Astonishing! I didn't expect to!
All I really knew about the place was that it was famous for its buns ...
Cheung Chau buns.... and its annual Bun Festival wherein all the young men - and increasingly women - of the town scramble up a tower of buns in order to grab the special one at the top.
When Fiji David suggested we go over yesterday for the day I didn't relish the idea because ... well, I hate to admit this, but I'm a little over Tanka Fishing Villages! Done it too often!
It's a thing you do in HK on weekends: catch a ferry over to yet another of HK's 260+ little islands, walk through a tiny Scottish-looking fishing village, stroll along the seafront promenade, visit the local Tin Hau temple - which usually contains a singular object, like a deformed stuffed fish in a glass case - walk over a hill to a little cove for a swim in summer or hike around the island if it's winter - and then select a seafood restaurant on the waterfront and spend the rest of the afternoon eating a delicious range of all sorts of fish, clams, lobsters, squid, and other less well known sealife (avoid the jellyfish. It even defeats the Cantonese to make it taste anything other than YUCK!!), watch the invariably wonderful sunset, then sit around drinking a bottle of wine and talking until it's time to catch the ferry back to Central.
For several years, this was a simply wonderful way to spend a day only ... I'm now, yes, a little over it ...
... so when Fiji David suggested we go to Cheung Chau yesterday to do all this, I was all sorts of "mmmmm!" It was only the prospect of their specially lovely company that made us agree.
But Cheung Chau is different:
It's less of a Tanka fishing village and more of a town, and it's so pretty ...
... with some gorgeous architecture ...
... a beautiful temple ...
... fabulous beaches ...
... and has stunning views ...
Very like Suva Harbour or Cairns!... and there's so much to do and see and quite a bit to buy ...
Wholesale incense.... and the row of seafood restaurants along the waterfront has wonderful food that is so much cheaper than elsewhere ...
... all freshly caught by these guys:
OK, liked this photo so much I just wanted to include it.
Actually, the fish comes from these guys!
A flotilla of deep sea fishing boats.
Although I'm sure a lot from these small-scale Tanka fishermen!
The dingys to take Tanka out to their sampans.
Hey, we actually ate squilla. Know them? They're these sea-creature-things that look like huge cockroaches - no one thanked me for that description while we were eating - only with knife-like talons at the front and back. They used to be all over the reef by the shore in Deuba but I had no idea they'd be so delicious; cooked in oil with garlic and little shreds of lemon grass. Yummy! I've only ever had my hand sliced open by them before, so yeah! Revenge!
Oh, have to tell you because it's so odd; there's so much going down in Cheung Chau: disaster-type things; like, all day there was this constant police action ...
... ambulance action ...
and rescue helicopter action ...
... and we saw the convoy of fabulously tiny firetrucks, sirens blaring ...
... on four different occasions. Fiji David said it also happened another time he came as well. Curious, huh! Aging population? Dare-devil population? Shonky electrical wiring? Old woks that explode while cooking?
But you want facts and figures not speculation:
Like on other Tanka islands, only rescue vehicles are allowed on their tiny roads so you have to hire bikes or rickshaws or walk to get around. But that's part of the fun.
Anyway, the Ferry costs HK$22.50 each way. Bike hire: not sure, but it's only really pocket change.
So, there you go. If you're the more jaded type of HK resident, Cheung Chau is the place for you, even when they aren't having their annual Bun Festival.
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