Ping Chau

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This article is about an island in northeastern Hong Kong.
It should not be confused with Peng Chau, another island in southwestern Hong Kong.

Ping Chau

Ping Chau (Chinese: 平洲; pinyin: Píng Zhōu) is an island in Hong Kong, China. It is also known as Tung Ping Chau (Chinese: 東平洲; pinyin: Dōng Píng Zhōu). Tung (Chinese: 東 , meaning east) is prepended to the name so as to avoid possible confusion with Peng Chau, another island in Hong Kong with a similarly pronounced name. Administratively, the island is part of the Tai Po District in the New Territories.

1 Geography
2 Geology
3 Tourism
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Geography

Geographically, Ping Chau is an offshore island located in the northeast corner of Hong Kong in Mirs Bay and is close 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 much closer to Mainland China (1.5 km) than to the main landmass of Hong Kong. It is close to Nan'ao of Dapeng.

The island is crescent in shape with its concave side facing northeast. Its name "Ping Chau" means "flat island" in Chinese, suggesting that the island is flat. Highest point in the island south is 45 metres and north 37 metres. The inner shore of the crescent hugs the Ping Chau Hoi with a few beaches. On the contrary, the outer is fairly rocky. This is the results of inclined siltstones, and wave action being higher along the west coast while the east is relatively sheltered.

[edit] Geology

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 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 lake - producing the siltstones and chert of Tung Ping Chau, which have been dated from the early Tertiary.

[edit] Tourism

The island has a temple dedicated to Tin Hau. There are many ancient buildings dating to 1,000 years ago that can also be found there.

On one side of the island there are steep cliffs, below which is an amazing wave-cut platform, with jagged rocks, set at a 30-degree angle, like a staircase. Here there are many rock pools containing all manner of marine life, such as sea urchins and crabs.

On the island's coastline at the pier side, there are over 60 different species of coral, and 35 species of algae, considered as the most beautiful in Hong Kong^{[citation needed]}. In fact, some say that Ping Chau has the only diveable sites in Hong Kong.

For most, the island is reachable by ferry from Ma Liu Shui ferry pier, near the Chinese University of Hong Kong