Hoi Ha Wan

In one fine Sunday, after the kids had done with their homework, we made it to Hoi Ha Wan.

Husband said this one should be an easy and quick trip. So, we don't bother to bring many things along, just the camera, water & bread.

The road to Hoi Ha Wan is 80% identical to the road to High Island Reservoir, except the green minibus will bend into another junction in the restricted area. Within an hour time, we were here, in a mosquito size village.

There is nothing too fascinating about the village, so we walked straight into the woods.

Hoi Ha Wan (海下灣) or Jones Cove is a bay at the north of Sai Kung Peninsula.

We walked further, to the sea shore.

The cow didn't even raise his eye brows to look at the visitors. Apparently, it had get used of the people who come-and-go day-in, day-out.

Hoi Ha Wan is a Marine Park. It is well known as one of the best sea area in Hong Kong with good water quality and diverse marine lives. Coral communities in Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park is one of the best colonies in Hong Kong. Numerous kinds of corals can be ascertained under the sea bed.




In order to keep the local ecosystems away from human intervention, fishing, particularly bottom trawling and uses of dynamites or poisons like cyanides, collecting sea products and corals are prohibited by law.


Besides that, visitor traffic is carefully monitored to prevent uncontrolled tourism putting undue pressure on the sensitive and fragile marine and coastal environments.

This place is also a hot spot for diving.

Think the place is tranquil and quiet?

Well, not exactly. In fact, the beach was over crowded at that time.

We stayed until all the people had left, then we feel its quietness.

The fruit that looks like pineapple at first glance. I don't think it is edible.

We wanted to continue the walk, but the road was blocked. So, we just got to wait nearby until he finished his business.

We waited here, used this as a shelter, just in case the ox attack us. This is not ordinary debris, but the remnants of lime kiln (石灰窰遺址). There are total 4 limekilns in Hoi Ha Wan but only 2 remain comparatively intact. They are located on the eastern shore of inner Hoi Ha Wan.

Limekiln industry was one of the oldest industries (1800-1939) in Hong Kong, which refined lime from either oyster shells or coral skeletons for construction and agricultural uses. In the processes, limestone, i.e. calcium carbonate, in the shells and corals would be transformed into calcium oxide by means of heating. Yeah, a chemistry student will know about this...

After some time, finally we were on the track to go deeper.

Mangroves can be seen along the track too.

A lonesome jetty to no where.

We took a short break standing on the jetty, just to let the boys to have something to chew on.

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The 4 divers who we have seen just now had moved to here. We heard the coach were talking to his crews long-windedly. We stood there for more than 10 min, but we still couldn't see any sign of when they would dive.

A few shots of the surrounding, taken from the jetty point.

Looking back at the beach we were at just now...

We then continue to walk further...

Another 15 minutes walk, we saw this blue-roof house floating on the water. This is Hoi Ha Marine Life Centre. In order to promote marine conservation and provide continuing, hands-on environmental education, WWF has created the Hoi Ha Marine Life Centre. Targeted at secondary school students, was launched in September 2004.

A specially designed shallow draft Glass-bottomed Boat, named the Transparency, is the first of its kind in Hong Kong. It seats 40 passengers in comfort while giving them a rare opportunity to experience Hoi Ha Wan's unique and diverse marine environment.

With the generosity of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, renovation work of the Centre was completed in October, 2007.

We couldn't go inside the Marine Life Centre without permit. Nevertheless, we had decided to turn back at this point.

On the way back...

The sun is almost go down by then...

Told the boys they can make use of this big leaf as an umbrella in the rainy day. They just giggled. What's so funny about this idea?

Everyone has gone now...I think the village has back to its normal quiet state.

The village of Hoi Ha.

A line of people who were waiting for the No.7 green minibus to come to pick us. The bus route is quite frequent, waiting time is about 5-10 min. So, no complaint about it.