Tai Ping Shan means the 'peaceful Mountain' - a reference to the Peak - and was one of the first areas of Hong Kong Island to be settled by the Chinese after the creation of the former British colony. It quickly became infamous for overcrowding, poor housing and frequent outbreaks of disease, as well as a breeding ground for some of the first of Hong Kong's notorious Triad societies. 

Today its western end conceals a group of fascinating little temples, while its eastern margins are a warren of steep alleys, markets, workshops and dilapidated housing complexes. The temples are easy to miss, looking like little more than open-fronted homes: but coils of burning incense are a clue. The first is the tiny Kuan-yin shrine, dedicated to the goddess of mercy and frequented by mothers praying for fertility or the well-being of children and the resolution of domestic disputes. The image of the goddess is said to have been carved by the founder's wife, the original wooden block having reputedly been found in the sea emitting an unearthly golden light. 

The Sui-tsing Paak Temple (the 'pacifying General') is dedicated to the eponymous god, one renowned for curing disease, whose statue was brought here during a plague epidemic in 1894. The temple also contains rows of Tai Sui, statues representing 60 different gods associated with the 60-year cycle of the Chinese calendar. People come here to pray to the god linked to the year of their birth. 

The most fascinating temple is Paak Sing, literally the 'Temple of a Hundred Surnames', first built in 1851 as a hospice for the dying. With death in the family home considered unlucky, it was not unusual in the 19th century for the dying to be abandoned on Hong Kong's hillsides. The hospice was rebuilt in 1885 after the surrounding quarter was levelled following an epidemic. It is now dedicated to family ancestors, this type of temple generally being reserved for a single family or clan group, whose dead would be laid out awaiting burial elsewhere. Such temples would also hold ancestral 'soul tablets', small boards - similar to Christian headstones - giving the name and date of birth of the deceased. This temple is unusual in being open to all, and contains some 3,000 age-worn tablets, some with photographs of the dead. 

Alongside the Paak Sing Temple lies the Tin Hau shrine, dedicated to the Queen of Heaven or goddess of the sea, an understandably popular deity given HongKong's maritime traditions: most fishing and other local boats in the harbour are adorned with her image.