Tai Wan Road (traditional Chinese: 大環道; simplified Chinese: 大环道; pinyin: Dàhuán Dào; Cantonese Yale: daai6 waan4 dou6) is a road in the Tai Wan area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. It runs from Ma Tau Wai Road to Dyer Avenue.
Name and History
The road was originally constructed on 2 June 1922 under the official Chinese name 大灣道 (literally "Big Bay Road"), named after the local area known as "Tai Wan" (大灣; "Big Bay"). However, due to a local pronunciation similarity—residents pronounced "灣" (waan, meaning "bay") similarly to "環" (waan, meaning "ring")—the name was mistakenly rendered as 大環道 on road signs. The public gradually adopted this erroneous name, and it became the de facto name for decades.
On 23 December 2005, the Hong Kong Government formally recognized the change, announcing that the road would be split into two segments with the official names Tai Wan Road (大環道) and Tai Wan Road East (大環道東). The split was necessitated by the intersection of Man Yue Street through the original road alignment.
Location
Tai Wan Road is situated in the Hung Hom district of the Kowloon City area. The surrounding area was originally part of Tai Wan Bay on the Kowloon Peninsula, which was reclaimed primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries amid industrial development.
