Open a coffee shop in Tai O and realize your dream boss: this is my favorite place.

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The drop from 30 000 residents to 2 000 is not only a simple 90% drop, but also a sign of the changes in Tai O over the past few decades.

In its heyday before the war, Tai O had a population of nearly 30,000. The previously prosperous fishing, sea salt and native products industries could not only supply local needs, but also have surplus exports. Today, there are only more than 2,000 residents left, and most of them are in their old age, living on their children living in urban areas. Some local middle-aged people depend on tourism for a living.

In the past, many people left Tai O, but the water village has now become a quiet small fishing village (of course, the holidays are still full of people). Many residents of the older generation still yearn for the prosperity of the water countryside at that time, while others love the serenity of Tai O at this moment.

Apart from the well-known salted fish with shrimp sauce, Tai O has begun to have different specialty shops in recent years. Some of the bosses are returnees from Tai O and some are new urbanites.

They moved to Tai O from afar because they found the space in Tai O to accommodate their dreams.

The busiest scenic spot in Tai O is the Tai O Chung footbridge connecting Wing on Street and Kat Hing Street. The bridge stands at the confluence of the river and the sea. in addition to enjoying the view of the shacks facing the mountain and the sea, the bridge will also find a decorated pavilion between the huts.

"I once told myself that when I retire, I want to have my own coffee shop and face the sea." Julia, the 56-year-old owner of the teahouse, has been from Tai O for generations. Julia left Tai O with her family at the age of five. Later, she moved to live abroad. Since her retirement, she has been looking everywhere for a suitable place to open a coffee shop. When I went back to Tai O for a holiday from England with my husband the year before last, I found that my most hated hometown was actually my dream place.

At the age of five, the Julia family experienced a great change when their father died and their mother moved to the Kowloon Bay cabin area with her nine children. Every time I go back to Tai O to visit relatives, it takes eight hours to walk by boat. "it takes more than three hours by boat, and at that time I even vomited yellow bile!" Apart from running barefoot and daring, she has a vague impression of other things in Tai O.

At the beginning of last year, Julia decided to settle in Tai O, turning his mother's ancestral house into a teahouse with a front shop and a rear residence. In fact, her fourth brother has already inherited this place, and personally converted the shack that had been destroyed by the fire into a pavilion full of classical flavor. Design, buying materials, sawing and even decoration are also done by the fourth elder brother in several years.

The fourth elder brother didn't say much and always smiled at the reporter, but he stressed to the reporter many times: "you must come back in December!" The sunset is the most beautiful here! " Fourth Brother highly recommended that when Julia and her husband first returned to Tai O, they also went to the platform to watch the sunset at 04:30 every day. "every day we just sit outside, drinking white wine and sometimes beer. The sunset is really beautiful, and I gradually feel that my hometown is so beautiful. " The couple traveled almost all over the world, and Julia said sincerely that France, Switzerland and Britain could not compare with the scenery of their hometown.

However, due to the lack of maintenance, the fourth elder brother's pavilions are filled with more than a dozen water basins, which has become a matter of business.

Mother Huang, who is over 80, would come back from time to time to live with Julia and his fourth brother. "when her brother was a child, he liked reading very much. Because we were poor, he let his brothers and sisters read. When Julia saw his brother's sacrifice, he thought we should make it up to him, too. "

Julia's idea of building a teahouse was to be "stimulated" by tourists. "several tourists came by one day and asked us if we had any drinks. I said I was also a tourist and would return to England in two or three months, but this is my brother's place, so they are welcome to take pictures. " Although they like quaint architecture, they suggest: "you let us take pictures, but there is no drink. We can't sit down. We are not leisurely enough." We will just take pictures and leave in a hurry. I'm sorry to stay so long. "

Perhaps it was the bluntness of foreigners that allowed Julia to overcome his fear of a water village since childhood. "I suddenly found that I could realize my dream here and help my brother protect it from turning this house into a rotten house."

Sixteen months after opening the teahouse, Julia finally saved a sum of money for the fourth brother to repair the building.

When Julia was 26 years old, he went to Japan to study part-time. After her first job as a coffee shop waiter, she told herself every day for three years, "I'm going to have my own coffee shop in the future." When she was in high school, she wrote "my Volunteer," but she wanted to be a social worker. "however, Sorry, after studying in Japan, I worked with my sister and sister in wholesale fashion for ten years, followed by real estate, all about money."

As long as the teahouse is not too busy, she must take the time to chat with the guests. "everyone must have dreams and hopes for your life to be meaningful." I can realize my dream here, and I can prove to young people that my dream can definitely come true. " Many guests mistakenly thought that she had been a teacher or social worker, and there was a middle-aged man who was gently lectured by Julia for smoking. "I said, 'your wife doesn't really need a diamond ring. She just wants you to be healthy. She doesn't have high blood lipids, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar.'"

After more than a year of operation, the guests filled in a total of 36 thick message books, in which some people even painted the Tai O River. "this (reading the message book) is the biggest entertainment for my brother and me after we have done all the preparatory work every night."

The teahouse is called "three lamps", and three lights are also hung up. The lighthouse representing the extradition of boatmen back to the fishing port also means that people should be grateful to their parents, teachers and people around them.