Kau Sai Fishermen Village

A 40-minute sampan trip, passing enticing beaches and caves, brings you to the village and its single row of seafront two-storey houses. Living rooms open directly onto the pathway, and you can see families sitting outside preparing and eating lunch. An elderly fisherman wearing a traditional rattan hat sits cleaning lobster cages, as fishing and diving equipment hang drying in the breeze. It’s hard to imagine now, but more than 300 people lived here in the 1950s, many of them on boats — according to tradition — anchored in the bay. A memorial plaque pays tribute to British social anthropologist Barbara Ward, who lived here while studying the fishing community’s culture. She helped the fishermen get government permission to set up homes on the land in the 1950s, which led to the founding of Kau Sai Fishermen Village. Over the decades since then, most residents have moved to the city or overseas.

Just in case the village store is closed, bring enough drinking water for your time on the island, plus sun protection, including a hat and sunscreen. Remember to follow guidelines for visiting the Geopark: do not wander off the recommended sightseeing routes, don’t hike near cliffs to avoid injuries from falling rocks, and respect the geopark communities and their heritage. Visit the official website to learn more.

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Hung Shing Temple

The village’s elaborately decorated temple was built more than 130 years ago to honour Hung Shing, a deity believed to protect fishermen and sea traders, who is also known as the Chinese ‘God of the South Sea’. Official records give no exact date, but say it was first renovated in 1889. The grey brick building, with images of two dragons running along the roof and a line of brightly coloured pictorial tiles on the front wall, once included a classroom for villagers’ children. Later restoration of the temple, now a declared monument, saw its heritage conservation recognised in 2000 by UNESCO. The large space in front of the temple is used to stage the four-day-long birthday celebrations for Hung Shing — attended by thousands of people — featuring lion and dragon dancing and a Chinese opera performance during the second lunar month each year.

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Kau Sai Village Story Room

Next door to the temple, the ground floor of the village office has been turned into an exhibition space, to display historic fishing implements, other cultural relics and old photographs of Kau Sai Village, as well as a range of local herbs used in Hakka culture for traditional medicine. The story room, run by villagers with the support of the Lions Nature Education Foundation and Hong Kong Geopark, is open from 10am to 4pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (but close on the first three days of the Lunar New Year, and one month from the 20th of the first month in lunar year).

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Scallop Rock

Walk past the story room to the viewing pavilion to see Scallop Rock — which looks like a scallop you would find on your dinner plate — only two metres wide. This rock fragment, eroded by waves over centuries, broke off one of the many hexagonal rock columns found in Sai Kung Volcanic Rock Region, in Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark. The columns, created as dense volcanic ash and lava cooled following eruptions 140 million years ago, are estimated to cover an area of more than 100 sq km.

The pavilion also offers a view across the narrow gap known as Kau Sai Strait towards uninhabited Jin Island, also called Tiu Chung Chau — Chinese for ‘hanging bell island’ — because of the spectacular bell-shaped sea arch at its southern end. Hikers visit the island, covered with impressive fragmented hexagonal rock formations, for the stunning scenery, but to get there must hire a sampan or join a recommended Geopark guided tour.

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Herbal Plant Trail

Find the green sign near the temple and climb the steps, past the shaded clearing where the village school used to stand, and you’re on a hill trail lined by some of the flowering plants used by villagers for traditional herbal medicine, such as tea or medicinal soup. You can pick up a herbal trail leaflet in the story room, which will help you to identify some of the plants. As you rise higher, you leave the forest behind, and the path offers stunning open views of the islands, bays and rocky shores of Port Shelter.

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