The park's outstanding feature is its 32.4-metre Lookout Tower. Looking something like a rocket launch pad at Cape Kennedy, the Tower gives visitors a bird's eye view over Tolo Harbour and the rugged countryside stretching back to the boundary with mainland China.
The upper levels of the Tower are open from 9am to 6pm, but visitors must climb to the top under their own steam. It is less strenuous to get to the lower levels, which remain open 24 hours a day. However high you climb, on returning to the ground don't forget to inspect the exhibition gallery.
The Park has a wide range of facilities for young and old including rest gardens, sitting-out areas, a 1.2 km promenade along the harbour front, a jogging trail with fitness stations, a cycling path and a 600-seat amphitheatre.
The Tai Po district is one of the oldest settled areas in Hong Kong. There is documentary evidence that farmers and fisherfolk inhabited it during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906) when it was known as Hui Chou Ying.
In those times it had an offshore pearl-fishing industry so valuable that a garrison was stationed there to guard against theft of the pearls, which went to the treasure house of the Imperial Family. But there were so many deaths among the unprotected divers, who stayed underwater for some minutes searching the seabed for oysters, that pearl fishing had to be proscribed.
The
district's population grew in the Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279), and in the Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644) Tai Po became a market town and the home of one of the
territory's original clans, the Tangs.