Tuesday, December 31, 2013

To and on Hong Kong's most remote island (Photo-essay)

I realize it's New Year's Eve but rather post something to specially mark that occasion, I'm going to go ahead and do my usual Tuesday thang: i.e., put up a hiking photo-essay.  

One reason is that I'm so far behind in chronicling my hikes via photo-essays that it's bordering on the ridiculous.  (To give you an idea how long ago I went on this particular hike, click here.)  But the less mundane reason is that the excursion to Tung Ping Chau really was pretty special -- and one I had wanted to go on for a long time but hadn't until that particular day on account of Hong Kong's most remote island not being all that conveniently reached.

Located in Mirs Bay, this small (only 1.6 square kilometers) island is the most easterly and northern section of Hong Kong. The Big Lychee's only sizable island made up of sedimentary rock that's the youngest in the territory, it's known for having interesting geological formations and is a part of the Hong Kong Geopark.  So, yes, memories of the geology classes I took at Beloit and the cool professors who taught them did come back flooding back during my visit to Tung Ping Chau... ;b)   

It was early in the morning -- and the sky was scarily overcast, 
with dark clouds -- when I made my way to catch the only  

 After my party saw how long the queue for the ferry was, 
we felt pretty glad that we had gotten to the pier 
super early (and thus were able to make it to the island, 
unlike many of the folks in the above photo!)

Along the ride out to Tung Ping Chau, we got to view 
sights such as the east dam of Plover Cove Reservoir

Once home to a 3,000 strong fishing and farming community,
the island now is said to no longer have any permanent residents

 The island's Tin Hau Temple still looks well maintained
inside as well as outside though

Still, it's natural -- rather than cultural -- heritage
that is Tung Ping Chau's main draw

And in particular, it's the shale that's 
the prime, eye-catching attraction

Honestly, you ain't seen nuthin' yet -- and by the way,
that's mainland China in the not so far distance! ;b

To be continued -- and I promise that it won't be just geology (though it's true that there will be a lot of it too)! ;b

4 comments:

sarah bailey knight said...

hi ytsl,

Lovely photos of what looks like an interesting outing. Look forward to seeing more. The orange scallop(?) shell adds a bit of tang to a photo taken on an overcast day.

YTSL said...

Hi sarah sbk --

Am glad to know at least one person is looking forward to seeing more photos from my Tung Ping Chau visit. And am glad you noticed that shell -- a friend moved it there so that I could take the photo! ;b

Bill said...

Hi Yvonne,

Good images from your photo library...I've always found shale to be interesting and imaginatively stimulating. Looking at your shale photo, it could also be an aerial view of a fissured landscape...The bottom photo is a geologist's stratification-heaven and the Mainland looming in the background is a nice touch.

This photo-essay would be enough to convince anyone that it would be worth taking a long ferry ride to the sedimentary rock kingdom of Ping Chau.

Bill

YTSL said...

Hi Bill --

Am glad you like this photo-essay and hope you'll like the one I'll post next week too. :)