Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong, China

5Elliott W 5:00 PM Apr 6, 2021

Great food, good beach, lovely views
If you’re looking for great food, a good beach, and lovely nature views. I went on a day trip to Cheung Chau island with some friends. We started off the day by boarding the bi-hourly ferry to Cheung Chau in Central just before noon. The ferry service alternates between the slow ferry (only AC if you pay about 15 HKD more for upper deck access) and the fast ferry (AC for whole deck). We arrived at Cheung Chau about 40 minutes later on the fast ferry, and immediately went to look for lunch. There were classic street food stalls, Japanese, cha chan teng, and more. We opted to get lunch at a small cha chan teng just next in-land from the main praya, and mango mochi for dessert at a stall next to the main praya. After lunch, we opted for a hike Southward towards Cheung Po Tsai cave. Although we didn’t visit the cave, we took an alternate route down to the Po Yue cove where there were lovely views and nature there. Lots of people were biking around the island, but my friends and I were all too afraid of the heat to go for a bike. We headed to the wonderful beach just before dinner for a splash. Even though it was a public holiday, the beach was still spacious enough for my friends and I to mill about and chill. For dinner, we went back to the island centre and ate at a restaurant on the main praya. Averaging 100 HKD per person, we had an 8-course meal of seafood, chicken, veggies, rice and beer. It was not extremely filling, however, but that just means we could go for street food again after dinner. We took a spacious slow ferry back to Central, opting for the upper deck with AC, tables, and comfortable lighting.

4BradJill 5:00 PM Oct 27, 2020

Great half-day hiking and sightseeing destination
We recently spent a good day hiking on Cheung Chau Island. This is popular weekend and holiday destination for many from the city seeking the relaxed environs of Hong Kong's outlying islands. Cheung Chau is amongst the largest of the outlying islands and has over 20K inhabitants. It offers a half day or more of things to do/see/eat and even has a couple of hotels for those who prefer to overnight stays. Cheung Chau is accessible by regular ferry service from Central at Pier 5. The ride is around 45-50 minutes. To avoid queues and busy ferries, we took an early departure just before 7am. The ferry was nearly empty, a much preferred situation for those preferring smaller group gatherings and social distancing. There are also ferries linking Cheung Chau to Mui Wo (Lantau Island) and sister island Peng Chau. The island is 2.5 square kilometres and includes a loop trail covering the northern and southern sections of the island which intersects a busy village are in the middle, where you find the main ferry pier, 711, supermarkets, banks and a small collection of restaurants, cafes and seafood restaurants. The island lacks proper motor vehicles and is dominated by walkers and bikers. This is nice and means a much less noisy place, even when it is busy with pedestrian visitors. Along the loop trail, you will find a beautiful harbour filled with boats, nice rural coastal areas, beach, strolls through wooded and casual village areas. It takes in several temples, ancient rock carvings, some boulder hoping and scampering and even a cave which was used by the infamous early 19th-century pirate Cheung Po Tsai. You can also spend time browsing the interesting narrow streets of the village. All in all, we spent around 5.5 hours on Cheung Chau leisurely making our way along the loop trail and taking in most of the attractions along the route. We stopped in the village after completing the northern part of the island and bought morning breads from the famous bun shop called Kwok Kam Kee Cake Shop just south of Pak Tai Temple. We also had a late lunch after completing the southern section trail and returning to the village. This was followed by an early afternoon ferry ride back to the city, ending a nice day trip to Cheung Chau. Note: The Cheung Chau Bun Festival is held on the eighth day of the fourth moon of the Chinese Calendar (usually early May). This is an important festival time which sees vast numbers of visitors to Cheung Chau is is worth keeping mind for those interested in visiting at this time of year.