Ping Chau is an
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
in
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. It is also known as
Tung Ping Chau .
Tung is prepended to the name so as to avoid possible confusion with
Peng ChauPeng Chau is a small island located off the north-eastern coast of Lantau Island. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District of Hong Kong. It has an area of 0.98 km²....
, another island in Hong Kong with a similarly pronounced name. Administratively, the island is part of the
Tai Po DistrictTai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It covers the areas of Tai Po, Tai Po Kau, Ting Kok, Plover Cove and the northern part of Sai Kung Peninsula on both shores of Tolo Channel. It is located in the New Territories....
in the
New TerritoriesNew Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...
.
Geographically, Ping Chau is an offshore island located in the northeast corner of Hong Kong in
Mirs BayMirs Bay is a bay in the northeast of Crooked Island and Sai Kung Peninsula of Hong Kong. Ping Chau stands in the midst of the bay...
and is close to the border with
Guangdong ProvinceGuangdong is a province on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
in
mainland ChinaMainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which are under the jurisdiction of the PRC but run on different economic and...
.
Ping Chau is an
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
in
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. It is also known as
Tung Ping Chau .
Tung is prepended to the name so as to avoid possible confusion with
Peng ChauPeng Chau is a small island located off the north-eastern coast of Lantau Island. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District of Hong Kong. It has an area of 0.98 km²....
, another island in Hong Kong with a similarly pronounced name. Administratively, the island is part of the
Tai Po DistrictTai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It covers the areas of Tai Po, Tai Po Kau, Ting Kok, Plover Cove and the northern part of Sai Kung Peninsula on both shores of Tolo Channel. It is located in the New Territories....
in the
New TerritoriesNew Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...
.
Geography
Geographically, Ping Chau is an offshore island located in the northeast corner of Hong Kong in
Mirs BayMirs Bay is a bay in the northeast of Crooked Island and Sai Kung Peninsula of Hong Kong. Ping Chau stands in the midst of the bay...
and is close to the border with
Guangdong ProvinceGuangdong is a province on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
in
mainland ChinaMainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which are under the jurisdiction of the PRC but run on different economic and...
. The island has an area of 1.16 km² and consists of
shaleShale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable...
rock. The island is much closer to mainland China (4 km) than to the main landmass of Hong Kong. It is close to Nan'ao of
DapengDapeng is a subdistrict in the south east of district Longgang, in prefecture-level city Shenzhen, in the Chinese province Guangdong...
. The island is the most easterly point of Hong Kong.
The island's largest village, Sha Tau, is something of a ghost town, with many cottages boarded up. A large part of the island is country parkland, with footpaths overgrown with orchids, wild mint, and
morning gloriesMorning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics is in flux...
. At the island's southeastern end are two huge rocks known as the Drum Rocks, or Watchman's Tower Rocks (更樓石, Kang Lau Shek). At the north end is a chunk of land that has broken away from the island; the Chinese say it represents the head of a dragon.
The island has the shape of a kidney bean with its concave side facing northeast. Its name "Ping Chau" means "flat island" in
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, suggesting that the island is flat. The highest points on the island are, in the south is 46 metres and the north is 37 metres. The eastern inner shore of the crescent hugs the Ping Chau Hoi with
a few beachesHong Kong has a long coastline that is full of twists and turns with many bays and beaches. Many of them are well sheltered by mountains nearby, as Hong Kong is a mountainous place...
. On the contrary, the opposite western coast of the island is fairly rocky. This is the results of inclined
siltstoneSiltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a composition intermediate in grain size between the coarser sandstones and the finer mudstones and shales.- Description :...
s, and wave action being higher along the west coast while the east is relatively sheltered.
History
Ping Chau is almost deserted and has a checkered history. Guns and opium were once smuggled from here, and during the
Cultural RevolutionThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People’s Republic of China between 1966 and 1976, resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray.It was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, on May 16,...
many mainlanders swam through shark-infested waters in hopes of reaching Ping Chau and the freedom of Hong Kong.
The island was once home to a thriving fishing and farm community of 3,000 people, but political turmoil during the Cultural Revolution cut off commerce with the mainland and most villagers moved away. In the 1950s, there were about 1,500 people living in the ten villages on the island. By the early 1970s, only a few old people remained on the island.
Geology
Ping Chau is unique in the fact that it is the only sizable island in Hong Kong made up of sedimentary rock. Hong Kong is mostly formed of extrusive
igneous rockIgneous rock is one of the three main rock types . Igneous rock is formed by magma being cooled and becoming solid. They may form with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive rocks or on the surface as extrusive rocks...
s, after a series of major
volcano3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
es erupted during the Jurassic Period. Following the volcanic activity, a basin formed in the northeast, with deposition in a brackish lake—producing the siltstones and chert of Tung Ping Chau, which have been dated from the early
TertiaryThe Tertiary is a term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.588 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
. It is also home to some spectacular cliffs and wave-cut platforms. Landforms such as these are very rarely found in the rest of Hong Kong
Tourism
The island has a temple
dedicated Tin HauAround 60 temples are dedicated to Tin Hau in Hong Kong. They include:* Tin Hau temple, located at 10 Tin Hau Temple Road, Causeway Bay, east of Victoria Park, in Eastern District, on Hong Kong Island. It is a declared monument. The temple has given its name to the MTR station serving it .* The...
in the village of Sha Tau, and a
Tam KungTam Kung is a sea deity worshiped in Hong Kong and Macau.A temple dedicated to this deity is located at the end of Shau Kei Wan Man Street East, Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, and was originally a small shrine. Local people raised money to construct it in 1905 and reconstructed it many times afterwards...
Temple. Many early residents of Ping Chau were from
ShantouShantou is a city of 4,971,000 permanent inhabitants in coastal Eastern Guangdong, China, occupying an area of 2,064 km
2...
(Swatow) and they kept the tradition of worshiping Tam Kung after they settled on the island. There are many ancient buildings dating to 300 years ago that can also be found there.
On one side of the island there are steep cliffs, below which is an amazing wave-cut platform, with jagged rocks, set at a 30-degree angle, like a staircase. Here there are many rock pools containing all manner of marine life, such as
sea urchinSea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals that compose part of class Echinoidea. They are found in oceans all over the world. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple,...
s and crabs. On the island's coastline at the pier side, there are over 60 different species of
coralCorals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone-like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals...
, and 35 species of
algaeAlgae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms. The largest and most complex marine forms are called seaweeds. They are photosynthetic, like plants, and "simple" because they lack the many distinct organs found in...
. In fact, some say that Ping Chau has the only
diveableScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater for recreation, commercial or industrial reasons.Unlike early diving, which relied exclusively on air pumped from the surface, scuba...
sites in Hong Kong.
For most, the island is reachable by
ferryA ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
from
Ma Liu ShuiMa Liu Shui or originally Ma Niu Shui is an area in Sha Tin District of the New Territories, Hong Kong.The area faces Tolo Harbour. There is a ferry pier, from which regular ferry services run to remote areas including Tap Mun and Ping Chau in the northeast New Territories...
ferry pier, near the
Chinese University of Hong KongThe Chinese University of Hong Kong, commonly referred to as CUHK, is the second oldest university in Hong Kong; it is campus-based and also the only collegiate university in the territory...
. The landing point is the
Tung Ping Chau Public PierTung Ping Chau Public Pier is a public pier in Tung Ping Chau, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is located at Wong Ye Kok near the centre of the island and it is the only pier on the island. Improvement works on the pier was completed in 2007. There is only one ferry route travelling...
, the only public pier on the island, located at Wong Ye Kok (王爺角). The ferry service is operated by Tsui Wah Ferry Services Co. Ltd on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays only. The journey takes 1 hour 40 minutes.
During the weekends, there are many people on the island. These include those who have come to dive, and those who have come to see the cliffs and wave-cut platforms. Some people also use it as a weekend home. There is a camping site as well as picnic and barbecue sites on the island, managed by the
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation DepartmentThe Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department , formerly Agriculture and Fisheries Department before 2000, of the Hong Kong Government is responsible for agriculture and fisheries in Hong Kong, conservation projects and issues, and managing the country parks and special areas...
. 57,000 people visited Ping Chau in 2005.
Conservation
The Tin Hau Temple in the village of Sha Tau is listed as a
Grade III Historic Building.
Ping Chau has been designated as a
Site of Special Scientific InterestSite of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a special area to protect wildlife, habitats and geographic features based on scientic interest in Hong Kong. Scientic interests are special features relating to animal life, plant life, geology and/or geography...
since 1978.
Ping Chau is part of the Plover Cove (Extension) Country Park, designated in 1979.
The Tung Ping Chau Marine Park was designated in 2001 as the fourth
Marine Park in Hong KongThe Marine Parks Ordinance protects and conserves the marine environment and a rich collection of aquatic animals and plants, such as corals, sea grasses and dolphins. The ordinance also provides the legal framework for the designation, control and management of marine parks and marine reserves...
. It occupies a sea area of about 270 hectares which encloses the island of Ping Chau.
See also
- Islands of Hong Kong
- Magic Cop
Magic Cop aka. Mr. Vampire 5 is a 1990 Hong Kong film directed by and starring Lam Ching Ying.-Plot:Lam, an experienced policeman, lives a quiet and beautiful life in Tung Ping Chau...
, a 1990 Hong Kong film partially set in Ping Chau
External links