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in the Hong Kong region in the late Ming dynasty than in the early Ch'ing. Then, from the early Ch'ing, after a period of decline, the boat population must have expanded until almost 1900. A particular type of settlement grew up in the area, quite possibly within the eighteenth century, such as on Kau Sai Island or Leung Shuen Wan, where a group of Hakka people farmed on the coastal strip and fished in coastal waters, and maintained a symbiotic relationship with a group of boat people whose boats moored in a permanent anchorage nearby. Boat people's temples, in honour of T'in Hau or Hung Shing, were frequently constructed in these communities. Ships from the naval squadron based in Tai P'ang occasionally called at these inlets and contributed to the construction and repair of the temples. The earliest datable object in these temples is a Ch'ien-lung 6 (1741) bell in the T'in Hau Temple on Leung Shuen Wan.5
The second stage of economic development began in the middle of the nineteenth century when Hong Kong was opened as a port. This stage continued until the Second World War. At the beginning of this period, Sai Kung District consisted of farming and fishing communities, with some salt-making at Yim Tin Tsai. But the opening of Hong Kong had an immediate impact on Hang Hau and the islands near Sai Kung. A bell was donated to the Hang Hau T'in Hau Temple in 1840, and there were a number of donations to both this and to the Hung Shing Temple on Tung Lung Island from the 1870's on. The temple at Tai Miu (Joss House Bay), and those in Po Toi O and Tin Ha Wan, were possibly built or repaired at this time. Donations were also made to temples on Kau Sai and Leung Shuen Wan in the 1880's and 1890's. The wide connections of Hang Hau are attested to by the donation tablet that was set up for the repair of the temple in 1876, on which are recorded the names of well over a hundred and fifty shops. Many of these were obviously not located in Hang Hau but conducted business there.6
The reason for this apparent increase in wealth from the mid-nineteenth century on in these coastal communities is the growing importance of fishing as a source of cash income. The new city provided a large market for fresh as well as salted fish, and a fishermen's community was growing at Shaukiwan on