TAI O GEOGRAPHY MAGAZINE June 7,
One of the rarest place in Hong Kong! - SCMP
2011 Tai O Downtown
History of over 1000 years.
June 7, 2011
By: Thomas AU, Ryan LAM, Jeff NG
Content Absolute Location
Pg. 3
Spatial Term
Pg. 5
Maps
Pg. 7
Physical System
Pg. 8
Cultural Characteristics
Pg. 10
Human Characteristics
Pg. 11
Environment and Society
Pg. 12
Bibliography
Pg. 13-15
Enjoy the Magazine!
Absolute Location - Tai O
ALWAYS FREE
ISSUE NO.1
TAI O
BY THOMAS AU
Absolute Location Absolute location is an precise spot on the earth surface. It is a location of a place that is independent to other locations. An example of absolute location would be the longitude and latitude of a place. Absolute location is an exact location. A GPS device will is a method to find an absolute location. TAI O Absolute location were used in Tai O. Tai O is part of Lantau Island which is the largest island in Hong Kong. Tai O located at 22. 25. 35 and 113. 86. 36. This is the system of latitude and longitude. Latitude is the angular distance from the either south of the north. Longitude is the angular distance from prime(Greenwich), determined from the east or west. Both of their values were presented in degrees and minutes. The famous Hung Shing Temple is located at latitude -22.255499 and longitude 113.857284. Residents in Tai O could find an absolute location base on this system. Another method to find an absolute location would be using a alphanumeric grid (Figure 1). It divides a map into squares, labelled with numbers and letters. In order to identify the absolute location, you simply need to find where does it located on the Y and X axis, for example, A1 or B3,
Tai O River
People in Tai O....
Figure 1
People who live in Tai O are mainly fishers or currently working in Tai O. They used absolute locations to get around Tai O every day. Fishers find an absolute location so they will able to go to catch fishes. Tourists in Tai O use GPS devices to find their absolute location that they would like to visit. Postman in Tai O followed the address on the envelopes to find an absolute location. The use of absolute location are every where in Tai O, it seems to be the most basic thing in their life, but definitely the most important one.
An GPS devices.
The Tai O Post Office
Spatial Term - Tai O
ALWAYS FREE
ISSUE NO. 17
SPATIAL TERMS
BY RYAN LAM
ST - Tai O Spatial terms in geography is the study of how human beings live in the space and how we use the space we have available on the surface of this planet. This study usually gives an individual more insight to the given place that has been studied. By knowing more about spatial terms, people can understand the distribution of population, and how different objects and features are placed in a given space. It also somehow tells us other information regarding the population, like the population density and how the population changes over time on a specific space. Spatial terms are also how people use devices or other tools to navigate through space. Applying this information to a specific community can give us some background information about the community. Let me share a interesting story with mind-blowing facts about the space in Tai O with you…
On a boring Monday afternoon, I casually picked up the globe that proudly stood on my desk. I spun it and studied its texture. Where I lived was a perfectly round dot that lied somewhere beneath the whole country that we call China. Comparing the size of the dot to China, I wondered how many dots would I need to fill China. I did my maths and found out that it will take 8732.6277 dots to fill in this mighty beast that we named China. To be honest, I was fascinated! Continuing to research, I began to look for maps that show the entire Hong Kong. Every time I was asked to describe this dot we call Hong Kong, I would reply with the words compact, dense and of course, way over-populated. But reading the map I held in front of me, I realised that not everywhere in Hong Kong is tightly packed with people. A place called Tai O might as well be a good proof. It would take 736 Tai Os to fill in Hong Kong another 6426478 to fill in China (Isn’t that cool?). I came to realise, how insignificant we are. Tai O, the
“Venice of Hong Kong”, sits comfortably on the west coast of Lantau Island, was once a major fishing port. It once flourished with the development of the aquaculture and salt industry, attracting more settlers in Tai O. But today, this place that was once a coastal paradise, remained to be a place that youngsters would abandon to live in. The reason is, because Tai O can no longer sustain the age of aquaculture and salt industry it once had. Due to these reasons, government has seen a population decline in the past few decades, and the population distribution is also affected. The majority of the younger generations of Tai O villagers are moving out into the cities, leaving elderly living on their own. This situation could be called an “aging population”. This would be a major issue for Tai O as it is developing and requires energetic younger generations. Overall, the population decrease in Tai O is a major problem spatially in Tai O.
How can YOU use a map? A Tai o Map
By Jeff Ng
Using a map in Tai O is extremely important, since a lot of people is not familiar to Tai O. By using a compass, a place can be easily found since the direction can be found by looking at the Tai O map and a compass. Scale It is extremely important to look for the scale, scale shows the ratio of the map to the real life world. For example, 1 cm in the map can be 2m in real life world. In the Tai O map on the left, the scale is not shown. Although it could be confusing for most of the people, but since Tai O is such a small place, scale is not necessary for this map. Direction The major four direction is North, East, South and West. Usually a map will have the north on the upside of the map. Look at the imagine on the left to have a better understanding of it.
What is using map in terms of geography? Using map or other tools is the World in Spacial Terms. Also, use mental maps to organize information about people, places and environment is in the spatial context.
In the Tai O map on the left, it is clearly shown that north is up, therefore east is right hand side, south is down, west is left hand side. Direction can be easily find by using a compass. Place a compass on horizontal place, then let the pin point. Once the pin point to the North, find the direction by spinning your entire body, so that North is in front of you. Here is another example, the port on the left of the map is on the south-west of the three green areas.
Physical System - Tai O
Physical Systems by Jeff NG
MORE ABOUT... Whether
•••
Physical system is a natural component that will still be here without human influence. Usually, it is things that are given from nature to this world. For example, they can be temperature, weather, humidity, and wind. Animals can also be counted in the physical system, i.e. snakes, birds, fish, flies, and mouse. In a physical system, the environment is also important. For example, tides, currents, waves, beaches, river, and plants can also be counted. Physical system are everywhere around us even in human-crowded places. In Tai O has a unique monsoonal climate, it is hot, with a high percentage of humidity, and there is also some breeze by the bay and coast. In Hong Kong Island, Physical system is usually ignored, however in Tai O, Physical system is considered important. Some of the people in Tai O rely fishing to make a living; fishing requires fish, ocean, and a nice weather. These three elements all belong in the physical system; fish is animals, ocean and weather is the environment. We can see a little
Bird sitting on the engine of a boat in Tai O.
connection of Tai O and the physical system by this. There are also other people who make salty eggs selling them to locals and tourist; producing salty eggs requires sunshine, salt, and eggs. Tai O's physical systems are dolphin, mountains e.t.c. The three elements also belong in the physical system; sunshine is the environment, salt are made from the ocean which makes it an environment; eggs are from ducks
which is animal. From fishing and salty eggs, we can see a greater connection between Tai O and the physical system. Since the people in Tai O rely greatly on physical system, residents in Tai O do not destroy it as much as people outside Tai O. As they do not destroy the environments too badly, it will still supply them with the villagers needs.
TAI O - PHYSICAL SYSTEM
Trails around Tai O
Cultural Aspects of Tai O
CULTURAL STUFF~
by Ryan Lam
Guan Temple
••• The culture of a certain place or community is basically the arts and the style, attitudes and behavior of living in general of the people there. Personally, I think that the culture of a community could somehow be defined as an art of living. The culture of the place also defines and represents the community, giving it a unique personality. Let’s look at Tai O’s cultural aspects and other traditions to know more about Tai O. Tai O, a place filled with the richest cultural traditions of our long lost “old” Hong Kong. Counting from food to religion, Tai O arguably remains the most traditional in the whole Lantau Island and even the whole Hong Kong. Despite the rapidly evolving third culture reconstruction movement and internationalism that Hong Kong is undergoing, Tai O still helps to keep and protect these old Hong Kong styles from dying out and being knocked out by the mainstream ideology. Let’s talk about food in Tai O, because food is somehow a very important element when defining the culture of a certain community. Walking along the streets in Tai O, it is visible that the food in Tai O is obviously a fusion between modern Chinese restaurant and the traditional half-dimsum style. Speaking about food, Tai O still gets its seafood from the gulf of the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang), keeping the local seafood fresh and natural. Alongside the delightful agricultural background of Tai O, the religion is Tai O has also been shaped by the everyday living style of the local people. Tai O has two
Emperor Guan
main temples, one being North East of Tai O and the other resting at the Southern point of Tai O. The higher being they worship is Kwan Tai and Tin Ho. Kwan Tai is portrayed as a male and Tin Ho is a female. Tin Ho is said to be the goddess of sea, protecting the fishermen going out when fishing. The temple in the Southern district of Tai O consists two other smaller subdivided temples, one for Kwan Tai and one for Tin Ho. The Kwan Tai temple is relatively larger than the Tin Ho one. The reason is because Tai O people started worshipping Tin Ho at first, but some proportion converted to worship Kwan Tai and found out that worshipping the new Kwan Tai brings more prosperity and better health to themselves and their family. Due to this reason, the Tai O people decided to build the Kwan Tai temple relatively larger. Today, the two temples
remain next to each other, facing a flat platform with seats that Tai O citizens can rest and socialize at. All in all, the culture in Tai O is filled with rich histories that other parts in Hong Kong lack because of the modernization of our city. This is a very significant advantage that Tai O can develop without needing to urbanize their village. Governments and local developers are planning to expand Tai O as a tourism site, effectively linking with the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and the Buddha. Let’s hope that Tai O can proof its true potential and shine brightly within the Pearl of East, showing the rich traditions of Hong Kong once again to the whole world!
CULTURAL - TAI O
Tin Hou Temple
Human Characteristics
CIVILIZATION Salty Eggs
by Thomas Au
••• Human made characteristics are the materials objects or architectural structures that are built or created by humans. They can be found in anywhere in a civilization. Human made characteristics of a special region change over time depending on the human social and cultural characteristics, because these aspects are linked. In Tai O, there are huge amount of human made characteristics. Most of the residents of Tai O live in stilt houses, which are based in the river. Some of them live in modern estates. They have different kinds of transportation in there too. Since many of their houses were built on rivers, they tend to travel by boats. There aren’t proper roads in the Tai O region except the road that was connected to Tung Chung. People usually walk to their destination or use a bike.
A restaurant owner.
Before 1996, Tai O was separated into two different areas by a river. Locals need to go across by boats. The government decided to build a bridge connects both sides, which brought lots of convenience upon the residents. It was one of the most important human made architectures in Tai O. There are only one primary and secondary school in the region. There are a few temples for the residents to worship too.
Tai O’s human characteristics have shown that it had developed from an old fishing village to a special, unique landmarks that tourists will visit. There were more than 1000 years history since people living in Tai O so you would find lots of historical human features too. These characteristics are very rare now in modern city. We must take an action to safeguard our Hong Kong Traditions. We should protect them.
HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS - TAI O
Fishing Village of Tai O — Thomas Au
Environment and society of Tai O
by RLCK, TALT, JNNK •••
Recently, the HKSAR government has decided to build a bridge to improve the convenience of transportation,
construction will affect the living
and valuable species will be the cost
cycle and the living environment of
of this project. Although on the
the sea creatures. The construction
positive side, the transportation of
will dig up the sea floor and destroy
Hong Kong and also Macau will be
the entire living place of different
tremendously improved, the natural
kinds of small creatures; meanwhile
cost that we pay would never be
the fuel’s price is increasing, making
able to regain. Is this really what our
it even a bigger problem for the
government wants for Lantau Island?
local villagers and fishermen.
Do you think a bridge is worth the entire natural habitat? Do you really
!No more! trawlers
think Lantau Island should also be
and effectively linking Hong Kong,
It is such an irony that the fact that
Macau and Zhu Hai. The bridge is
the government has very recently
called the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
(31st May 2011) banned fishing
Bridge. Debates are generated
trollers activating in any Hong Kong
among the Hong Kong community
seawater area, but on the other
and of course, local residents around
hand, they still continue to support
Lantau Island are also complaining
the building of the Hong Kong-
about this as a major issue that will
Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. The banning
affect their lives. But people who are
of trawlers will improve and protect
most significantly affected by this
our natural environment and
38.4 kilometer beast will be the Tai
seawater habitat, but the Hong
This beautiful environ ment should NEVER EVER be destr oyed.
O’s fishermen and its local
Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will
RL:
community.
seriously have a big impact of our
This is something tha t we should preserve.
food chain. It may completely Fishermen who have grown up in Tai O have complained that the
destroy the whole nature of the creatures under water and rare
polluted just because people want a better transportation system? Is it really worth it? I mean... really?
FROM THE EDITOR
JN :
We should help and fig ht for the residents! TA:
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