Cycling route from Wan Tau Tong Estate to Tai Ping Industrial Centre, Tai Po
Route: Wan Tau Tong Estate → Lam Tsuen River → Tai Yuen Estate → Tai Ping Industrial Centre, Tai Po
Wan Tau Tong
Wan Tau Tong. If you live in Tai Po you have definitely heard of it, but do you know where the name comes from? There are 2 accounts:
- It is said that what was carried there was not human heads but ceramics. Because the pronunciations were close, people misread the name as Wan Tau, and it has been used ever since.
- Further offshore there was a stretch of water called Wan Mei Tong, where cargo was transferred from small boats to large ones. The small boats took the front section, and the large boats the rear.
As for the legend of a paupers' burial ground, Wan Tau Tong was already recorded in the Qing dynasty, and when the British leased the New Territories, Tai Po Tsat Yeuk, the Seven Alliances of Tai Po, already included Wan Tau Tong. The name therefore has nothing to do with a burial ground.
Lam Tsuen River
Lam Tsuen River. If you live in Tai Po you have certainly passed it, and it hardly needs another introduction.
Familiar as it is, are there views you have started to overlook?
Next time, get on a bike and ride at 15 km/h, and see this neighbourhood you and I know so well with fresh eyes.
Tai Yuen Estate
About 5 minutes after you leave Lam Tsuen River you reach Tai Yuen Estate, Tai Po's first public housing estate, completed in 1980. It is now facing redevelopment. The timing is not fixed yet, so our editor is taking a photo of it with a LocoBike to remember it by.
