88
CHEUNG CHAU 1850-1898
INFORMATION FROM COMMEMORATIVE TABLETS
J. W. HAYES, M.A.*
*
Cheung Chau is a small island situated just over five miles west-south-west of Green Island at the western end of Hong Kong harbour. It is adjacent to the southern side of the much larger island of Lantau from which it is separated by a strait of just under one mile. The island is two and a quarter miles long at its greatest extent, but takes the form of a three-ended dumb-bell, each of whose arms radiates for roughly a mile from the low beach area on which the town is built. The three arms reach a height of about three hundred feet, the northern being the highest and rockiest. The other two are flatter and more fertile, especially that to the south-west where most of the agricultural land is situated. The total area is 592 acres (0.92 square mile), of which 91.07 acres were registered as cultivated land at the turn of the century.*
There are no large areas of cultivated fields, as most of the fertile land lies in small valleys cutting inwards from the coastal beaches or on low plateaux in the hilly areas of the island. Because of its small size and its low features, there is a general lack of perennial streams and this has always posed a problem for farmers and townspeople, though strangely enough it has never stopped them from staying there. The main anchorage is at Chung Wan facing due west, which together with Sai Wan to the south-west has attracted fishermen as a home port for hundreds of years. It is not an entirely safe anchorage as recent typhoons have shown, but, again, this does not seem to have deterred fishermen from operating from the island.
The census of 1911, taken a decade after it had passed under British rule, gave a land population of 3,244, mostly Punti, and a floating population of 4,442.*
* Mr. Hayes has been an administrative officer with the Hong Kong Government since 1956. His article entitled "The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898" appeared in Vol. 2 of this Journal.
The notes to this article are printed between pages 100-106.
88
CHEUNG CHAU 1850-1898
INFORMATION FROM COMMEMORATIVE
TABLETS
J. W. HAYES, M.A.*
*
Cheung Chau is a small island situated just over five miles west-south-west of Green Island at the western end of Hong Kong harbour. It is adjacent to the southern side of the much larger island of Lantau from which it is separated by a strait of just under one mile. The island is two and a quarter miles long at its greatest extent, but takes the form of a three ended dumb- bell, each of whose arms radiates for roughly a mile from the low beach area on which the town is built. The three arms reach a height of about three hundred feet, the northern being the highest and rockiest. The other two are flatter and more fertile, especially that to the south-west where most of the agricultural land is situated. The total area is 592 acres (.92 square mile).' of which 91.07 acres were registered as cultivated land at the turn of the century.*
There are no large areas of cultivated fields, as most of the fertile land lies in small valleys cutting inwards from the coastal beaches or on low plateaux in the hilly areas of the island. Because of its small size and its low features there is a general lack of perennial streams and this has always posed a problem for farmers and townspeople, though strangely enough it has never stopped them from staying there. The main anchorage is at Chung Wan facing due west, which together with Sai Wan to the south-west has attracted fishermen as a home port for hundreds of years. It is not an entirely safe anchorage as recent typhoons have shown, but, again, this does not seem to have deterred fishermen from operating from the island.
The census of 1911, taken a decade after it had passed under British rule, gave a land population of 3,244, mostly Punti, and a floating population of 4,442.*
* Mr. Hayes has been an administrative officer with the Hong Kong Government since 1956. His article entitled "The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898" appeared in Vol. 2 of this Journal.
The notes to this article are punted between pages 100-106.
!
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.