I was organizing my laptop storage when I figured out that I have something left from Hong Kong that I really need to share with you guys... It was about trip to an outlying island in Hong Kong, Cheung Chau! Cheung Chau was one of the places that I like the most in HK. Read this blogpost 'til the end to see if you'll like it as much as I do!😉

Cheung Chau is an island located 10 kilometres southwest of Hong Kong Island. The size of the island is really small, but it was full with things to see and do, especially to make pig of oneself (read: pigging-out)!🐷 I went there twice; once with my friends and second time with my parents before I got back to Indonesia. This post will comprise both visits!

Transportation

It's really easy to get there. Just go to Central Pier no. 5 (it sounds like Chanel no. 5!) in Central and take the ferry to go there. There are two types of ferry, the ordinary one and the fast one which sail every 30 mins alternately. I forget the exact price of the ticket, but it was around HK$ 19~25 and you can just use your Octopus card to pay.

Go to the left side ⬅️ of this building to reach pier no. 5

If you ask me which ferry should you take, I couldn't give you my definite answer. On my second trip, I managed to take the fast ferry to reach Cheung Chau and use the ordinary ferry to make my way back to Hong Kong Island. The fast ferry is an enclosed air-conditioned cabin with 40 mins journey time, while the ordinary ferry is a opened cabin which require 55 mins to sail. The fast ferry was indeed really fast that made me quite sea-sick... I have no sea-sickness problem with ordinary ferry, but the wind on its opened-air cabin was really strong at that time it slapped my face throughout the 55 mins journey😂 My suggestion is, just pick any ferry that will sail after you arrive at the pier! Any of them will bring you to beautiful Cheung Chau😉

What to Do
I was walking by foot to stroll around Cheung Chau, but you can always rent a bike if you're not so into walking. Strolling around Cheung Chau will give us a totally different ambiance compared to HK Island or New Territories or Kowloon. There was no blocks of tall building, only landed house with the maximum of 3 to 4 stories.
Cheung Chau has 4 temples spread all over the island that you can visit. Two temples located on the upper part of the island and other two on the lower part. If we turn left from the pier (heading to the North), the nearest temple would be Pak Tai Temple which was built in 1783. This temple is the witness of the famous "Bun Festival" which is held in front of the temple every year (go search for the festival's picture in Google!).

Pak Tai Temple

Another temple I visit was Hung Shing Temple. This was the temple that located on the lower part of the island (turn right from the pier). Due to the geographical condition, there are many people in Cheung Chau working from fishing (you can find many dried seafood product in Cheung Chau). Thus, this temple was built to worship Hung Shing, the patron saint for fisherman. It is believed that Hung Shing will protect the fisherman to go and back safely.

Headed to the East, I was welcomed by the beautiful view of Tung Wan Beach. From the beach, we could see the 'modern' part of Hong Kong with the tall buildings from the distant (which is a contrary from buildings in Cheung Chau). The wind was breezy and to chill out there would be a great idea.
Cheung Chau also catch up the current world trend: love locks. They have a fence full of love-locks that we could buy in the nearby store. There were also some small shops selling indie brands that we could check out as well. Mostly they sell Korean or Japanese clothing, accessories and souvenirs. If you love handmade stuff, there was a shop selling handmade canvas bag that definitely worth your visit.

What to Eat
Please do come to Cheung Chau with empty tummy as you will fill it up with many gooood foooods. During my first visit with friends, we tried everything that looks promising. There were many many many choices of things to eat; from the ordinary noodle with beef broth, the instagramable poop-waffle, the unique fried mango, and their local charm, lucky bun with black sesame, red bean paste or lotus paste.
I love something chewy, so my personal favourites was the giant fishball! For HK$10 we will get 2 pieces of giant fishball with our choice of sauce. My friend recommended me the satay sauce and it was superb!😍 Please take this recommendation too and get yourself a satay sauce fishball! If you're a durian huge fan like me, I bet you will also love Cheung Chau's durian mochi. The texture was really soft and chewy with sweet and smooth durian fillings inside. They also have the mango mochi, but I like the durian more. I ensure myself to eat the fishball and durian mochi again on my second visit with my family😉

I really hope this post could make you interested to go to Cheung Chau during your stay in HK as it's always a good idea to escape from the modern metropolitan for a while😉 Thank you for reading and see you on my next post! xx