Why go
The incense trade gives familiar place names a connection beyond their modern roles. Products moved from inland and island communities through Tsim Sha Tsui towards Aberdeen and Guangzhou. Coastal defence developed alongside commerce, with Fat Tong Mun and Tuen Mun illustrating how these waters also became contested approaches to southern China.
The full story
During the Ming dynasty, Hong Kong’s incense wood industry linked production areas with a coastal transport network. Products from Lek Yuen, now Sha Tin, and Sha Lo Wan on Lantau were packed in wooden boxes and taken towards the wharf at present-day Tsim Sha Tsui. Small boats carried them to Aberdeen, where larger vessels continued towards Guangzhou. From there, inland waterways and roads carried the trade towards eastern Chinese markets. This commerce is one proposed explanation for the name “fragrant harbour”. The same coast needed defence. Fat Tong Mun lay within a patrol network, and Ming coastal maps recorded names including Hong Kong, Stanley, Wong Nai Chung and Tsim Sha Tsui. Portuguese contact with southern China in the early sixteenth century brought both diplomacy and conflict. Fighting around Tuen Mun in 1521 and further clashes the following year show how local waters connected trading ambitions with military rivalry.