Cheung Chau is a dumbbell-shaped island of roughly 2.5 square kilometres, sitting about 10 kilometres southwest of Hong Kong Island, and it has been inhabited continuously for centuries — by fishermen, by Hakka settlers, and, if the local mythology is to be believed, by at least one notorious pirate. Somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 people live here permanently, which makes it one of the more densely populated of Hong Kong's outlying islands, though you would not always guess it from the quieter northern and southern headlands.
The honest version of this article is that Cheung Chau will disappoint you if you arrive expecting spectacle. It has no grand colonial architecture, no Michelin-starred restaurants, no view that will make you drop your phone. What it has instead is texture: the smell of incense from a temple doorway, the sound of a mahjong game through a ground-floor window, the particular quality of light on the harbour at five in the afternoon. These are not things that photograph well. They are, however, the reason I keep going back.
At a glance
- Cheung Chau - The hideaway of the pirate Cheung Po Tsai: following a legend to its source
- Man Mo Temple, an old Taoist temple: where literature and war share an altar
- Scopri il Monastero di Po Lin a Hong Kong: a short ferry ride into a different register
- Hong Kong : Tian Tan Buddha - The Big Buddha: on pilgrimage and mass tourism occupying the same space
- Lantau Island, l'isola più grande di Hong Kong: the largest island and its uneven geography
- Il volto verde di Hong Kong: l'isola di Lamma: the island that chose a different pace
- Scopri la Magia di Victoria Peak a Hong Kong: what the skyline looks like from above
- The Hong Kong, Victoria Peak and the wonderful skyline: the view as a form of argument
- Ocean Park is a major attraction in Hong Kong: marine life, rollercoasters, and a complicated history
Cheung Chau - The hideaway of the pirate Cheung Po Tsai: following a legend to its source
Insider tip
Go on a weekday morning. On weekends the path to the cave fills with school groups and the rock scramble at the end becomes a queue. The headland views north toward Lantau are clearest before midday haze sets in.
Man Mo Temple, an old Taoist temple: where literature and war share an altar
Insider tip
The temple is more active in the early morning, when residents come to burn offerings and consult fortune sticks. If you arrive at midday you will mostly share it with other tourists.
Scopri il Monastero di Po Lin a Hong Kong: a short ferry ride into a different register
Insider tip
The vegetarian lunch at the monastery canteen is inexpensive and better than its institutional surroundings suggest. Arrive before noon to avoid the worst of the queues.
Hong Kong : Tian Tan Buddha - The Big Buddha: on pilgrimage and mass tourism occupying the same space
Insider tip
The cable car from Tung Chung is scenic but frequently has waits of 45 minutes or more on weekends. The bus from Mui Wo is slower, cheaper, and gives you a better sense of the island's interior.
Lantau Island, l'isola più grande di Hong Kong: the largest island and its uneven geography
Insider tip
The last bus from Pui O back to Mui Wo runs earlier than you expect. Check the timetable before you start walking, not after.
Il volto verde di Hong Kong: l'isola di Lamma: the island that chose a different pace
Insider tip
Sok Kwu Wan's seafood restaurants are aimed squarely at large group bookings from the city. If you want to eat well and quietly, stay in Yung Shue Wan.
Scopri la Magia di Victoria Peak a Hong Kong: what the skyline looks like from above
Insider tip
The circular walk around the Peak on Lugard Road takes about 45 minutes and gives you shifting perspectives on both the harbour and the southern side of the island. It costs nothing and most visitors skip it entirely.
The Hong Kong, Victoria Peak and the wonderful skyline: the view as a form of argument
Insider tip
The view from the southern terrace of the Peak Tower, looking away from the harbour toward the islands, is quieter and gives you a sense of how much of Hong Kong is still green.
Ocean Park is a major attraction in Hong Kong: marine life, rollercoasters, and a complicated history
Insider tip
The park is substantially less crowded on weekday mornings outside of school holidays. The cable car between sections is worth taking at least once for the perspective it gives you of the coastline below.
There is a particular quality to islands that exist primarily in relation to somewhere else — places whose identity is partly constituted by what they are not. Cheung Chau is not Hong Kong in the sense that most people mean when they say Hong Kong: not the glass towers, not the Michelin restaurants, not the MTR. It is Hong Kong in the older sense, the sense that predates the reclamation and the finance industry, the sense of a coastal settlement that organised itself around the water and the weather and the rhythms of fishing and trade.
The places listed in this article range from a pirate's cave to a theme park, which is a range that tells you something about the territory's fundamental character: a place that holds contradictions without needing to resolve them. You can spend a morning in a Taoist temple watching incense smoke rise toward a ceiling blackened by decades of offerings, and spend the afternoon on a cable car above a marine park. Both are Hong Kong. Both are, in their different ways, worth your time.
What I would say, after years of returning to Cheung Chau and its neighbouring islands, is this: the ferry ride back to Central at dusk, with the harbour lights coming on and the city assembling itself out of the haze, is the moment that stays with you longest. Not the cave, not the Buddha, not the skyline from the Peak. The moment of return, and what it does to your sense of scale.
The places listed in this article range from a pirate's cave to a theme park, which is a range that tells you something about the territory's fundamental character: a place that holds contradictions without needing to resolve them. You can spend a morning in a Taoist temple watching incense smoke rise toward a ceiling blackened by decades of offerings, and spend the afternoon on a cable car above a marine park. Both are Hong Kong. Both are, in their different ways, worth your time.
What I would say, after years of returning to Cheung Chau and its neighbouring islands, is this: the ferry ride back to Central at dusk, with the harbour lights coming on and the city assembling itself out of the haze, is the moment that stays with you longest. Not the cave, not the Buddha, not the skyline from the Peak. The moment of return, and what it does to your sense of scale.
