The Lantau fishing village of Tai O is to have a facelift to make it more marketable to tourists. The Planning Department is assessing Tai O's tourist and conservation potential in a study which will be completed by early next year. The village is famous for its stilted wooden houses and produced salt in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). There are plans to resurrect a 10-hectare salt field currently covered by the sea, grow mangroves to attract birds and turn the Victorian-style former police station into a 29-room hostel. Tai O is home to 2,223 people, many of whom are elderly fishermen. By 2011, it is estimated Tai O will have a population of 5,600.
