The Cheung Chau is a dumbbell-shaped island set in the Adamasta Channel some six miles from Hong Kong opposite Tail Long Peninsula of Lantau Island’s east coast.

 

The ‘dumbbell’ is formed from two granite outcrops joined by a ‘tombolo’ or spit of land. This now forms the centre of Cheung Chau village with the east side making the up the harbour waterfront and the sandy public beaches of the west side.

 

Cheung Chau has always been a settlement reliant on its income from the sea, be that fishing or piracy. At the start of British colonial rule, more people lived on the water on junks than on land. Perhaps that is why there so many temples dedicated to Tin Hau, the patron goddess for fishermen, sailors and all those who depend on the sea as a way of life. 

 

Over time, the village developed into a lively settlement it remains today with merchants servicing the farmers and fishermen of Cheung Chau, and Lantau across the channel.  

 

Both its most famous residents made their name on the water. Cheung Po Tsai, a pirate who once commanded 600 ships hid out here before his life of new-found respectability as colonel in the Navy run by the Qing Government. Hundreds of years later, Cheung Chau was proud to produce Lee Lai-shan (San San), who won Olympic Gold in the Atlanta Games in 1996. Her medal for windsurfing medal remains Hong Kong’s only Gold. 

 

Cheung Chau itself is now best known as a busy tourist hotspot, with ferries – from Aberdeen and Central – bringing in thousands of visitors keen to escape the heat of the city for a day on its hiking trails and golden beaches – and what day would be complete without visiting one of the island’s renowned seafood restaurants or lively bars.

 

Visitor numbers hit their peak for the famous Bun Festival, held during the fifth to the ninth days of the fourth lunar month, which usually falls early in May. It is held in Tung Wan and in the open space in front of the Pak Tai temple. It consists of street processions and theatrical performances, and the climax is the climbing of the bun towers where young people scamper up to grab as many buns as possible.

 

It is said to date back to a plague that devastated Cheung Chau in 1777. The islanders built an altar in front of the Pak Tai Temple and petitioned the god Pak Tai to drive off the evil spirits besieging the island, while parading statues of deities through the narrow lanes of their village.

 

Like the island itself, it is unmissable.