On Tuesday (Feb 12), a group of us headed out to Cheung Chau, an island southwest of Hong Kong Island (where HKU is situated). Apparently it’s 6x smaller than Lamma Island, so I assumed that we’d be able to cover all the hiking trails within a day but we ended up only seeing a few of the many sights the island has to offer.
Actually… now the more I research Cheung Chau the more I feel like we saw nothing on the island. Then again, it was PACKED with tourists (myself included, hehe) because the 12th was still considered a lunar new year holiday, and I kind of felt like we were on a time constraint because I was travelling with a big group (and you have to take into consideration when everyone wants to eat, where they wanna go, what time they want to go back, etc). Therefore we didn’t have as much time to hike all the different trails.
The view of Cheung Chau right when you get off the ferry. Tons of people, lots of little stalls selling food and other knick knacks. There’s tons of “bun” souvenirs (bun like baozi 包子), because Cheung Chau is known for its bun festival.
Houses in Cheung Chau
Street food! (uncooked, obvs) They cook it in some saucey soup (spicy/non-spicy depending on your preferences) after you order.
HERRO KITTY WARFLES! :O flamma. hahaha
We headed off to the right side right after we got off the ferry, and continued walking through the little streets until we reached a bicycle-renting area and a temple. After making a visit to the temple we split into 2 groups, those who wanted to hike and those who wanted to bike, and we agreed to meet back up in 2 hours. Anyways, 2 hours was not enough time! We walked by a cemetary before reaching Sai Wan, a small village. At Sai Wan there’s another Tin Hau temple (Tin Hau 天后 = name of a Goddess. She has several temples dedicated to her all over HK).
About 10 mins from the temple you get to Cheung Po Tsai Cave (張保仔), which was TINY, NARROW, AND PITCH BLACK. We were lining up outside waiting to get in and we saw a man sitting near the cave entrance (which we couldn’t see) selling flashlights, and I actually said out loud: “I wonder how that guy makes a living, he can’t sell THAT many flashlights.”
Going into the cave haha. It’s rumoured that this cave was where the famous pirate Cheung Po Tsai (google him) hid his booty. I really doubt it.
I was wrong. Dead wrong. I thought there would be lights inside the cave or some natural sunlight that would seep in, but the cave was actually pitch black and we were stupid and couldn’t go back to buy a flashlight. Therefore my phone acted as our flashlight hahaha. Pitch black-ness aside, the cave was really cool. You descend into the cave (hence why we couldn’t see the entrance), walk a bit, go down a ladder (imagine how dangerous that is in the dark), and walk through this super narrow path until you get to the exit (where you climb a ladder to get out). The path is actually so narrow at times that one has to twist/turn their body sideways to get through. If you’re physically out of shape… I’d avoid going in the cave or you might have to make an embarrassing turn back to get out the way you came in.
Ducking under to get through.
This girl is tiny! The wall-to-wall distance is literally probably 2.5 feet max at times.
Ladder to get out.
At the exit of Cheung Po Tsai Cave haha.
I’m pretty sure this was the view that we saw while waiting to get into the cave.
After the cave we headed to the Reclining Rock, and beyond that a beach that’s apparently nicknamed “Italian Beach” by the local foreigners. Anyways, the path to the Reclining Rock and the beach itself was beauuuuuutiful, rivalling that of the beaches and paths on Lamma island.
View of Italian Beach
I was standing on top of the Reclining Rock when I took this picture of a man fishing (he was extremely far from me, on much lower ground).
Afterwards some of us had a seafood dinner and walked around looking at the shops. I especially enjoyed this man’s outfit.
The girls from the group that went to Cheung Chau 🙂
I’ll have to go back and explore the rest of the island to see all the major landmarks. This time, in a small group! Also I think their bun festival is in May this year.. maybe I’ll go for that.
Cheung Chau Bun Festival 包山節. These are buns piled 60 feet high. People used to climb up these towers of buns until an accident happened in 1978 where the towers collapsed under the weight of too many people and 100+ people were injured. Since then the structures are still erected but no climbing competition is done.
If you’re going to go to Cheung Chau and want to do some walking around, these sites might help:
1) http://www.hkoutdoors.com/outlying-islands/cheung-chau.html
2) http://www.cheungchauhk.com/walking-cheung-chau/mini-great-wall-and-other-cheung-chau-trails (this website in general has tons of detailed pages about different “hikes” you can do in Cheung Chau–just look under “Articles” on the left hand side)
VANCOUVERKONG. 