Tsat Tsz Mui

Tsat Tsz Mui or Braemar Point is a neighbourhood, formerly a village, east of North Point, in Hong Kong. Tsat Tsz Mui Road is named after the neighbourhood.

Tsat Tsz Mui
Chinese七姊妹
Literal meaningseven sisters
Tsat Tsz Mui Road in North Point.
1945 map featuring Tsat Tsz Mui.

Name

Tsat Tsz Mui in Cantonese means "seven sisters". There was a tragic story about them. Once upon a time, there lived a village of Hakka people. Seven girl playmates pledged to be sisters in their lifetime, die on the same day and never get married. One day, the third sister's parents decided to make her marry a man. She did not want to but dared not say a word against her parents. The day before the wedding, all seven sisters committed suicide at the sea shore. The next day, at the bay appeared seven rocks.[1] The villages believed that they must be the seven sisters. The rocks were then named Tsat Tsz Mui Shek (七姊妹石), Seven Sister Rocks, and the village Tsat Tsz Mui Tsuen (七姊妹村), Seven Sister Village.

In 1934, the rocks were buried under the reclamation for urban development.

History

The 1819 edition of the Gazetteer of Xin'an County (新安縣志) did not mention Tsat Tsz Mui, however, local residents emphasized Tsat Tsz Mui Village existed for hundreds of years. According to the census in 1849, Tsat Tsz Mui Tsuen had over two hundred inhabitants and over one hundred houses. It was also a popular swimming spot.

At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Tsat Tsz Mui was 297. The number of males was 193.[2]

A large residential property named 'Seven Sisters' was built on the hillside above present-day North Point in approximately 1923.[3]

Housing

Two public housing estates are located in Tsat Tsz Mui: Model Housing Estate, the oldest existing public housing estate in Hong Kong,[4] with several blocks completed in 1954, and Healthy Village.

See also

References
  1. Cheung, Rachel (10 June 2016). "Stories behind Hong Kong street names: the haunting past of Tsat Tsz Mui Road". South China Morning Post.
  2. Hase, Patrick (1996). "Traditional Life in the New Territories: The Evidence of the 1911 and 1921 Censuses" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. 36: 83. ISSN 1991-7295.
  3. Seven Sisters [c.1923-????], Gwulo
  4. Aged public housing estates included in the Comprehensive Structural Investigation Programme
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