difficult to access the appropriate
successor to manage or redevelop the properties.
Concerned party: Lands Department, Tai O

68
 Rural Committee and Residents.
Suggestion: Involve NGO to help to repair or
look after the wellbeing of the stilt house.
YMCA would be an ideal organization, because
it has been serving Tai O for more than five
decades and they understand the need of the
resident and the resident also has trust in them.
Constraint: Identify the suitable NGO.
Concerned party: YMCA, Lands Department
Rural Committee and Residents.

69
Conditions of the Living Environment

Problems by Details of problem Suggestion and constraint

Categories
i) Sanitation and Dumping of raw Suggestion: Construction the associated
hygiene associated sewage, originally drainage and sewerage improvement works, i.e.
drainage and there was no drainage Improve the drainage connection point to
sewerage works and sewerage facilities the rebuild stilt house.
planning for the stilt Constrain: It is hard to implement the drainage
house and sewerage, as the stilted houses were weak
and irregularly built, it would be difficult for
them to support and connect to sewerage pipes.
Concerned Party: Drainage Services
Department, Resident.

ii) Public Toilet There was no public Suggestion: Option 1: Build public toilet with
toilet near the stilt sewerage connection in the stilt area to minimize
house, if there is the waste. When the resident use the public
public toilet the toilet, the hygiene conditions of the stilt house
residents would like can be improved.
to use it to minimize Option 2: consider installing biodegradable toilet
the waste directly if applicable, especially in elderly stilt house.
dump into the creek Constraint: It is hard to implement the drainage
and sewerage; the connection may be too far
away.
Concerned party: Drainage Services
Department, Environmental Protection
Department and Residents.
iii) Rubbish Pollution due to lack Suggestion: To set up more litter collection bin.
Collection Bins of litter collection Constraint: Educate the elderly to keep rubbish
bins, as domestic in the bin.
waste has been Concerned party: Island District Council and
dumped straight into Environmental Protection Department,
the sea for decades Residents.

70
iv) Insufficient Pest Pest infestation from Suggestion: Pest management team to devise a
Control the wood, mosquito pest control plan for the stilt house region and
infection and the rat implement a regular plan.
problem Constraint: Some vacant stilt houses are not
accessible, which is subject to high
risk in pest problem
Concerned party: Island District Council, Food
Environmental Department, and the Residents.

71
Tourism Development

Problems by Details of problem Suggestion and constraint

Categories
i) Security of the Stilt Most of the residents Suggestion: Consider to arrange the police to
House are elderly, with patrol in the stilt area
many visitors to walk Constraint: Might not have enough man power,
around the area it will also increase number of visitors in the stilt
house area, and also disturb the residents
privacy.
Concerned party: Police Force.

72
Conclusion

Gathering all the vulnerable factors from chapter 3 and chapter 4, a list of actual
vulnerable status were listed out in this chapter give us a clear picture on the
problem and the concerned party, Hopefully it contributed to raise public
awareness of the plight of the Tai O stilt houses and its residents and the restoring
and repairing of stilt house. As the stilt house should be retained and upgraded as
they constitute a unique and important component of the fishing village character
of Tai O. There should be a balance between developing and heritage
conservation. The Government should continue to play an active role on the
provision of public facilities and the infrastructure improvement works for
preserving the unique character of the stilt house in Tai O.

73
Chapter Six
Conclusion: A Proposal to Sustain Tai O through a
Local Management Committee

Introduction

Some of the condition of the stilt houses will decline due to non-occupation and
nature deterioration. Also, some of the elderly people or some low-income
families who will not be able to afford the cost or able to look after the
maintenance work for the stilt houses. In this chapter, we would explore the
feasibility of setting up a Local Management Committee for looking after the stilt
house in Tai O. Views from different stake holder were gather through interview.

Feasibility Survey of Setting up a Local Management

Committee the Residents Views

Base on the above condition, a feasibility survey of setting up a Local

Management Committee to oversee the stilt house were carried out, a few
interviews were carried out to seek the views of different stakeholder. The idea of
the Local Management Committee serve two main purposes, first operating daily
maintenance and rebuilding of the stilt house and second is making use of the Tai
O tradition for self-fund raising. A few of interviews were carried out to collect
their views. The interviewees included the

1. Chairman of the Tai O Rural Committee

2. Founder of Tai O Cultural Workshop
3. Pastor of Tai O Alliance Church
4. Residents

74
Chairman of the Tai O Rural Committee

Based on setting up a management committee, he thinks it is a very difficult task.

As it is very hard to make a balance among residents and the judgment would be
very difficult too. He mentioned that it is very hard to assess the wealth of the
resident and how to judge the priority of the maintenance work.

The Chairmen mentioned, they are willing to help the residents for the rebuilding
work, but it is hard to oversee the maintenance plan, because they do not have
sufficient of resource for that. Also, he mentioned that it is impossible to use the
government money for individual maintenance work, because it would be not fair
to the other Tai O residents. If there is a NGO is willing to do it, the Rural
Committee is willing to work as a bridge between the resident and the NGO.

He mentioned that the Rural Committee would organized some events for
showing traditional skill of the resident to the visitor, for example making the
salty egg and showing the fishermen marriage tradition to public. There is also an
exhibition gallery showing the tradition life of fishermen. But he mentioned that it
would be very difficult for them to purse the fund raising. Neither of them have
experience on fund raising, nor have they the manpower to do that. He
recommended that the NGO should play a better role for that and the Rural
Committee would play a role as a bridge.

Founder of Tai O Cultural Workshop (Wong Wai King)

She thinks the stilt house is the treasure from their ancestors, the residents have
the responsibility to look after the wellbeing of the stilt house and should pass to
the next generation. In her views, it is their responsibility to look after their own
stilt house.

The Government resource should be used in a fair basis, the rebuilding cost for
rebuild a stilt house is very high, the government should not use the money to
help.

75
In her view most of the residents would be able to afford for the rebuilding and
the maintenance cost, as the stilt house is their property, they should bear the cost,
just like other resident in Hong Kong, they have to bear for the cost of their
housing. Otherwise it would not be fair to the other stilt house residents. In 1980s,
some of the stilt house resident in Yat Ching, Yi Chung, Yim Tin and Yim Tin Po
stilt house residents were forced to move out and relocated to the Lung Tin Estate
and they do not have any subsidies. Ms. Wong was also one of the residents in
Yim Tin Po. She opposed the idea of being subsidies by the Government.

She also said some of the residents already have a land house and some of them
would rather like to make use of the chance to get public housing in city to live
with their next generation. She admitted that there are also a few residents who
are really in need. But, those already got helped from a charity organization to
help them to rebuild or repair their stilt house under the Tai O Stilt House
Restoration and Community Development Project from the Habitat for Humanity
China (HHC).

In this project, the Habitat for Humanity China was is working together with the
Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) Tai O Community Work Office,
their aim was strived for eliminating poverty housing in Tai O and improving
sanitation to help ensure that homes of impoverished elderly residents. Therefore
all the selected units were accessed through the YWCA and the resident must be
elderly and had to sign an agreement for not selling the property. They also had to
declare for their financial status. Ms. Wong thinks that there is already a NGO
working on it. Therefore, she thinks that there is no need to set up a management
committee to help the stilt house resident.

On the other hand, she thinks that it is not feasible to generate sufficient funding
locally to cover the rebuilding or maintenance cost. The rebuilding cost for a
small stilt house is about three hundred thousand dollars, which is a lot of money.
From her experience in running the Tai O Cultural Workshop, it is not easy to
generate funding locally.

There were many reasons for resident not to rebuild the stilt house. She pointed
out an important point, which is a few of the owners of the stilt house actually
76
surrender their license of the stilt house to get the government house, but the
government did not remove their structure nor do any appropriate action to
identify the vacant status. Therefore a while later, people moving back to their
original house or being occupied by their relative or neighbor which was one of
the reason for some of residents who were unable to get the prove for the
ownership of the stilt house.

In her views, the community was just looking after their living space. Having the
help from the NGOs like YWCA and HHC is good enough for those in need. On
the other hand, Government should allow them to grant their right of living, and
allowing them to pass the stilt house to the next generation. Even the next
generation use it as holiday house, people still using it as a gathering place for
some traditional event like Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat, Ching Ming Festival
and etc which would enhance the sustainability of the stilt house.

Pastor of Tai O Alliance Church Cheung Chi Ming

In his views, it is not possible, because it involved a large amount of money, for
building a small size of stilt house already cost thirty thousand, the fund raising
would be a problem. He shared the same view as Ms. Wong about the people in
need already can get help from the Habitat for Humanity China, therefore there is
no need to set up another organization and it is difficulty to monitor as well. It is
difficult to assess the wealth of the resident and their priority.

The church regards itself as part of Tai Os society, and deeply believes in its
social mission to contribute through helping persons and communities in need. Tai
O Alliance Church has hosted a few volunteer build events for more than seven
years, with voluntary contributions from some college students or youth from
other churches, Tai O Alliance church could help the Tai O residents in need to
have a safe shelter, where volunteers would spent some full days to restore homes
for the low-income elderly residents in Tai O, by painting water-resistance coating
onto the stilt houses frame and structure. The process would be supervised by
trained members.

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Residents

It is very difficult to achieve the goal. People would be bias on the judgment, and
it would be better to be done by the outsider with assistance of NGO like YWCA,
because YWCA know the residents need and they would be carrying out the work
in a more fair basis instead of a management committee organized by the local
residents, and the resident do not have enough support for fund raising. YWCA
has the experience on carry out different social work. According to the views of
the residents, there is no need to set up a local management committee to help the
resident for maintaining the stilt house. It is also hard to monitor the money and
the selection process, so it better not to set up a new local management committee.

Gathering all the views from the above stakeholder, they generally think that it is
a good idea but none of them were able to take up the leading role. They would
like seek help from some other NGOs to involve in the fund raising.

Concluding Statement

Under the Government plan, all stilt house in Tai O will be retained as one main
tourism attraction. Although the Government does not have the intention to help
the residents financially to maintain the stilt houses, it can still play an active role
in other aspect, including the infrastructure.

Stilt houses would be no longer be isolated from the rest of Tai O development.
Most of residents are glad to the improvement works from the government as they
thought that it would be a good chance to conserve the Tai O stilt houses,
hopefully which would improving the livelihood of stilt house residents.

The sustainability of the stilt houses required resolution of a number of issues

including improving environmental conditions including connection of the sewage
and the installation of public toilets, funding and contribute stakeholder play an
important role socially.

78
By identifying the vulnerable factors, appropriate action could be done to
minimize the level of the risk and it would facilitate the preservation work in the
future. This would be done by improving the conditions of the stilt houses, the
livelihood of stilt house residents could be enhanced as well. Keeping the public
aware of the vulnerable factors are also an important step for the preservation.
For the development of the Tai O stilt houses, the opinion of local residents and
actual situation in Tai O should be considered. In view of better development of
stilt house in Tai O, cooperation and compromise between Government, local
concern groups and residents would be more constructive for stilt house in Tai O.

Way Forward for Sustaining the Stilt Houses

The following are suggested proposals for the Government going forward:
formulate new guidelines for preservation and sustainable development of
the stilt house
explore protection for the area basis for the stilt house other than the
existing grading system for individual building.
grant funding for stilt house for the preservation in daily basis
Use connecting the sewage from the stilt house to the drainage as a trial.
Government can treat it as pilot study and apply in other stilt house area.
especially for those that are built half in land.

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Appendix 1
Interviewee Records

Chairman of the Rural Committee (Mr. Lee Chi-fung)

The interviewee, Lee Chi-fung has been the chairman of the Tai O Rural
Committee for the past twenty years. He agreed that due to the remote
location, development in Tai O has been suppressed in the past. Historically,
the lack of employment opportunities faced by the residents of Tai O led to
depopulation. The local economy is now dependent on small scale fishing and
small businesses catering for tourist. The population is about 3,400 and the
majority is elderly. Some of them are classed as a floating population as they
are currently working in the city and just go back to Tai O when they have
finished working.
The interviewee confirmed that the stilt houses are an important component of
the fishing village of Tai O. They also play an important role as a tourist
attraction. With this in mind, the stilt houses should be retained and upgraded
for the preservation of the tradition of the Tai O.
He mentioned that under the Government plan, all stilt houses in Tai O will be
retained as the main tourist attraction. The Government should therefore, help
the residents to prepare for the future and should not rely on the resident to
cater for the large amount of tourist visitor without support. According to the
information from the Lantao bus, in 2012, there were about four million
visitors. In 2013 there were four and half millions of visitors. More visitors
would like to visit the stilt houses, but the existing infrastructure might not be
able to support it. For example, the existing walkway might not be able to
accommodate the increased amount visitors as it is getting old and dilapidated.
Some of the original walkways within the stilt house area were built by the
residents as a temporary measure, therefore, there are understandably some
safety concerns surrounding their safety. For these reasons, the Rural
Committee has been in discussions with the Civil Engineering and
Development Department on the possibility of building an extra walkway
along the creek allowing visitors to avoid over-loading the existing walkways.
80
 In addition, this would also help to minimize disturbance to the residents, as
some of the original walkways are part of their private accommodations.
The interviewee highlighted there are only four public toilets in Tai O which it
is not sufficient; especially with the invasion of the visitors during the
holidays periods. It has not been easy to convince the Government to provide
funding to build more public toilets to alleviate this problem.
The interviewee also communicated that by improving the accessibility to the
stilt houses that the sanitation and hygiene could also be improved. The Rural
Committee have made recommendations to the Government to build two more
bridges to connect the people within the region and allow them to use the
existing public toilets to minimize the amount of sewage waste dumped
straight into the sea. The first proposed bridge location is from Tai Ping Street
to San Ki Street and the second bridge is from San Ki Street to Kat Hing
Street. (The details location can be referred to the map.) The first bridge
would allow the people in San Ki area use of the public toilet near the Lung
Tin Estate. The second proposed bridge would allow the people in San Ki area
use of the public toilet in Kat Hing Street.
The interviewee revealed that San Ki Bridge was built in 1978. It is a wooden
bridge built by the locals. He suggested the Government should study the
possibility of constructing a permanent concrete building to replace the
existing wooden bridge as there is no routine maintenance work carried out by
the Government and he has concerns about the safety of the bridge and the
users.
Challenge for rebuild
After the fire broke out in 2000, the interviewee was mindful of a Chinese
idiom, which is . It is translated as burning down a place will
bring good luck. He was hoping for a better design in the rebuilding of the
stilt houses, such as including an appropriate sewage plan and the
improvement of the walkways in the new rebuilding process. In the end, the
Rural Committee was unable to achieve such a goal.
The interviewee admitted that the Rural Committee do not have the necessary
experience in such a large scale rebuilding process, therefore in 2000, they
were unable to play an leading role. Instead, the Tai O Residents Right
Concern Group played an important role in the negotiations with the

81
 Government. The Concern Group kept pressure on the Government to
expedite the rebuilding process. They even starting the rebuilding works
without permission, hence, there was no overall plan encompassing the whole
rebuilding process after the fire outbreak. Most of the rebuilt units are much
bigger than their originally sizes due to the Governments agreement that the
residents could build individual kitchen and the toilet units. This meant some
of the early rebuilt units impinged on the space of neighboring units causing
problems for the later rebuilds. Since there was also no planning for the
drainage and sewage, the rebuilt stilt houses just extended their sewerage
pipes past the boundary of their stilt house, and discharged their drainage and
their sewage directly into the creek.
The rebuilding process in 2013 was much more straightforward compared to
that of 2000. It took a few months for the Food and Environmental Hygiene
Department to clear the fire site in 2000, but it took only two weeks to clear
the fire site in 2013. The Rural Committee were able this time to liaison with
the Survey Department and were directly involved in the planning of the
rebuild, thus, all the stilt houses would be rebuilt in their own space without
occupancy others space. Also they were able to involve the Drainage Services
Department in connecting the sewage system directly to the rebuilt houses, so
that there would be no more direct discharge of drainage and sewerage into
the creek. This significantly enhanced the sanitation and hygiene conditions in
the stilt houses.
The interviewee pointed out that the Rural Committee faced some difficulties
in the rebuilding process, not just for the fire site, but also for some individual
stilt houses. Recently, there has been a rebuilding case in San Ki Street. The
original use of the site was for a few store rooms. The owner rebuilt the four
hundred foot stilt house as private accommodation but was unable to get the
license retrospectively and was instructed to dismantle it by the Lands
Department. The reason was that the original license was only for storage not
for accommodation. Although the Rural Committer tried to help, the Lands
Department denied the application. Therefore the residents were advised to
seek assistance before they commence a rebuild to avoid the possibility of
having to then dismantle the new building.
There is another difficulty surrounding the proof of ownership of the stilt
houses. He mentioned that one of the 2013 fire victim had pass away leaving a
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son and a stepson. Neither was able to provide the documentation to prove
their relationship to the deceased, so the Rural Committee helped them to
certify their relationship and to negotiate with the Lands Department. In that
case, the plot of the original stilt house was allowed to be separated into two
compartments which could then be rebuilt at different times. He also
mentioned that since the transfer of the license only applies for lineal relatives
some of the fire victims were unable to obtain the license, because they were
not the lineal relative or they were unable to provide the appropriate
documentation.

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Current Stilt House Resident (Mr. Fan Chok Sun)

The interviewee lived in a stilt house in Sun Sha. The original stilt
house was destroyed in July 2000. Mr. Fan was the first one who was
willing to do this trial to force the government to speed up the whole
rebuilding process on December 2000.
The last 5 generations of the interviewee were all fishermen. He had
started fishing in junk boat (his junk boat, in Chinese it called Tai Mei
Chai) with thirty feet in length which had no engine. Later, he had a 30
feet fishing boat with engine.
The interviewee said as there were not enough job opportunities in
Sun Sha, both his son and daughter moved away from Tai O for better
working opportunities.
Reason to rebuild the stilt house.
i. The interviewee felt that it was more convenient to stay in the
stilt house
ii. Cost savings: He did not have to pay for additional payment for
the stilt house compare to other forms of housing.
iii. More space comparing to stay in land house.
iv. They would rather die in the stilt house
Faced several difficulties in the rebuilding process
i. The interviewee did not have sufficient money and therefore
had to borrow money from the relative to rebuild the stilt house
despite obtaining subsidies from the Tai O Residents Rights
Concern Group. In total, they spent about two hundred
thousand to rebuild the stilt house.
ii. It took a long time for getting the permission for rebuild.
iii. Government refused to allow them to build the toilet in the
beginning until 2001 he was allow to build a proper toilet, since
his wife has operation in knee, and got certification from by the
doctor in Kwong Wah Hospital saying that his wife could not
use a knee down type of toilet, and the doctor recommended to
use a modern toilet. In the end they grant the approval for
building a proper toilet from the Lands Department.

84
 Reasons for giving up fishing :
i. Family members were getting old and the young generation
refused to join the family business.
ii. The profits in fishing were in decline as the yield of fishing was
slumping near shore due to over fishing, therefore, the fishing
boat had to travel for a much longer distance. The young
generation refused to stay onboard for these extended periods
of time and would rather leave for better opportunities in the
city.
iii. As the duration of fishing trips became longer, it was no
longer conducive for the younger generation to go to school.
This was a major deterrent.
The interviewee mentioned that their stilt house would be saved even
if there is runoff.
In the rebuilding process, four of the interviewees sons came back to
help to rebuild the stilt house. The interviewees stilt house is the only
one which has their own firefighting facilities. Their sons installed the
fire springer in the kitchen area and they also have their own fire hose
hanging in the front main structure of stilt house. The interviewee
mentioned that apart from practical function of the firefighting
function, it also serves good reminder for them to be careful with fire.
The interviewee mentioned that there are mosquito problems in the
stilt house, and would like to urge the government to help to resolve
the problem.
The interviewee used about a month to rebuild his stilt house. The
interviewee and his four sons assisted Mr. Cheung Hoi Chuen to
rebuild it. The interviewee briefed the construction method of his stilt
house as follow:
- All the wood was purchased from Aberdeen.
- Totally used 4 pairs of supports, one pair was eight inch in

width reddish brown ironwood (), and other three pairs

were six inch in width reddish brown ironwood.

- The supporting beans were planted about 5 feet under the
seabed and were surrounded by the cement.
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 - Six pieces of opepe wood were used for interior support; the fir
plank was used for the wall.
- The outer layer is the metal sheet, the middle layer was plastic
sheet and the inner layer was the fir plank, which was different
from the original stilt house. As the interviewee last rebuilt his
stilt house was in 1974. At that time, there was no plastic sheet,
therefore, the stilt house was always leaking.
- Recently, the interviewees sons also help to install the
insulating layer on top of the metal layer, hoping to lower down
the interior temperature.
The stilt house was then painted and the repainting operation is
required every year. The interviewee mentioned that he was lucky to
have the sons to help for the maintenance of the house. Otherwise, he
could not do it on his own, because the maintenance work is very
labor intense work.
He would object the government to demolish the stilt house in the
government plan. He thinks the development of the stilt house should
work hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.
The interviewee mentioned that currently the fishing lifestyle is dying
out. While many residents continue to fish for leisure.

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Current Stilt House Resident (Ms. Wan Yin Ping)

The interviewee was born in a stilt house in Sun Sha. Later her family
moved to San Kei. After she got married, she moved to the other end
of the San Kei Street. In 1968, their original stilt house was too small
to accommodate her family, she buy a bigger stilt house from another
resident to rebuild it.

Duration of Living Stilt House Structure Companion

st
1 stilt house 0-6 Single floor Parents
nd
2 stilt house 6-19 Single floor Parents
rd
3 stilt house 19-21 Single floor Parents-in-law
th
4 stilt house 21-67 Two Floor Children

Reason for staying the stilt house.

- The interviewee felt that it was more convenient to stay in stilt house
- No other payment for the stilt house comparing estate.
- More space comparing to stay in land house.
- They would rather die in the stilt house.
- No need to lock the door, everybody know each other.
- Enjoying small community.
Drawback for staying in stilt house
a) Sanitation is poor. During the low tide, there is no water under the
interviewees stilt house, all the direct dumping would be stay there
until high tide flashing it away.
b) Not enough master to help to fix the problem for stilt house.
c) The maintenance cost is very high. The maintenance including 1)
repainting the stilt house surface, 2) replacing the defected metal sheet
and 3) defected wooden plank.
1) The interviewees house need to repaint it every two years and the
cost for repainting was very high. The cost for the workmanship is
more than eight hundred dollars per day and it need at least two
day to finish the whole process.
2) The interviewees house was leaking 3 years ago; therefore she had
to add another layer for waterproofing. Instead of replacing the

87
 existing metal sheet, she just added an extra stainless steel metal on
the roof. Because that would be cheaper. In the end, she spent more
than thirty thousand dollars.
3) The interviewees house wooden planks on the floor need to
change, but she would only afford step by step because the cost of
the wood is two hundred eighty per piece and their size is only
eight inch in width and eight feet in length. She mentioned that she
had to save up for the maintenance.
The interviewees kitchen roof wooden planks have defected, but she
is unable to replace it yet, due to there are insufficient of building
master to do the job. The maintenance work is pending for the
availability of the building master. The interviewee mentioned that
there are only two good building masters, but they are currently
involved in the rebuilding of the stilt house in the 2013 fire site.

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Current Stilt House Resident (Ms. Fan Yin Ling)

She had been working in the government clinic in Tai O for twenty
years and her husband was working in Waters Department. They were
able to get the job, because some other villagers told them to register
in the labor department. She admitted that it was very difficult to get a
job, after giving up fishing.
The interviewee lived in a stilt house in Tai Chung. After she got
married, she moved to Sha Chai Mei. In 1983, their original stilt house
was too small to accommodate her family, finally the moved to Sam
Chung. Part of the stilt house was destroyed in July 2000.
The interviewee was previously a fisherman, although her family has
a stilt house, but she had been staying in the fishing boat since her
childhood, because it would be easier for the parents to look after her
and her sibling. She never went to formal school, because no one
would stay in land to look after her.
Reason for staying the stilt house.
- The interviewee felt that it was more convenient to stay in stilt
house
- No other payment for the stilt house comparing estate.
- More space comparing to stay in land house.
- They would rather die in the stilt house
The interviewee suggested some of the improvement work could be
done by the Government to enhance their living condition:
- Build more public toilet near the stilt houses, because she would
like to minimize the waste directly dump into the creek which
would also enhance the water quality.
- Install more rubbish collection bins to minimize the domestic
waste dumped straight into the sea.
- Install more firefighting equipment in the stilt house area, and train
the resident to operate it.
- Train the fireman fire fighting for the stilt house.
- Include the police to patrol in the stilt house area to protect the
residents.

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 - Improve the quality of the walkway, the walkway was too narrow
and rough, it is not possible for the wheelchair user.
- Control the rat problem in the area.
The interviewee suggested some of the assistance could be done by
the Government to enhance the maintenance work :
- Provide pest control service for the stilt house, once her stilt house
was suffered from the termite in the support bean, and she had to
call the pest control company to help to control the termite and to
replace the wooden planks.
- Sponsor the wood for the maintenance work, because the elderly
people cannot afford the material cost, if there is wood available
they could repair their stilt.
The interviewee mentioned that there was easier to have runoff if it
was low tide, and there was no runoff, if it was high tide.
The interviewee mentioned that the vacant stilt house caused danger to
the neighborhood because it might subject to collapse, and to pest
infection.
The interviewee used about two hundred thousand dollar from her
pension money to repair her stilt house in 2007. She realized the cost
of the wood was far too expensive, and she mentioned that she cannot
afford the repairing works later Therefore she suggested the
government or the NGO to provide the material for them to repair the
stilt house.
She was hoping that the government will not demolish the stilt house
She thinks the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.

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Current Stilt House Resident, Former Fisherman and Sampan Operator (Ms.
Poon)

The interviewee is 85 years old with eight children, most of them have
left Tai O looking for better opportunity except for two of them. One
is unable to work and the other one has work nearby.
The interviewee was a fisherman, later she became a sampan operator
for about thirty years, because it allowed her to look after the family
and make a living.
The interviewees stilt house was rebuilt about 50 years ago, there
were two palm leave stilt house next to it. The interviewee also
showed one of the existing palm leave stilt house.
The interviewee briefed that the wood was brought from Macau,
because the cost was much cheaper, some of the wood is from the
surplus fishing boat. The interviewee showed the biggest reddish
brown ironwood used as supporting bean was from the fishing boat
in Macau, it was about eight inch in diameter.
The supporting bean was embedded into the seabed for about five feet.
The interviewee house just renovated last year, she changed the entire
old metal sheet to stainless steel metal sheet and the aluminum
window frame. The next-door stilt house and the toilet were newly
rebuilt.
She found that the tourists caused trouble to her, because she feels
unsafe with so many people walk around, as she gets used to open the
door all day long. She usually stays home with her mental retarded
son.
The interviewee mentioned that the vacant stilt house caused danger to
the neighborhood because it might subject to collapse, and also pest
infestation.
The interviewee said there were not enough job opportunities,
therefore most of her sons and daughters moved away from Tai O for
better working opportunities.

91
 The interviewee did not know where the firefighting equipment in the
stilt house area is. But she thinks it is very important to have those
facilities.
The interviewee agree that intense maintenance work is required for
the stilt house, and she admitted that if the generation do not provide
assistance, she would not be able to maintain the wellbeing of the
stilt house.
She will not leave the stilt house until she dies.
She mentioned that the sanitation and hygiene condition is getting
better, and she was hoping the government does not demolish the stilt
house in the government plan.
She was hoping that the government will not demolish the stilt house
She think the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.
The interviewee mentioned that currently the fishing lifestyle is dying
out. While many residents continue to fish for leisure.

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Former Fishermen, Wood Seller, Boat Owner, Stilt House Owner Pending
for Rebuild (Mr. Koon Fook)

He was from a fisherman family.

His mother owned the stilt house license in 1961, and he later got a
stilt license in 1968 due to the addition of family members.
He lived in a stilt house at Sam Chung, then moved to a stilt house at
Yim Tin in 1968 after he got married, finally moving to Lung Tin
Estate in 1980.
He was the owner of a freight ferry from 1967 to 1994.
- First freight boat from 1974 to 1978, license with freight and 28
persons
-72 horse power
- Second boat from 1978 to 1988 license with freight and 56
persons
-108 horse power
- Third boat from 1988 to 1994 license with freight and 85 persons
-250 horse power

Number of boat Engine size Passenger

Capacity
1974-1978 1 72 28
1978-1988 2 108 56
1988-1994 3 250 85

Nature of business
Freight boat 1974-1994
Ferry 1984-1994
Wood seller 1973-1983

At the same time of his freight ferry service, there were two more
freights, but there were only permitted to transport goods within Tai O
and Sai Wan.
He got a license from the Transport Department to operate a ferry
service for the conveyance of passengers and accompanying freight
between Tai O and Sham Shek Tsuen in 1983. Later he was granted a
93
 ferry service license to operate a ferry service for the conveyance of
passengers and accompanying freight between Tai O and Tuen Mun
via Sha Lo Wan for a trial period of six months from January 1984 to
July 1984. In 1984 Yau Ma Tei Ferry service was terminated, he
continued the ferry service until 1994.
He also owned a wood selling company from 1973 to 1983, because
the profit was high and there was need for people to build the second
storey floor. His wood selling business partner was a stilt house
building master. The wood selling business closed down in 1983,
because his other business was getting bigger and the need of wood
for building of the stilt was on the decrease.
The interviewee briefed that there were two other wood selling
company in Tai O; one near the rope bridge in the Market Street and
the other one was in Kit Hing Street.
While he was involved in the wood selling business, he would
transport the wooden material from Macau back to Tai O on his own
boat. If the shipment of wood was too large, then he would pay the
local fishing boats to help to transport the wood back to Hong Kong. It
was bought in Macau due to the availability and variety of wood in
Macau, and the price being much cheaper than in Hong Kong
He still owns a stilt house license. He had planned to rebuild after the
fire in 2000, but he found some difficulties in the process of
application to rebuilding the original stilt house. The first problem was
due to the transfer of ownership of the license as the original stilt
house license was in his mothers name. She had four sons and
although the brother all agreed to give up the right, and were willing
to transfer the license to his wife, the Lands Department refused such
action. The license can only be transferred to a direct relative;
therefore, they had to repeat the transfer application. After a protracted
process, he managed to transfer the right. Prior to the start of the
rebuild the Lands Department informed those that the department
would not issue the permit until they structure was built and the
Department reserves the right to issue or withhold the permit. In the
end, the interviewee did not rebuild the stilt house because of their

94
 concerns that even after rebuilding the stilt house the Land
Department could refuse to issue the permit.
In his lifetime he has witnessed many natural disasters caused by
extreme condition (i.e. fire, typhoon, flooding and runoff)

95
Former fisherman, Share Stilt House License Owner, Cafe owner (Mrs. Ng)

Original stilt house was destroyed in 2000. The family decided not to
rebuild.
Reasons not to rebuild:
i. the unsettled ownership of the stilt house within the family
(father had four sons);
ii. the high rebuilding cost;
iii. Labor intensive maintenance, for example, painting every year
and family members who remain in Tai O were elderly.
Mr. Ngs family used to own a larger fishing boat for many years until
1998
There were many reasons for giving up fishing :
i. Family members were getting old and the young generation
refused to join the family business.
ii. The profits in fishing were in decline as the yield of fishing was
slumping near shore due to over fishing, therefore, the fishing
boat had to travel for a much longer distance. The young
generation refused to stay onboard for these extended periods
of time and would rather leave for better opportunities in the
city.
iii. As the duration of fishing trips became longer, it was no
longer conducive for the younger generation to go to school.
This was a major deterrent.
The fishing boat originally moored within the creek, until the size of
the fishing boat was over the limit. Thereafter, the fishing boat was
moored next to the navigation light (near the existing new ferry pier).
Her family continued fishing until 1998
She lived in a stilt house in Sam Chung, then moved to Wing On
Street
Her family first start to run a cafe in Tai Ping street and the profit was
quite good. This enabled her family to buy property in land. The first
one was in Wing On Street. Later they brought another property in

96
 Kat Hing Street. Their family opened another caf in 1993 in Kat
Hing Street
Her family still runs both caf businesses at Tai O with increasing
profits over the years.
There were several reasons for buying property in land and later
moving away from the stilt house:
i. Poor hygienic conditions in the stilt house
ii. Family earned sufficient capital to buy the house in land
iii. There were a lot of insects in the stilt house
iv. Stilt houses needed intensive maintenance
v. It was difficult to look after the stilt house in adverse weather
conditions

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Former Fishermen, whose Mother was a Sampan Operator (Mrs. Leung)

She is a teacher at Tai O Government school

Both her family and husbands family were fishermen
Mrs. Leungs mother was a sampan operator from 14 to 75 years old.
She mentioned the location of the landing steps and the maintenance
procedure of the Sampan.
The Sampan undergoes a maintenance service almost once every two
months. A few of the operators would do it at the same time, so that
they could help each other with the gap filling of the wood plank.
She mentioned the history of the rope ferry was pulled by two
villagers, and the cost being about 20 cents at the beginning and later
raising to 50 cents.
The need for the sampan was declining due to the operation of various
bridges in Tai O, for example San Ki Bridge open in June 1979 and
the steel pedestrian bridge across the creek open on the 29th of
September 1996. There is also a bridge at Wang Hang.
The transportation in Tai O has become more and more convenient
Mother used to travel within Tai O and also travel to nearby districts,
for example to Sham Shek Tsuen with the assistance of another person
paddling in the front.
Family lived in a stilt house in Yi Chung, and then moved to Lung Tin
Estate in 1980.
After she got married, she moved back to live in the stilt house in San
Ki while she stayed in Tai O with husbands family.
She is now living in Tung Chung.
The interviewee said there were not enough job opportunities,
therefore all of her brothers and sisters moved away from Tai O for
better working opportunities.
She was hoping that the government will not demolish the stilt house
She think the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.

98
Resident (Mr. Tse Tak Hing)

Living near the Hang Mei and the shipyard he has witnessed many
times of the runoff along the Hang Mei Bridge.
He discussed the change of industry conditions in Tai O, from the
plastic factory, light bulb manufacturing, ship building and the salt
production.
He mentioned there was a plastic factory near his home, which was in
operation from 1960 to 1970s and other business like the salt
production plant.
He mentioned that there were a number of shipyards in Tai O. Mr.
Chows shipyard caught fire in the 1970s. He then re-opened another
shipyard near the Hang Mei area.
He studied in the first secondary school in Shek Chai Po Street from
1972 to 1975. The school only provided education up to year three in
secondary school.
He left Tai O in 1976 for further studies and worked in Hong Kong,
although returns quite frequently to visit parents and is planning to
move back to Tai O after retirement.
He has a pond for fresh fish farming
He has witnessed many natural disaster caused by the extreme
condition (i.e. fire, typhoon, flooding and runoff)
The interviewee said there were not enough job opportunities,
therefore all of his brother and sister moved away from Tai O for
better working opportunities.
He thinks the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.

99
Engineering Workshop Owner and Former Fishermen (Mr. Ng)

His father and ancestors were fishermen.

He was born in Sam Chung. After he got married he moved to Yim
Tin in 1961. He then moved to Lung Tin Estate due to the
Government clearance of the residents in Yim Tin.
He started school when he was ten years old, first educated in Yan Oi
School at the Tai Ping Street for a few months, then he continued his
studies at the Fishermen Primary School until primary grade four.
The interviewee said there were not enough job opportunities,
therefore he has to move away from Tai O for apprentice training.
As he was in the engineering field for more than five decades, he
witnessed the evolution of the fishing boat in term of engineer, boat
size and style.
He mentioned that the features of the fishing boats were changing due
to the operational needs
- Before installation of engine ( junk, in Chinese it called Tai Mei
Chai), the front part of the fishing boat is much lower than the
bottom of the fishing boat
After installation of engine, the front part of the fishing boat is
much higher than the bottom of the fishing boat
Before he started his engineering workshop, there was only one other
engineering workshop in Kit Hing street. Later he became the only
engineering workshop in Tai O and consequently looked after most of
the fishing boats in Tai O. In about 1989, his apprentice started to
another engineering workshop which exists till today.
In 1960, he was trained at one of the engineering workshop in
Aberdeen for about three years. He then worked in the engineering
workshop in Tuen Mun for another three years after which he returned
to Tai O to work as an engineer. At this time there were about one
hundred fishing boats with engines ranging in size from 5 to 48 horse
power.
In 1970, he formed an engineering workshop with another Tai O
villager, called Art Alliance Engineering workshop.

100
 The interviewee mentioned that the fishing boat (junk) starting to
install engine at around 1955. The boat size is ranged from twenty to
forty feets. The operation including trawl net, purse-seine and hang
trawl.
The engine size was subject to the owners choice, if they can afford it,
the size of the engine could be more powerful and boat size could be
bigger.
The interviewee mentioned that most of the engines used in the
fishing boat were second hand engines, which usually came from the
engine of a bus. He had also installed new engines for the fishing
boats. Again, the engine used was subject to the owners choice.
In case of typhoon, all the fishing boats were allowed anchorage
within the creek even the new style of fishing boat (60-80 feet).
In 1970s due to the depth of the creek getting shallow, the fishing
organization had to seek help from Government to dig the creek to a
deeper depth to facilitate the bigger boat requiring anchorage inside
the creek.
The Government was aiming to protecting the marine resources and
ecosystem, therefore banned trawling (including pair, stern, shrimp
and hang trawling) in Hong Kong Water in December 2012. Most of
the fishermen in Tai O surrender their vessels to Government getting
one-off assistance scheme in order to alleviate the impact on their
livelihoods brought about by the trawl ban.
Nowadays, the cost of a metal fishing boat is about ten million. In Tai
O there are about five of them anchored in the new anchorage space
due to the fishing moratorium. Their operations are much far away
then before such as East China Sea and South China Sea.
According to the interviewee, those metal fishing boats would come
back to Tai O a few times a year. The reason for those fishermen to
come back is to celebrate, such as Chinese New Year, Ching Ming
Festival and some of the important temples celebration, such as the
Fook Tak Temple, Hau Wong Temple and Tin Hau Temple, since all
the fishermen would worship those gods who will bless the fishermen.

101
 Another condition for those fishing boats to return is due to the fishing
moratorium period.
According to the interviewee, the period at sea can be lengthened due
to the fact that, nowadays the fishermen no longer need to off load
their crop in port (in fish market), because there are many boats who
come to collect their crops while still out at sea. In addition, they can
get their supplies while out at sea as well as there are plenty of
supplies of the goods to sustain their fishing.
The interviewee retired in 2009 at the age of sixty five years old. He
mentioned that he is unable to continue with the heavy labor. He is
still keeping the workshop in case his old clients are in need and he
will help to do some minor work for them.
He is enjoying his retirement life. He still owns a fourteen foot speed
boat for fishing. He catches shrimp in the morning and uses the
shrimp for fishing at night. He mentioned that the fish yield is much
lower than before.
The interviewee mentioned that currently the fishing lifestyle is dying
out. While many residents continue to fish for leisure.

1945 Born
1955-1959 Studied for 4 years
1960 to 1963 Apprentice at Aberdeen for 3 years
1963-1966 Worked in Tuen Mun for three years
1966 Back to Tai O to work as engineer
1970 Formed a joint engineering workshop () with another Tai O
resident, who also trained at Aberdeen with him
1989 His apprentice affiliated with the only shipyard
1990 Separated with his partner as his partners started another business. He
carried on with the business
2009 Retired but if his old client need some help for some minor work, he would
help ( like one of the interviewees who has been keeping the fishing boat for
twenty four years)

102
 The interviewee described the feature of the fishing boat in Tai O.

Year Engineer size Building materials Size/ Place of operation

1955 5 horse power Wooden boat Inshore
1967 5- 72 horse power Wooden boat Inshore
1970 48-72 horse power Wooden boat Inshore
1980 Two engines Wooden boat, 60 to 80 feet size limit
2x 108-150 horse power new style by the wood material

Operated offshore:
South China Sea and
East China Sea
1990 Two engines Wooden boat Over 80 feet
2x 108-240 horse power,
Operated offshore:
South China Sea and
East China Sea
1990-2000 Three engines Metal boat Over 80 -100 feet
2x 240 horse power
1x 500 horse power Operated offshore:
South China Sea and
East China Sea

The interviewee place of living.

Place of living
1945-1968 Sam Chung
1968-1980 Yim Tin
1980- 2014 Lung Tin Estate

103
Fisherman and Stilt House Owner (Mr. Cheung Tak Ming)
His father was a fisherman, and all his brothers and sisters working in
the fishing business for life.
He has been working with five fishing boats, their information is listed
below:

Working Information of the boat and the Nature of manpower
period operation
1 1950-1963 25 feet, engine with 16 horse Father business
(13 years) power working with parents and 3
Operation duration : brothers
Daily basis
Operation destination:
Nearby shore
2 1963-1983 30 feet, engine with 40 horse Father business
(20 years) power working with parents and 3
constructed of a new boat brothers
Operation duration :
Daily basis
Operation destination:
Nearby shore
3 1983-1986 45 feet, engine with 108 Father business
(3 years) horse power working with parents and 3
Operation duration : brothers
Daily basis brought a second hand boat
Operation destination:
Nearby shore
4 1986-1990 80 feet, 2 engines with each at Father business
(4 years) 360 horse power Need 8 persons to operate,
Operation duration : including 3 brothers and 3
8 to 10 days per cycle labors and his wife
Operation destination: working in pair with other
South China Sea fishing boat
brought a second hand boat at a
cost of HK$550000 with
satellite and sonic equipment

104
5 1990-2014 owns two boats one is 35 feet, Need 4 persons, including his
1. years) engine with 108 horse power wife, daughter and son
another boat is a 21 feet constructed of a new boat at a
engine with 70 horse power cost of HK$160000 at a
Operation duration : shipyard at Cheung Chau
Daily basis
Operation destination:
Nearby shore

The interviewee had been fishing his whole life. They used to go into
the Creek for mooring, but in the last few years, the depth of the Creek
was getting shallower, therefore they were unable to moor inside the
Creek. Instead, they moored near the newly built anchorage space.
The interviewee had been using different means for fishing, including
the net and the hook and he also caught shrimp to make shrimp paste
from May to August every year.
In the fourth boat, they had to work in pairs or form a team of fishing
boats to help out each other. Although he could use a walkie talkie to
communicate with other, they also need a companion while fishing.
There were several reasons for terminating the fourth boat. First the
operation duration was much longer. The fishing cycle was usually
from 8 to 10 days but sometimes even longer. They usually just
came back to sell the fish in Aberdeen or in Tuen Mun. Sometimes
they did not even come back to Tai O, after refilling of the material.
As parents, they wanted to look after the children and let them start
their education. Secondly, it was very labor intensive. Also, there was
a lot of inconvenience caused by the long operation duration, for
example they were unable to see the doctor even thought they were
not well. In the end the family member had to split up the business, so
that every family member could afford to build a smaller boat for their
livelihood.
While the small boat forms a single unit of consumption that is also a
unit of production. Although the unit of production among the boat
people is not always a single boat but a boat group, which is not a
single household.

105
 In 1990, he decided to build a new boat in Cheung Chau, and the
operations were on a daily basis, so that their children could start
school.
A few years after he started operated his own fishing business
allowing him to buy a land house flat, at the same time as owning a
stilt house. He would have liked to stay in the land house, but he went
back there quite often as he left some of his fishing utensils in the stilt
house, and also he allowed his elder brother to live in there.
The interviewee mentioned that fishing enabled them to make a good
profit allowing them to buy the property in land and raise their
children. Nowadays fishing is keeping them busy and provides just a
basic income for them, because the fishing yield was originally one to
two hundred catties and now is down to twenty to thirty catties.
In the last three years, they have not used the bigger boat for fishing,
except to catch shrimp to make shrimp paste. They used the smaller
boat for fishing, because the cost of the oil is much higher and the
yield of the fish has decreased. The interviewee mentioned that his
bigger boat holds two fishing licenses, one from China and one from
Hong Kong and his smaller boat just holds an affiliate license from
China, which cannot operate a fishing business on its own. Nowadays,
he gets HK$30000 from the China Government every year to help
subsidizing the cost of oil. Therefore, even though he no longer
operates the fishing boat on the China Coast, he still keeps the bigger
boat. He said if the Chinas license could transfer to the smaller boat,
he could abandon the bigger boat. Unfortunately, the license is
non-transferable, therefore he has to keep two boats to enable him to
continuously operate his fishing business and keep on receiving the
subsidy from the China Government.
The interviewee mentioned that all the engineering work was done by
the interviewee 6, therefore even though interviewee six was formally
retired he still helps him out if there are some minor faults.
He thinks the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.

106
 The interviewee mentioned that currently the fishing lifestyle is dying
out. While many residents continue to fish for tradition. It only
provides a subsistence income.

107
Former Sampan Operator (Ms. Chow Mei Lui)

She used to live in Yat Chung and then moved to Lung Tin Estate.
The interviewee was sold to a fisherman when she was one year old.
Later the adopted mother forced her to operate a sampan for living
from 1935 at the age of eight or nine. She retired in 1996 at the age of
70 years old. She mentioned that it was very common to buy a child
back home and treat them as their own. She also bought a daughter
when she was twenty one years old, when she was still single.
She mentioned before the rope ferry was pulled by two villagers it was
operated by a man who used the bamboo stick to operate the boat. The
charge was five cents. Later people used the rope bridge ferry and the
charge was twenty cents at the beginning and later raising to fifty
cents.
The transportation in Tai O has become more and more convenient.
The need of sampan was declining due to the operation of various
bridges in Tai O, for example San Ki Bridge open in June 1979 and
the steel pedestrian bridge across the creek open on the 29th of
September 1996. There is also a bridge at Wang Hang.
She used to travel within Tai O, there were about eight landing steps
in Tai O, and the maximum capacity of sampan was seven passengers.
Most of the sampan operators were women. They could make their
living at the same time as looking after the family. Most of their
husbands were away fishing.
She mentioned that she would let the locals pay according to their
wishes. Usually it is about twenty cents. For example, if people
travelled from Tai Chung landing step to San Ki landing step the local
people usually gave her twenty cents. If people travel from the ferry
pier to rope bridges landing step, she would charge fifty cents per
person. At that time the cost of one catty of rice was about fifty
cents.
She mentioned that there were plenty of fishing boats which needed a
sampan to provide the transportation for them.

108
 She also mentioned that apart from provide transportation for people
within the creek, they also provide transportation for those travel a
long way from Tuen Mun or Sham Shek Tuen and back to the creek
area. Especially when they had lots of goods with them. People were
usually willing to take the sampan back to the landing step in Rope
Bridge or even go back to the stilt house within the creek, since it was
a long way to walk from the ferry pier.
The interviewee mentioned that there were plenty of fishing boats
would come back to Tai O for the Dragon boat festival and some of
the temple celebrations, for example Tin Hau Temple , Fook Tak and
Hau Wong Temple. Therefore, she would be very busy around those
periods. Also, she could make a fortune in those seasons. Another
opportunity would be the public holidays. In those days she will make
round trips from the creek to the ferry pier.
Before the 1980s the sampan mainly provided a service for the locals,
but after the construction of Tai O road, more visitors came to Tai O,
which changed the sampan from a means of transportation to
sightseeing and the target from locals to tourists.
There were some foreign visitors but few of the sampan operators
could speak Basic English. The interviewee learnt some simple
English therefore she got paid more by the visitors. She is still able to
remember, Hello, Sampan, Ten Dollars, Yes , No and
Very Good. She mentioned that she would let the tourists pay
according to their wishes. She was very proud of herself being able to
speak English.
In 1990s for a sightseeing journey, she would take the visitors for a
round trip from the landing step at Rope Bridge to the Hang Mei area.
The charge was ten dollars for foreigners and five dollars for locals.
(The term local is no longer applied to the people from Tai O, but as
Chinese). At that time the price of the rice was about one dollar and
fifty cents per catty.
She mentioned that the visitors helped to sustain the economy of Tai
O and she was very proud of being a sampan operator. She said that
once she earned a thousand dollars in an hour, because she was invited

109
 for filming. What she had to do was operate the sampan and she said
that she had been involved in a few film about Tai O. She really liked
the visitors.
She retired because the sampan was beyond repair and there were
speed boats starting to get involved in the tourism business. Nowadays,
a small speed boat is still being used for passenger transportation
within Tai O.
She is now living in the Lung Tin Estate. Once she was asked to move
to a small flat, but she refused, and saying that if the Government
giving her a stilt house, she would move out the estate and she would
rather like to stay in a stilt house.
The interviewee said there were not enough job opportunities,
therefore her daughter moved away from Tai O for better working
opportunities.
She thinks the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.

110
Former Fisherman, Owner of Snack Shop, Fishing Boat Owner (Mr. Fan
Lam Ming)

Interviewees father was a worker on a fishing boat during the

summer vacations and his father would take him out fishing. In
addition, it used to help reduce the living cost of the family. The
fishing boat the interviewees father used to work on was about 60
feet in length and there were eight people working on it.
He used to live in Sam Chung and then moved to Sha Tin, finally
moved to Lung Tin Estate in 1980.
He started school when he was ten years old. He was educated in
Fishermen Primary School until primary grade three.
He first started work in one of the grocery stores in Tai O for a few
months. Then he worked in one of the watch strap factories in Kit
Hing Street for three years.
Every day he spent twenty cents to take a sampan ride from Sam
Chung to Kit Hing Street for work, which saved about twenty minutes
of walking. He mentioned that it was very convenient to take the
sampan ride to cross the creek. It is much faster than talking the rope
pull ferry.
Due to the lack of career opportunities, he moved to work in Yau Ma
Tei for 10 months. Later he learnt that there was more work
opportunities in the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department as
a street sweeper. He was got the job successfully and took an early
retirement in 2000 at the age of forty five years old.
The interviewee said there were not enough job opportunities,
therefore all of both of his son and daughter moved away from Tai O
for better working opportunities.
The interviewee started his own business after early retirement and he
still owns his own grocery store. He still enjoys fishing in leisure and
owns a small boat for fishing and a yacht which can carry 20 people.
The interviewee mentioned that there are 5 different companies
providing dolphin tours with the number of boats per company
ranging from one to six. He agreed that the boat tour created some

111
 working opportunities for the locals and the tourists helped with the
sustainable development of Tai O, but they also caused
inconveniences to locals. In particular, when they have to the bus to
Tung Chung, because on public holidays people usually have to queue
up for the bus for a couple of hours.
He agreed that the stilt houses should be preserved for as long as
possible.
In 2012, the government in order to alleviate the impact on their
livelihoods brought about by the declining of fishing crop, the
government provides a one off assistance to the fishermen, which
further declining the fishing industry in Tai O.
He thinks the development of the stilt house should work
hand-in-hand with the development of Tai O.

Time
1955-1965 Help family for fishing
1965-1968 Studied in primary school
1968 Worked in grocery store in Tai O
1968-1972 Worked in watch strap factory. Starting with $50 per month, then rise up to
about $300 per month
1973-2000 Food and Environmental Hygiene Department starting with $550 per month
2000 Early retirement at year of 45
2000 Start his own business

The interviewee mentioned that there were many small factories in Tai O.
Information about them is listed below:
Size
Sequins Factory 1969-1972 Shek Tsai Po
Watch Strap Factory 1965-1972 Kit Hing Street About 10 persons
6-7 Light Bulb Factory 1970-1990 Kit Hing Street A few tens
Plastic Toy Factory 1961-1966 Hang Mei About 20 persons
Scarf Factory 1968-1970 Kit Hing Street

112
Vice President of Tai O Residents Rights Concern Group (Mr. Chan Siu
Ming)

In 2000, it was very hard to persuade the rebuilding of the stilt houses,
among 90 of them, only about twenty were able to be rebuilt after the
fire. There were a number of reasons for the slow process. At that time,
no government departments were willing to face them and tell them
what was happening, and they did not have the experience to deal with
the government. Among their group, they knew that a stilt house had
to be rebuilt even though no permit was issued from the Government,
as they had run out of patience with the government. Mr. Fan was the
first one who was willing to do this trial to force the government to
speed up the whole rebuilding process, according to Mr. Fans son, the
fire was on 2nd of July and the new stilt house was completed before
the Chinese Lunar Year. Eventually, the officials prevented conflict
by issuing building permits.
The reason for the delay of the permit for rebuild can be classified as
follows:
- drainage and sewage connection
- the ownership of the permit was not clear, the resident was
unable to provide the proof of ownership
The rebuilding process of the stilt houses for the 2013 fire victims was
much stricter. The Concern Group was able to maintain proper
communications with the District Officer; therefore, the rebuilding
process was much faster compared to 2000.

113
Shipyard Owner (Mr. Chow Wai)

There were seven shipyards in Tai O: four in Kat Hing Street, two in
Shek Tsai Po and one in San Ki. The interviewee owns the only
existing shipyard in San Ki, which is still in operation. All of the
shipyards were close down gradually until 1997 except for the
interviewees shipyard which is still in operation.
The shipyards in Tai O used to build new boat as well as repairing the
boat.
About 35 years ago, his fathers shipyard in San Ki Street caught fire,
so later they moved to a new site to build a new shipyard which was
also in San Ki Street.
As the shipyard was inside the creek, the interviewee witness the
creek as the typhoon shelter and he said that the creek used to serve as
typhoon shelter for a long time and had been very effective. All the
fishing boats in Tai O and some of the fishing boat from Cheung Chau
would come to Tai O for anchorage while there was a typhoon before
the Cheung Chau typhoon shelter was built.
The interviewee said in the 1960s they need about twenty to thirty
days to build a fishing boat depending on the size. Later the main
purpose of the shipyard was shifted from building new boats to
repairing.
The interviewee briefed that the old style of the fishing boat was the
front part of the fishing boat is much lower than the bottom of the
fishing boat, and the new style of the fishing boat is that the front part
of the fishing boat is much higher than the bottom of the fishing boat.
Each was tailor made to suit the need of the operation. In the old days
the fishing boats were operating inshore where the waves were not so
high. Nowadays, the fishing boat are operated off shore where they
experienced much bigger waves than before, therefore they build
much high up at the front part of the fishing boat. In the 1980s the
new style of fishing boat was about sixty to eighty feet in length and
was built with wood. Nowadays, the new style fishing boat is about
eighty to hundred feet in length and is constructed of metal.

114
 The procedure in the shipyard was mainly to remove the
micro-organisms or oysters from the bottom of the boat and redo the
gap, filling between the wood planks if necessary. After that they
would repaint the bottom of the lower part of the boat. It usually took
about a day to finish all the process. The shipyard would provide some
skillful labor for the process.
The interviewees shipyard could host boats up to 60 feet long.
Fishing boat beyond this limit had to go to Aberdeen of Cheung Chau
for maintenance. This was one of the reasons the fishing boats left Tai
O.
Since 1989, the interviewee co-operates with the eighth interviewees
apprentice in his shipyard to work on the engineering part and the
interviewee just works on the maintenance of structure of the boats.
In the 1980s the cost for staying in the shipyard for a day was about
hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars, dependent on the size of the
boat. In the 1990s costs of the shipyard increased to two to three
hundred dollars, which was not enough to catch up with inflation.
The interviewees shipyard closed down the maintenance service for
the wooden boat after 1995 and shifted the business to the fabrication
of fiberglass speed boats due to the shortage of fishing boats left in
Tai O. In addition, the cost of labor was too high.
Instead of sampan, people like to keep a speed boat, so the interviewee
shifted his focus to build fiber glass boats. The interviewee could
build a twenty foot fiber glass speed boat in twenty days and it only
costs about twenty eight thousand dollars.

Periods Size of boat Engine power Style of boat

1960 20-30 feet With or without engine, 7 Old style wooden boat
horse power
1970 30-40 feet With 108 engine Old style wooden boat
1980 60-80 feet With two engines ranged New style wooden boat
from 108 to 350 horse power
1990 60 feet With two engines ranged New Style wooden boat
from 240 to 500 horse power
1995 20 feet 15 Fiber glass speed boat

115
Appendix 2
First Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory of
Hong Kong Items Related to Tai O

1. Oral Traditions and Expressions

Codes Titles of Major Descriptions
Items and

1.4 Su Dialect The local inscription records show the presence of

Fishermens
b-i fishermen and their activities in Hong Kong since the
te early Qing Dynasty. The Census in 1911 records the
m fishermen population in Hong Kong. Nowadays, the
s elderly of fishermen communities still speak this
dialect.
Total Number of 1/21
Tai O Major
Items and
Sub-items:

116
2. Performing Arts
Codes Titles of Major Descriptions
Items
2.20 Fishermens Fishermens laments, the tradition of fishermen
and Sub-items
Laments communities, are sung in wedding ceremonies and
funeral rites. The fishermen call the marriage as sang
lai (life rite) and the funeral rite as sei lai (death
rite). Punti and Hoi Luk Fung / Hoklo fishermen have
developed their own traditions of singing laments.

2.20.1 Wedding In the past, female boat people sang laments with her
Ceremony female family members before their weddings. Punti
and Hoi Luk Fung / Hoklo fishermen have developed
their own traditions of singing laments.

2.20.1.1 Fishermen In the past, fishermens brides sang with their female
relatives two days before their weddings. They sang
about their lives in the past and future and their hopes
of a happy marriage.

2.20.1.2 Hoi Luk Fung / Hoi Luk Fung / Hoklo fishermens brides used to sing
Hoklo Fishermen with their female relatives two days before their
wedding ceremonies. They sang about their life
experience, relationship with family members and their
hopes of a happy marriage.

2.20.2 Death Rite In the fishermens funeral rites, female family members
or relatives of the deceased sing fishermens laments.
These laments mainly describe the funeral setting and
rituals.
2.21 Fishermens Fishermens ballads were popular among fishermen in
Ballads the past. Young males and females sang songs on
sampans to get to know each other.

Total Number of Tai6/34

O Major Items and
Sub-items:

117
3. Social Practices, Rituals and Festive Events
Codes Titles of Major Descriptions
Items and
3.4.2 Tai O The organising committee of Tai O Kwan Tai
S Festival holds the Kwan Tai Festival in the sixth
u lunar month every year to celebrate the deitys
b birthday.
3.8.3 Pun Lo
- Pang, The Earth God Festival Committee of Pun Lo
Tai O i Pang, Tai O holds the To Tei Festival on the 2nd
t day of the second lunar month every year. Major
e celebrations include the rites of worshipping the
m deity and feasts.
3.8.4 Tsan Lung The Tai O Tsan Lung She Committee holds the
s
She, Tai O To Tei Festival on the 25th and the 26th days of
the first lunar month every year. Major
celebrations include the rites of worshipping the
deity and the auction of blessed objects.

3.8.5 Fuk Tak Kung The Tai O Fuk Tak Kung Festival Committee
To Tei (Earth holds the To Tei Festival from the 19th to the 21st
day of the first lunar month every year. The
God) Temple, Tai flower-canon associations gather to celebrate and
O an opera troupe is hired to perform Cantonese
operas to thank the deity.
3.11.1 Tai O The Tai O Hung Shing Temple Committee holds
the Hung Shing Festival on the 13th day of the
second lunar month every year.

3.12.3 Tai O The Tai O Kwun Yum Festival Fishermen

Association holds the Kwun Yum Festival on the
18th and the 19th days of the sixth lunar month
every year. The rituals consist of chanting
scriptures, throwing divinatory blocks, turning
fortune and sending off deities.
3.23 Dragon Boat Many communities in Hong Kong hold the
Festival dragon boat race during the Dragon Boat Festival
in the fifth lunar month every year. The dragon
boat water parade in Tai O, the night dragon boat
parade in Tai Po and the dragon boat parade in
Cheung Chau also have a long history.

118
3.23.1 Tai O Dragon Tai Os Pa Tang Hong, Sin Yu Hong and Hap
Boat Water Sum Tong hold the dragon boat water parade on
th th
the 4 and the 5 days of the fifth lunar
Parade month every year to pray for the safety on land
and at sea. (The Tai O dragon boat water parade
was inscribed onto the third national list of
intangible cultural heritage in 2011).
3.23.4 Dragon Boat Many communities in Hong Kong hold the
Race dragon boat race during the Dragon Boat Festival
in the fifth lunar month every year.
3.27.1 Tai O The Tai O Hau Wong Festival Committee holds
the Hau Wong Festival from the 4th to the 7th
day of the sixth lunar month every year. The
rituals consist of inviting deities, celebrations
and sale of blessed objects by auction.

3.30 Yu Lan Festival During the seventh lunar month, different

communities in Hong Kong hold the Yu Lan
Festival to pacify wandering ghosts and show
gratitude to the deities. Different ethnic groups
have different forms of organisations, namely
Local Tradition, Chiu Chow Tradition, Hoi
Luk Fung / Hoklo Tradition and Boat Peoples
3.30.1 Boat Peoples rituals of Boat Peoples Tradition consist of
Tradition.
The
Tradition opening altar, chanting scriptures, feeding the
water ghosts, releasing animal and giving
offerings to wandering ghosts.
3.30.1.1 Tai O Water Both the land and boat residents of Tai O hold
and Land th
the Yu Lan Festival on the 12 day of the
Residents Yu Lan
seventh lunar month every year. The rituals
Festival consist of the setting up of the Ghost Master,
opening altar, chanting scriptures and concluding
3.37.1 Tai O altar. residents of Tai O hold the annual Wah
Some
Kwong Festival with worship activities on the
th
28 day of the ninth lunar month.
3.42.14 Chu Tai Sin During the third lunar month, the Shing Sum
Jiao (Tai O) Tong Committee organises Chu Tai Sin Jiao in
Tai O for five consecutive days. The rituals
consist of opening the altar, chanting scriptures,
making offerings to the Buddha, reversing
fortunes, making offerings to wandering ghosts,
officiating at the board, and feeding wandering
ghosts.
119
3.55.1 Boat People Different fishermen communities in Hong Kong
have their own types of wedding ceremonies.
3.55.1.2 Rite of Passage Before a wedding ceremony, fishermen invite
nahm mouh Taoist priests to perform the rite of
passage, which is an important component of the

Total number of 17/292 wedding.

Tai O Major Items

and
Sub-items:

120
4. Knowledge and Practices Concerning Nature and the Universe

Codes Titles of Major Descriptions

Items and
4.2 Fishermens Fishermen in the Pearl River estuary have
Sub-ite
knowledge about developed a body of knowledge and skills related to
ms and
the universe the distribution and migration of particular types of
the nature fish, fishing seasons and fishing methods.
Total number of 1/6
Tai O Major
Items and
Sub-items:

121
Traditional Craftsmanship
Codes Titles of Major Descriptions
Items and
5.7 Fish Maw Fish maw is made from the swim bladder of fresh
Making S fish and can be stored for a long period of time
Techniqueu after the sunning process. It is believed that fish
b maw has medical value.
5.8 Shrimp - Paste Shrimp paste blocks and shrimp paste are cooking
Blocks i and ingredients made from silver shrimp through the
Shrimp t Paste fragmentation and sunning processes, with the
Making e addition of edible salt.
Techniquem
s
5.15 Salted Fish Salted fish is usually made from the fish caught
Making during the season through the preserving, lifting
Technique and sunning processes.
5.85 Stilt House Stilt houses, made of wood and zinc sheets, are
Construction built between the high tide and low tide marks
Technique with the support of wooden pillars. The
construction process consists of the following:
designing the floor plan, covering wooden planks,
hoisting the main beam and tacking the roof.

5.88 Wooden Boat The majority of locally built boats, made of wood,
Building are trawlers. Local and Hoklo trawlers have their
Technique own features whereas those built for dragon
boat races belong to another category.
5.88.1 Local In the past decades, locally built boats mainly
Wooden Boat include sampans, purse-seiners and modern
trawlers. The master is responsible for selecting
Building and acquiring the wood. The building procedures
Technique consist of the following: keel laying, hull
construction, framing, setting up the beam and
deck. The boat owner will pick the
commencement date for the construction and the
commissioning ceremony.

122
5.88.2 Dragon Boat The traditional dragon boat is made of teak. A
Building large dragon boat can accommodate more than 90
people. As the boat is long and narrow and the
Technique bottom is shallow, special building techniques are
required. The building process consists of the
following: keel laying, bottom planking, top side
planking, installing seats, decorative planking,
fixing the dragon root and rotating.
5.89 Fishing Method Fishing methods can be categorised into two
types: inshore and offshore fishing. Inshore fishing
consists of longlining, purse-seining, stern
trawling, hang silver shrimp, hang trawling, gill
netting and shrimp trawling. Offshore fishing
consists of stern trawling, gill netting, longlining
and hand lining.
5.89.1 Inshore Inshore fishing consists of longlining,
Fishing purse-seining, stern trawling, hang silver shrimp,
hang trawling, gill netting and shrimp trawling.
5.89.1.1 Longlining Longlining refers to the attachment of 200 short
plastic fishing lines, with a baited hook each, to a
single main plastic fishing line. The fishing line is
then thrown into the sea for catching fish.
Fishermen on fiber-glass sampans practice this
method.
5.89.1.2 Gill Netting The fishing net, with floats above and plumbs
underneath, vertically stands in the sea for catching
fish and shrimp. Fish and shrimp, which cannot
pass through the net, are caught. Fishermen have to
consider the influence of water flow on fishing.
5.89.1.3 Purse-seining Purse-seining involves a team of vessels and
sampans. Purse-seining is also known as ku tsai
(small fishing boat), floating purse-seining or
large purse-seining. The fishermen usually work
at night, making use of the light to attract shoals of
fish for catching. Hoi Luk Fung / Hoklo fishermen
also use this method.
5.89.1.4 Stern Trawling Stern trawling relies on a single trawler to tow the
fishing net for catching fish and shrimp.
5.89.1.5 Hang Silver Hang silver shrimp refers to the fishermen using
shrimp the fishing net to catch silver shrimp. They usually
tow the purse seiner to catch silver shrimp at night.

123
5.89.1.6 Hang Trawling Wooden pillars are set on both sides of a hang
trawler with a fishing net. The fish and shrimp are
caught while the vessel is towing the net.
5.89.1.7 Shrimp Two wooden pillars, each of which is set on one
Trawling side of the shrimp trawler, are attached with more
than ten purse seiners. Fish, shrimp and other
marine products are caught while the vessel is
towing the net.
5.89.2 Offshore Offshore fishing consists of stern trawling, gill
Fishing netting, longlining and hand lining.
5.89.2.1 Hand Lining Hand lining refers to an individual fisherman
using the hand line to fish. Hand Line trawlers are
mainly found at Nansha Qundao (Spratly Islands)
and Xisha Qundao (Paracel Islands). Upon arrival
at the fishing ground, the fishermen each take a
sampan to fish and each trip takes around 30 days.

5.89.2.2 Longlining Longlining refers to the attachment of 80 short

plastic fishing lines, with a baited hook each, to a
single main plastic fishing line (known as a
row). 50 rows are thrown into the sea for
catching fish each time. The fishermen on sampans
pull back the long liner to get the fish crop.
Meanwhile, they keep throwing other rows into
the sea. This fishing method is practised
between Wanshan Qundao (Ladrones Islands) and
the Philippine Islands.
5.89.2.3 Trawlering Trawlering is the cooperation of two vessels in
towing the fishing net to catch fish and shrimp.
Fishermen also call this method Pair Trawlering,
which is operated in the South China Sea the whole
year except during a fishing moratorium.
5.89.2.4 Gill Netting The gill net is also known as the rolling net. The
fishing net, with floats above and plumbs
underneath, vertically stands in the sea for catching
fish and shrimp. Fish and shrimp, which cannot
pass through the net, are caught. Fishermen have to
consider the influence of water flow on fishing.
This fishing method is operated in the South China
Sea. Each time several hundred or even a thousand
fishing nets are involved.

124
5.90 Fishing Net Plaiting (including left-right plait and
Plaiting figure-of-eight) is the main method of making
Technique fishing nets, with the use of various tools such as
plastic fishing lines, wooden pads, wooden chess
and a pocket knife. In the past, the fishermen
plaited the fishing nets by themselves, and
therefore nowadays the elderly still understand
how to make different kinds of fishing nets.
5.91 Aquaculture of The coastal areas of Hong Kong are suitable for
Marine Fish marine fish farming. The fishermen have mastered
Technique a body of knowledge and skills of using
hanging cages for cultivation of marine.

5.96 Vegetable The farmers have developed a body of knowledge

Cultivation and skills on vegetable cultivation, including those
Technique on seed selection, fertilisation, pesticide application
and soil fertility.
5.97 Salt Making Tai O was once a major area for salt production and
Technique fish preservation in Hong Kong. The salt workers
have mastered the techniques of solar
evaporation method and leaching method for
salt production.
Total of Major 25/ 127
Items of Tai O
and
Sub-items:
Grand Total: 60/480

125
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Chapter 4

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129