Tai Po is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Market") on the north of Lam Tsuen River and the Tai Po Hui (the current Tai Po Market; historically Tai Wo Shi, literally Tai Wo market) on Fu Shin Street on the south of the Lam Tsuen River, near the old Tai Po Market railway station of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). Both market towns became part of the Tai Po New Town in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In present-day usage, "Tai Po" may refer to the area around the original market towns, the Tai Po New Town (), or the entire Tai Po District. Etymology In Chinese, the place, Tai Po (), was formerly written as . Treating the Chinese characters separately, the pronounce of Po in the third tone () in Cantonese are shared with many words, not only Po in the sixth tone (). For example, the "Po" () of Sham Shui Po, literally deep water port. Moreover, according to the Kangxi Dictionary, the word can be written as . As a coincidence, Tai Po is a seashore town. The name Tai Po Hoi () was appeared in Nanhai Zhi () of the Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368 of Gregorian calendar), which stated that pearl was the product of the Tai Po sea. In Ming dynasty's (), recorded the names Tai Po Hoi and Tai Po Tau (). In the attached map of that book, the sea next to Tai Po Tau was labelled with "can shelter hurricane" (). In early Qing dynasty Kangxi 27th Year edition of Xin'an Xianzhi (literally Gazetteer of the Xin'an County), Tai Po Tau Hui () as market centre (), Tai Po Tau as village (under the administration of ) and Tai Po Hoi as water body, were recorded. According to Hong Kong sinologist and historian Jao Tsung-I, the character Po in Tai Po, should interpreted as port or sea side. However, there was another urban legend version of the meaning of Tai Po. In the urban legend, the area around Tai Po was a habitat of wild animal, which people have to "Big-Step". History Tai Po as a populated place, could be traced back to the Stone