Location of Ping Chau in the Northeast corner of the territory.
View of the village of Sha Tau, on Ping Chau.
Tung Ping Chau is an island in Hong Kong. It was known as Ping Chau. Tung is prepended
to the name so as to avoid possible confusion with Peng Chau, another island in Hong Kong
with an identically pronounced name in the Cantonese language. Administratively, the
island is part of the Tai Po District in the New Territories.
Geographically, Ping Chau is an offshore island located in the northeast corner of Hong Kong
in Mirs Bay, close to the border with Guangdong Province in mainland China. The island has
an area of 1.16 km² and consists of shale rock. The island is the most easterly point
of the Hong Kong territory and is much closer to mainland China than to the main landmass
of Hong Kong. It is close to Nan'ao of Dapeng.
The island has the shape of a kidney bean with its concave side facing northeast. Its
name "Ping Chau" means "flat island" in Chinese. The highest points on the island are 48 metres
in the south and 37 metres in the north. The eastern inner shore of the crescent hugs Ping
Chau Hoi with a few beaches, including Cheung Sha Wan in the northeast. In contrast, the
western coast of the island is fairly rocky as a result of the greater wave action taking
its toll on the inclined siltstone there.
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 glories.
Ping Chau has a checkered history. Guns and opium were once smuggled from here, and during
the Cultural Revolution many mainlanders swam in hopes of reaching Ping Chau and the freedom
of Hong Kong.
The now virtually deserted island was once home to a thriving fishing and farm community
of 3,000 people, with over 100 fishing junks. Historical villages of Ping Chau included
the five oldest: Chau Mei, Chau Tau, Nai Tau, Sha Tau and Tai Tong, as well as five other
smaller family villages, which were subsequently developed: Chan Uk, Lam Uk, Lei Uk, Tsau Uk
and Tsoi Uk. The village of Chau Mei was settled by fishermen who sold their catch at Tai Po
Market and at Shayuchong, a coastal village now part of the Longgang District of Shenzhen.
During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Ping Chau was used as a logistics base for
the supply of military resources, including petrol, to the Chinese army. Several allied
military leaders were transported to the mainland via the island.
In the 1950s, there were about 1,500 people living in the ten villages on the island.
Two primary schools were built: Kwan Ying School in Tai Tong and Wai Sun School in Chau
Tau. At that time, the economy of the island deteriorated due to the depletion of fishery
resources and the termination of trade with the mainland as a consequence of the Korean
War. During the Cultural Revolution, political turmoil cut off commerce with the mainland
and most villagers moved away. By the early 1970s, only a few elderly people remained
on the island. In 2004, the last permanent resident moved out of Tung Ping Chau. Some
may return on weekends. In 2013, the District Offices estimated that Tung Ping Chau had
a population of 8.
Ping Chau is unique in the fact that it is the only sizeable island in Hong Kong made
up of sedimentary rock. Hong Kong is mostly formed of extrusive igneous rocks, after a
series of major volcanoes erupted during the Jurassic Period. Following the volcanic activity,
a basin formed in the northeast, with deposition in a brackish lakeproducing the siltstones
and chert of Tung Ping Chau, which have been dated from the early Paleogene period. 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.
Cham Keng Chau, in the northwest, is a chunk of land that has broken away from the island;
the Chinese say it represents the head of a dragon. Another notable rock formation is
Lung Lok Shui, on the southwestern coast, thus named because it resembles the spine
of a dragon entering the sea. At the island's southeastern end are two large rocks known
as the Drum Rocks, or Kang Lau Shek. They are 7-to-8-metre seastacks on a wave-cut platform.
Lan Kwo Shui features a long vertical cliff located along the southern coast, where several
caves were formed there as a result of long term wave actions. Lan Kwo Shui can be reached
by foot from Kang Lau Shek, at low tide and in calm sea conditions.