Yung Shue Wan Beach, Lamma Island, HK

Since "wan" means "beach" or "bay" or anything else even vaguely "seaside-ish" it's redundant to call this Yung Shue Wan Beach, but I'm going to do it to distinguish the beach from the town across the hill.

Yung Shue Wan

The Town

The Beach is over that hill.

Sorry!

You don't normally associate HK with beaches but the region consists of 260 islands, dammit, so logically they'd have a great many. They even have some terrific ones. There are even a few on the furthermost outlying islands that have surf. Yup, indeed that is so! (Maybe Alex could give me photos so I can stick 'em up here to show you.)

Yung Shue Wan Beach isn't, however, one of the really terrific ones, but nonetheless it's nice.

Probably that's the reason the town seems to be hiding it from Outsiders! Since the path to their beach isn't signposted, it's kinda like the town's insider-secret for how to get there. Maybe they enjoy watching so many sweating, puffing and red-faced Tourists wandering blindly up a great many escarpments and killer-steps only to constantly reach dead-ends! 

But my job here is to inform, so let's blow the cover off this one:

See this side street?

Turn in here and keep going.

You have to walk past a swathe of Cantonese knee-jerk entrepreneurial enterprises ...

I swear, they absolutely 

cannot see a group of strangers 

without thinking about 

what they can sell to them.

Tanka hat and Hakka hat

Did you forget to bring 

yours with you?

No matter. They have 'em here.

... but you eventually come to a path that takes you through the jungle:

It's impossible to find any place in 

HK that isn't done-over 

by human hands so this is 

as natural as things come 

in this city.

However I just love the things you come across in all our many jungles:

Ancestral Graves

Private spots of worship.

Random Police Stations.

There is also something extraordinarily odd about all the trees in the region, which, when we first arrived, sent me on a long hunt to discover the "why";  however I wrote letters to family when I finally solved this mystery and since I intend to eventually post 'em up, I won't talk about them here.

And, yes, sorry, it's all uphill, except for the sudden point when it suddenly isn't! 

And if you're really lucky, you get to see a burst of newly-hatched endemic Queensland butterflies and hear the croak of a great many endemic Queensland tree-frogs (all part of The Mystery of the Trees) as you trudge your way over the hill.

And then you're over and, naturally, have to pass another patch of Knee-jerk Entrepreneurials ...

These ones are for rent.

... until, finally, you've reached Yung Shue Wan Beach:

When we first arrived in HK, you pretty much had all the beaches to yourself since the Chinese simply "didn't get it". They don't like the sun and especially don't like getting a tan - thinking that dark skin denotes "peasantness" - which could be the secret of why they age so well.

 

However, increasingly, they've taken to Beach Culture and all that entails ...

Building sandcastles.

Wading.

Lifeguard Posts.

Non-swimming life-guards.

(Tell me, is this a HK original?)

Although there are a lot of smarty-pants folk who get the best of both worlds!

I know I've shown you this one before

but it's so good I'm posting it again.

As for me, I'm with the Chinese. I don't like the sun either. However, I still love going to the beach. And what I love most about Yung Shue Wan Beach is the tea shop where they let you smoke.

Yes, I get it.

You don't have to tell me

three times!

Honestly, of all the Beach Cultures on the planet, why this place has to adopt "Noosa" is beyond me! Have you ever been to Noosa? It's on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It used to be a gorgeous place, but the latest influx of migrants (a lot of them, I regret to say, Old Fiji Hands escaping our new Coup Culture) have turned this lovely town into Nasty-Grimsville, as the kids called it whenever they weren't calling it "No, Sir"!!!

Well, Yung Shue Wan Beach appears to be turning itself into "No, Sir" only, thankfully, everyone ignores all the signs and there were heaps of people kite-flying and dog-walking and ball-playing.  Just go for it I say!!!

And to end this posting, another ...

GRATUITOUS SUNSET SHOT