Tai Wai was built in Ming Dynasty(1574A.D.), which was then called Chik Chuen Wai (Chinese: ) . Sprouting from a traditional Chinese farming village growing rice, it once functioned as a light suburban industrial park in the 1970's. Few factory buildings are still in use, mostly as warehouses.

Tai Wai village, where the name of the area came from, was the largest and oldest walled village in Sha Tin with over 400 years of history. It was originally made up of 16 families, Wai, Chan, Ng, Yeung, Wong, Lee, Hui, Cheng, Tong, Yuen, Yau, Lam, Lok, Tam, Mok and Choy. (韋、陳、吳、楊、黃、李、許、鄭、唐、袁、游、林、駱、譚、莫、蔡)

The Wai family, being the largest family, is thought to be the direct descendants of the famous founder general of the Han Dynasty, Hon Shuen (韓信). To out run the hitmen sent by the queen, Lui(呂雉). The Hon descendants changed their surname into Wai by slipting the word Hon in two halves and took up the character on the right hand side.

The Cheng family, on the other hand, originated from a place called Xingyang in Zhengzhou, Henan(河南省,鄭州,滎陽) which is the place where Chang Ngo (嫦娥) supposingly flied to the Moon. It is also the birth place of Li Shangyin(李商隱), one of the most famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty.



Tai Wai New Village located on a slope alongside Tai Po Road, just minutes walk away from the old village, was established in the 1980's as the then colonial government's effort to conpensate the villagers for effectively confiscating their land for development.

Each male villager was given a piece of land of which he has the right to build a Spanish styled three storey house to live in. Most of these houses are now rented by outsiders for the relatively tranquil countryside surroundings.

Transport links are excellent. Tai Wai is right on the KCR East Rail line which is one stop from Kowloon Tong which can then interchange to MTR and go to other part of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and Lantau. Northwards Lo Wu and Shenzhen are just 30 minutes away. The Tai Wai Station, originally built in 1983, has been vastly expanded in 2004, to act as the interchange between the KCR East Rail and Ma On Shan Rail which also houses an enormous bus terminus. Bus links are also superb. Route 89C goes down through Kowloon Tong past Prince Edward on to Yai Ma Tei, Jordan and TST. Other buses such as 182 takes you down into Central; 170 to Ocean Park and Aberdeen; E42 goes directly to the airport just to name a few.