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Kau Sai Chau | island map

Kau Sai Chau

Kau Sai Chau is the biggest island in Sai Kung and home to the only public golf course in Hong Kong, which came into service in mid-December 1995.

Kau Sai Village, at the south end of the island, was once a Hakka settlement. In 1952, the colonial government set up the Port Shelter Firing Range, and most parts of Kau Sai Chau and nearby Jin Island were firing targets. To avoid firing-related accidents and injuries, the Kau Sai Village Hakka residents were relocated to the new Kau Sai San Tsuen in Pak Sha Wan, Sai Kung Peninsula.

In those days, fishermen operating in waters around Kau Sai Chau lived on boats, and the Kau Sai Chau anchorage was their base. They berthed their vessels there to take a break or maintain their fishing boats and equipment. Back then, fishermen did not have the opportunity to receive education, and literacy levels were low. They continued to fish and live in the firing range area, exposing themselves to high risks.

Barbara Ward, a British anthropologist, conducted research on the lifestyle and culture of fishermen in Hong Kong. She chose Kau Sai Chau for her research subject and used the vacant Kau Sai Village as a base and temporary dwelling. She helped Kau Sai fishermen communicate with the colonial government and lobbied to have the firing range relocated to Basalt Island. On behalf of the fishing community, she also applied for a government land licence to set up homes in the Kau Sai Village land lot. The hamlet was renamed Kau Sai Fishermen’s Village, and 300 to 400 fishermen settled there in the 1950s. Because of economic transformation and improved living standards over the decades, most of the villagers moved to the city; only about a dozen elderly residents continue to live in Kau Sai Village today.

(Content on this page is extracted from Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark and Hong Kong Tourism Board website)

Hung Shing Temple

The Hung Shing Temple is the most important historical building in Kau Sai Village. It is a shrine for Hung Shing, the patron god of the fishing community. The temple is at least 150 years old. This ornately decorated building won the Outstanding Project Award of the 2000 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation.

On the 23rd day of the 2nd lunar month each year, the Kau Sai villagers begin celebrating the Hung Shing Festival. For several days in a row, ceremonies and rituals are staged to mark the deity’s birthday. It is an important religious event as well as a festival, which promotes kinship and cohesion. The island is decorated with lanterns and colourful ornaments. Celebration activities include lion dance, dragon dance and religious Chinese opera. The bay is filled with the jubilant sound of drums and gongs. This great event is attended by thousands of returning overseas villagers and tourists. Once a year, the usually quiet fishing village becomes a bustling fairground.

Kau Sai Village Story Room

The Kau Sai Village Story Room is a joint effort between the local villagers and Hong Kong Geopark, with strong support from the 55th Orient & Southeast Asian Lions (OSEAL) Forum. Converted from the Kau Sai Village Office, it communicates the history and culture of Kau Sai Village to visitors and highlights the importance of conservation through an exhibition of traditional fishing tools, cultural relics and Hakka herb specimens.

Scallop Rock

The High Island supervolcano came to existence 140 million years ago, and Kau Sai Chau is a part of this site. The geological setting of the island is similar to that of the East Dam of the High Island Reservoir, the Ung Kong Group and the Ninepin Group. Kau Sai Chau is situated in an inner sea, where wind and wave erosion is relatively mild. There are no sheer sea cliffs, and the rock columns are not typically exposed. However, you can still see the basic form of the hexagonal rock columns in the coastal intertidal zone where they emerge. Because of the unstable formation environment at the periphery of the columnar rock range, the rock columns are irregular in shape and have developed many cracks. The Scallop Rock on the east coast of Kau Sai Village is actually a section of a broken rock column. It is 2m in diameter.

Wo Fung Pavilion
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 plants used by villagers for traditional herbal medicine. You can get 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.

Kau Sai Fish Culture Zone

In the sheltered bay between the two islands, Kau Sai Chau and Jin Island, you will find the largest marine fish culture zone in Hong Kong, where marine fish species including star snapper, Russell’s snapper and giant grouper are raised in cages suspended by floating rafts. You can learn how fish are raised and caught, and practise your fishing skills in the fishing area, and children can play in the children’s net fish area. You’re beside and above the water, so you can spend the afternoon with your family there, while enjoying the sea breeze and the gentle lapping of waves. Book ahead if you wish to go fishing in your visit.

Selected Artworks

Registration Information

The online registration will be open from 2 Nov (Wed) 10am on a fortnightly basis, for the coming 2-4 weeks upon the system’s update. The registration schedule is as follows:

Date Open for Registration Newly Open Dates of the Programmes/Tours*
2 Nov (Wed) 16 Nov - 30 Nov
16 Nov (Wed) 1 Dec - 14 Dec
30 Nov (Wed) 15 Dec - 28 Dec
14 Dec (Wed) 29 Dec - 16 Jan
*Public may register for the programmes and guided tours that are still available for booking from the previous period. Quotas are limited and registration is open on a first-come-first-served basis. For programmes/guided tours that are already full, a waiting list with 20 quotas is available for signing up. If any successful registrants withdraw from the event, notification will be sent to registrants on the waiting list in their order of registration. They will need to confirm the registration within 24 hours upon receipt of the notification to get the place. To sign up for the waitlist of a full programme/guided tour, please visit the registration page directly.