CRUISING SAI KUNG

Ferries, Islands, and Volcanoes

Guy Nowell on the joys of local ferries.

You don’t need your own boat to explore the watery corners of Hong Kong, rather like you don’t need a car to get around the dry bits. Hong Kong’s seagoing public transport is first class, and of course the charter industry has gone nuts in the last 18 months.

If you’ve never taken a grumbling ferry boat to the outlying islands on the east side of Hong Kong, you have missed a treat. The 94 bus from Sai Kung goes all the way to Wong Shek Pier in the Sai Kung Country Park, and from there you catch the ferry across to Tap Mun, which is worth the trip for the sake of the island walk and any number of excellent seafood restaurants along Tap Mun Hoi Pong Street.

You need to make a little more effort to catch a ferry out of Ma Liu Shui, right in front of Chinese U, but it’s more than worth it. The ferry rides themselves are a treat – never mind the destinations. On weekends only, ferries go to Tung Ping Chau on the far side of Mirs Bay, and to Kat O, Ap Chau, and Lai Chi Wo on the north edge of Double Haven. All of these pleasantly out-ofthe-way places involve a little light walking and of course food. It may not be Michelin-starred or even cordon bleu, but some gentle exercise is a better seasoning than any amount of expensive pink Himalayan rock salt!

And the thing that all these places have in common is that they are within the much applauded Geopark, established (we read somewhere) to protect the natural landscape of the area. (Quite how giving somewhere a name all of a sudden “protects” it, I haven’t figured out, unless it is from rapacious developers. But never mind: Mother Nature has been hurling typhoons across this area for presumably millennia, so how much protection is required remains moot.)

The geology within the Geopark area is nothing short of astonishing. Did you know that the whole of Port Shelter is nestled within the crater of a long-dead supervolcano? And that basalt columns mostly evident in the Ninepins and the Ung Kong group of islands (Bluff and Basalt, Town Island, Wang Chau) are some of the very biggest in the world? Or that Tung Ping Chau, Bluff Head and the southern edge of Double Haven are composed of the only sedimentary rocks in Hong Kong? The Geopark Centre near the Sai Kung bus station provides plenty of information – it’s interesting and educational.

The Government recently ‘mentioned’ an idea to build a ’Tourist Port’ in Double Haven, which would inevitably destroy the very thing that makes the area so attractive – inaccessibility. Some of us believe that places benefit from being a little off the map. If What has hitherto been the province of enthusiastic hikers and assorted sailors, boaters and kayakers, would overnight become infested with brashness, noise, and litter.

Meanwhile, we highly recommend a Sunday morning ferry ride. It’s a real treat, and a cheap day out that you won’t forget in a hurry. Do it now, before the spoilers arrive. Guy Nowell is founder of Asia Yacht Press and a Sai Kung resident since 1988 (yup, that’s 33 years, Deirdre). A new edition of his fabulous and authoritative coffee table book Cruising Hong Kong is available at

asiayachtpress.com/cruising-hongkong