Taipa (氹仔島; Cantonese Jyutping; Tam5 Zai2 Dou2; pinyin: Dàngzǎi Dǎo) is an island of Macau in the People's Republic of China. It is 2.5 kilometres away from peninsular Macau and is east of the Lesser Hengqin Island of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. Its Chinese name is Tamzai Cantonese (Traditional Chinese: 粵語; Simplified Chinese: 粤语, Cantonese: Yuet6yue5; Mandarin pinyin: Yueyu, Yụet (Guangdong) language) is one of the major dialect groups or languages of the Chinese language or language family. ... Jyutping (Traditional Chinese: 粵拼; Simplified Chinese: 粤拼; pinyin: yuèpÄ«n; Yale: yuhtpÄ«ng; Jyutping: jyut6ping3; sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; Traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音; Hanyu Pinyin: , lit. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words χίλια (khilia) = thousand and μέτρο (metro) = count/measure). ... Macau Peninsula (澳門半島 Pinyin: Aomen Bandao; Portuguese: Península de Macau) is the oldest and most populous part of Macau in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Hengqin (橫琴島, Cantonese IPA: wɑŋ4 kʌm4 dəʊ2, Hanyu Pinyin: Hengqin Dao) is an island in Zhuhai city, Guangdong, China. ... Zhuhai (Chinese: 珠海; pinyin: ; lit. ... Guangdong (Simplified Chinese: 广东; Traditional Chinese: 廣東; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuang-tung; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangtung or Canton Province, Jyutping: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

• Area: 6.33 km² (1.5 x 3.5 km)
• Population: 7,000

Chinese settlers mostly arrived in Taipa in Southern Song Dynasty. The Portuguese came in 1851. Before land-fill, Taipa consisted of two islands: the Greater Taipa and the Lesser Taipa. Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. ... To help compare sizes of different geographic regions, we list here areas between 1 km² (100 hectares) and 10 km² (1000 hectares). ... Alternative meaning: Song Dynasty (420-479) The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ...

The 159.1-metre Big Taipa Hill (大氹山) situates to the east, and Small Taipa Hill (小氹山) to the west. Central Taipa is plain as a result of siltation and land reclamation. It was connected to Coloane Island only by the Estrada do Istmo (路氹連貫公路); but the town Cotai, built on reclaimed land, has now essentially connected the two islands. Taipa is connected to the peninsular Macau by Nobre Governador Carvalho Bridge, Friendship Bridge and the Sai Van Bridge. Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. ... Coloane (Traditional Chinese: 路環島; Simplified Chinese: 路环岛; pinyin: ; Jyutping: Lou6-waan4 Dou2, literally Road Ring) is an island of Macau in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho (Chinese: 嘉樂庇將軍大橋, 嘉樂庇總督大橋 or 嘉樂庇大橋) or the Macau-Taipa Bridge (澳氹大橋), is a dual-lane two-way bridge connecting Macau Peninsula near Casino Lisboa and the island of Taipa at the northern slope of Taipa Pequena (Small Taipa Hill). ... Ponte de Amizade or Friendship Bridge (Chinese: 友誼大橋, also known as 新澳氹大橋) is a four-lane two-way bridge connecting Macau Peninsula near the Reservatório and the island of Taipa at Pac On. ... Sai Van Bridge (西灣大橋) This bridge, connecting the Taipa Island to Macau, is equipped with an inside tunnel so that cars can still cross it even in the event of strong typhoons, in which case the remaining two conventional bridges will be closed. ...

Taipa is mainly a growing up-scale residential area, with many new apartment complexes underconstruction as of 2006.

The names of Taipa

Taipa used to be known as Longhuan (龍環 "Dragon Ring"), Jijing (雞頸 "Chicken's neck"), Tanzai (潭仔 "Pool"), and Longtouhuan (龍頭環 "Dragon's-Head Ring"). There is a saying about the origin of the name "Taipa". A long time ago, the early Portuguese settlers on Taipa asked the Chinese settlers the name ("nome" in Portuguese) of the place. The Chinese settlers that they asked were actually the shopkeepers of a grocery. The shopkeepers did not know Portuguese and thought they said "糯米" in Cantonese Chinese - which meant "sticky rice" - since "nome" and "糯米" had similar pronunciations. The shopkeepers thought the Portuguese settlers were asking whether they sold sticky rice, and so they replied "大把" (pronounced as "dai ba") in Cantonese - which meant "a lot". The Portuguese thought this was the name of the place. After that, "Taipa", which had similar pronunciation, became the common Portuguese name of the place. However, there is no historical evidence to show that the saying is true. It is also worth noting that, as the great majority of the population in Taipa and Macau is Chinese, most people refer to this island by its Chinese name "Tamzai", and most taxi drivers and bus drivers will not understand if asked how to go to "Taipa". Chinese dragons The Chinese dragon or Long (Traditional:龍; Simplifed:é¾™; pinyin: lóng; Cantonese: loong; Hokkien: leng; Japanese: ryÅ«; Korean: yong; Vietnamese: long) is a mythical creature. ...

night view of the Old bridge

Ponte de Amizade and the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1341x751, 81 KB) Chinese name of the bridge: 嘉樂庇總督大橋 This is the nightview of Ponte Governador Norbee de Carvalho, also known as Old Macau-Taipa Bridge. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1341x751, 81 KB) Chinese name of the bridge: 嘉樂庇總督大橋 This is the nightview of Ponte Governador Norbee de Carvalho, also known as Old Macau-Taipa Bridge. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 262 KB) This is the photo of Ponte de Amizade or Friendship Bridge in English. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 262 KB) This is the photo of Ponte de Amizade or Friendship Bridge in English. ...

Tourism

Religious:

• Pou Tai Un Temple (菩提園 or 菩提襌院): named after bodhi tree
• Small Kun Yam Temple (觀音岩)
• Tin Hau Temple (天后宮)
• Sam Po Temple (三婆廟): dedicated to the elder sister of Tin Hau
• Pak Tai Temple (北帝廟): dedicated to the Taoist God of the North
• Four-faced Buddha (四面佛): purchased from Thailand in 1985
• Church of Our Lady of Carmel (嘉模聖母教堂): Catholic, Taipa belongs to the Nossa Senhora do Carmo Parish (聖嘉模堂區).

Other: A direct clone descendant of the Bodhi tree, planted at Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu, Hawaii The Bodhi tree was a large and very old specimen of the Sacred Fig, located at the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya (about 100 km from Patna in the Indian state of Bihar) under... Kuan Yin (Pinyin: Guanyin; also written Kwan Yin or in other variants which hyphenate or remove the space between the two words) is the bodhisattva of compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists. ... Matsu (媽祖, pinyin: Māzǔ, Wade-Giles: Ma-tsu, lit. ... Pak Tai (北帝; pinyin Bei Di) is a Taoist god of the North. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A parish is a type of administrative subdivision. ...

• Rua do Cunha, Taipa Village
• Macau Jockey Club
• Macau Stadium
• Taipa House Museum (龍環葡韻住宅式博物館): Portuguese-styled houses [1]
• Taipa Fort (砲台)
• Macau International Airport
• University of Macau
• Macau University of Science and Technology

Rua do Cunha (Chinese: 官也街, Rua is a Portuguese word meaning street, and Cunha is Portuguese for corner) is a narrow street in Vila Taipa, the town centre of Ilha da Taipa, Macao. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Macau International Airport (澳門國際機場) (IATA: MFM, ICAO: VMMC)is the only airport in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The University of Macau (Universidade de Macau, 澳門大學, formerly known as the University of East Asia) was established in 1981, as the first university in Macau. ...

See also

• Category:Freguesias of Macau

External links

• Heritage on Taipa
• Satellite image of Taipa by Google Maps