Ma Wan is an island of Hong Kong, located between

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao or Lan Tau) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located west of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the ...

and Tsing Yi Island, with an area of .Hong Kong Geographic Data
Lands Department, February 2011 Administratively, it is part of

Tsuen Wan District Tsuen Wan District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the New Territories and is served by the Tsuen Wan line of the MTR metro system. Its area is 60.7 km2. Its residents, who mostly live in Tsuen Wan Town, enjo ...

. The Lantau Link that passes through Ma Wan was constructed in the mid-1990s as part of the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...

's Rose Garden plan to connect the new

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is an international airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok in western Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or Chek Lap Kok Airport, to distinguish it from its predec ...

to the city centre. Its development fostered plans to develop the island. Today, a large part of Ma Wan is occupied by the Park Island apartment complex. A

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

, named Ma Wan Park, was built to accompany the housing project, with its first phase opened on 1 July 2007.

Geography

Ma Wan has an area of . Its highest point is Tai Leng Tau () in the southeast.R.J. Sewell & J. W.C. James
''Geology of North Lantau Island and Ma Wan''
(Chapter 1), Geotechnical Engineering Office, Civil Engineering Department, Hong Kong, November 1995 Two

channels Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...

separate Ma Wan and other major islands. * to the east is the Ma Wan Channel, separating it from Tsing Yi Island. The channel is crossed by the Tsing Ma Bridge. * to the southwest is Kap Shui Mun, separating it from the Tsing Chau Tsai Peninsula of

. The channel is crossed by the Kap Shui Mun Bridge. * the north seafront is opposite

Tsing Lung Tau Tsing Lung Tau () is a coastal residential area in the southwest coast of the New Territories in Hong Kong. Geography Tsing Lung Tau is located on the southwest coast of the New Territories in Hong Kong, between Sham Tseng and Tai Lam; west fro ...

and

Sham Tseng Sham Tseng () is a coastal area in Tsuen Wan District, Hong Kong, between Ting Kau and Tsing Lung Tau. History At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Sham Tseng was 72. The number of males was 32. In 1982, the Government launch ...

on the mainland

, part of the

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

. * The south faces the small Tang Lung Chau island.

Geology

Ma Wan surface rocks are mostly volcanic rocks called Yim Tin Tsai Formation. This is a coarse ash crystal

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

containing

lapilli Lapilli (: lapillus) is a size classification of tephra, which is material that falls out of the air during a volcanic eruption or during some meteorite impacts. ''Lapilli'' is Latin for "little stones". By definition lapilli range from in dia ...

. Some layers of fine

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, produced during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to r ...

are found in the far north of the island. The contained mafic minerals are

biotite Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron- endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more al ...

and

amphibole Amphibole ( ) is a group of inosilicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Its IMA symbol is ...

. The tuff contains mostly

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and

alkali In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The a ...

and

plagioclase Plagioclase ( ) is a series of Silicate minerals#Tectosilicates, tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continu ...

feldspar. Other minerals include

apatite Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of Hydroxide, OH−, Fluoride, F− and Chloride, Cl− ion, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of ...

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...

monazite Monazite is a primarily reddish-brown phosphate mineral that contains rare-earth elements. Due to variability in composition, monazite is considered a group of minerals. The most common species of the group is monazite-(Ce), that is, the cerium ...

and

zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of th ...

. The Ma Wan granite is fine grained. It contains

microcline Microcline (KAlSi3O8) is an important igneous rock-forming tectosilicate mineral. It is a potassium-rich alkali feldspar. Microcline typically contains minor amounts of sodium. It is common in granite and pegmatites. Microcline forms during s ...

, and few feldspar phenocrysts. The main minerals are quartz, perthitic

orthoclase Orthoclase, or orthoclase feldspar ( endmember formula K Al Si3 O8), is an important tectosilicate mineral which forms igneous rock. The name is from the Ancient Greek for "straight fracture", because its two cleavage planes are at right angles ...

, and plagioclase. The dark mineral is mostly biotite. Also contained is zircon,

fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

, and

allanite Allanite (also called orthite) is a sorosilicate group of minerals within the broader epidote group that contain a significant amount of rare-earth elements. The mineral occurs mainly in metamorphosed clay-rich sediments and felsic igneous rocks. ...

. It is found on the south of the east coast. Dykes formed later with a mafic dyke injected first followed by a felsic material. A feldsparphyric dyke crosses the island east–west near the ferry pier. Several

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

age quartzphyric rhyolite dykes cross the island. These are also injected with narrow dacitic dykes, and last of all very fine grained mafic basaltic dykes. A north east trending fault crosses Ma Wan from the typhoon shelter on the west side to the Tun Wan. The island is separated from Lantau Island by a fault under the channel called the Kap Shui Mun Fault. This is angled to the North West, and has its direction controlled by the major tectonic zone it is in called the Linhua Shan Fault System that extends from the coast of Guangdong to Fujian. Prominent joints are at 85° parallel to the dykes. Other joints are close to horizontal, can cause rocks to form sheets.

History

Remains have been found from the Mid-Neolithic Age (about 3000 BC), the late Neolithic Age (about 2000 BC), the early to late Bronze Age of coastal South China (1500–500 BC), the period of the

Warring States The Warring States period in Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and struggles for gre ...

to the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

(206 BC −220 AD), the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

(618–917 AD) and the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(1644–1911 AD). In 1997, a joint excavation by the

Antiquities and Monuments Office The Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) is a Hong Kong government organization established in 1976 under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance to protect and preserve historic monuments. Housed in the Former Kowloon British School, the AMO ...

and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found complete Neolithic human skeletal remains in tombs at the Tung Wan Tsai North site. 20 tombs were found spanning from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. The

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

island had late

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

inhabitants as proved by recent excavations. There were also inhabitants here during the

. Foreign visitors first arrived on the island in 1794. Ma Wan once had a Customs house, still recorded by a stone monument named "Kowloon Gate" monument. (near the old Rural Committee building). It ceased activity on 4 October 1899. Similar customs stations had been established at Fat Tau Chau and

Cheung Chau Cheung Chau (; ) is an outlying island of Hong Kong, located southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is also called Dumbbell Island () due to its dumbbell-like shape. It has been inhabited for longer than most other places in Hong Kong, and had ...

. In 1965 as part of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

br>CARE
program, 12 two storey housing units, and one communal house were donated and built on a top of a hill near the Fishermen's Association. The new village costed around HK$ 200,000 to build, and could house 24 families. After naming it Ma Wan Fishermen's Village (), it was officially opened on the 7th of December 1965 b
Arthur Patrick Richardson
(李作新), the Assistant Director of the

Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (; formerly the Agriculture and Fisheries Department () before 2000, of the Hong Kong Government is responsible for agriculture and fisheries in Hong Kong, conservation projects and issu ...

. In the early 1970s, the island across from Ma Wan was occupied by three families. Their family names were Woo, Pang, and Woo. The children of these families attended the kindergarten and Fong Yuen School in Ma Wan. Water transportation to Ma Wan was signalled by waving a flag at the pier. As of 1995,

fish farming Fish farming or pisciculture involves commercial breeding of fish, most often for food, in fish tanks or artificial enclosures such as fish ponds. It is a particular type of aquaculture, which is the controlled cultivation and harvesting of ...

was the predominant economic activity on Ma Wan. Ma Wan had a population of 800 in 2000. With the development of the Park Island apartment complex, villagers were rehoused in the northern part of the island. As part of the compensation package, they could choose either a 3-storey traditional village house of or 3 separate units, each of in one single block.

Features

Park Island

Park Island is a

private housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular through ...

that was mainly developed by

Sun Hung Kai Properties Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP) is a listed corporation and one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong. The company's businesses include property sales, property rental, telecommunications (SmarTone, SUNeVision), hotel operatio ...

as part of the Ma Wan Development joint venture project and completed from 2002 to 2006 in six phases.

Villages

* Ma Wan Town, also known as Ma Wan Main Street Village, is a former fishing village with stilt houses (

pang uk ''Pang uk'' () is a kind of stilt house found in Tai O, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. ''Pang uk'' are built on water or on small beaches. A fire broke out in 2000 destroying some of the houses in Tai O, and some were later rebuilt. They were onc ...

). It has been vacated. * Ma Wan Fishermen's Village () aka. Ma Wan

CARE Care may refer to: Organizations and projects * CARE (New Zealand), Citizens Association for Racial Equality, a former New Zealand organisation * CARE (England) West Midlands, Central Accident Resuscitation Emergency team, a team of doctors & ...

Village. It has been vacated. * 250-year-old village, quite empty —The new Tin Liu Village has been built a bit on top of it. * The new villages are: **Ma Wan Main Street Village Central () **Ma Wan Main Street Village East () **Ma Wan Main Street Village South () **Ma Wan Main Street Village () **Tin Liu New Village () Ma Wan Main Street Village and Tin Liu are recognized villages under the

Small House Policy The Small House Policy (SHP, ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories. The policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 ye ...

Leisure

* Ma Wan Park * The Heritage Centre in Ma Wan Park exhibits the evolution of the island since Neolithic to nowadays, includes a

mud kiln and a

brick kiln found on Ma Wan, and replicas of the late Neolithic skeletons. * Noah's Ark Museum in Ma Wan Park * Ma Wan Tung Wan Beach is managed by the

Leisure and Cultural Services Department The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), is a department in the Government of Hong Kong. It reports to the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism. It provides leisure and cultural ...

Religion

* Annual traditional festivals, such as Tin Hau. * There are two Tin Hau Temples on Ma Wan. One has been rebuilt on the northern beach and is said to have been originally built by the local pirate Cheung Po Tsai, who often looked after the locals. Another one is located at the Ma Wan Main Street Village. * Ma Wan Alliance Church

Education

* Kei Wai Primary School *Creative Kindergarten

Culture

Cantonese Opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of ...

productions. * Local production of the

shrimp paste Shrimp paste or prawn sauce is a Fermentation, fermented condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine, Southeast Asian and Coastal Chinese cuisines. It is primarily made from finely crushed Shrimp and prawn as food, shrimp or krill mixed ...

"habe" * Fong Yuen Study Hall, formerly the Chan Study Hall, was first built by the Chan clan of Tin Liu before the 1900s. The Chan Study Hall was rebuilt with Western influence and renamed as "Fong Yuen Study Hall", literally meaning a nice place for study, in the 1920s to 1930s. (See

Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme The Revitalising Historic Buildings through Partnership Scheme () is an initiative launched by the Hong Kong Government, part of a broader policy of heritage conservation in Hong Kong. In order to preserve and put historic buildings into good use ...

)

Others

* Clear water wells * Deep waters (for Hong Kong) surrounding – * Popular photography site. * Small red crabs. * Cemetery on the south side. *

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

Ma Wan Youth Camp

Infrastructure

* Tsing Ma Bridge, world's 16th longest span suspension bridge carrying both road and railway traffic. Tsing Ma Bridge, Ma Wan Viaduct, and Kap Shui Mun Bridge together link

Tsing Yi Tsing Yi (), sometimes referred to as Tsing Yi Island, is an island in the New Territories of Hong Kong, to the northwest of Hong Kong Island and south of Tsuen Wan. With an area of , the island has been extended drastically by reclamation alo ...

island to

and form the Lantau Link. * Park Island Ferry Pier

Transport

Road

Although the Hong Kong government originally claimed it would be "physically impossible" to give the island a road connection via the Lantau Link, this was disproved with the beginning of construction of Park Island. The island is now connected to Tsing Yi by the Tsing Ma Bridge (a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

), and to

by the Kap Shui Mun Bridge (a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

). Both bridges are part of the Lantau Link. Park Island Transport Co., Ltd. operates bus services from Park Island to Tsing Yi MTR station,

Kwai Fong Kwai Fong is an area of Kwai Chung Town, Kwai Tsing District, Hong Kong. Location The mainly residential area extends to Kwai Hing () in the north, Lai King in the south, Tsing Yi South Bridge, Tsing Yi Bridge to the west, and Tai Lin Pai ...

Metroplaza,

, Tsuen Wan West and

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a New towns of Hong Kong, town built on a bay in the New Territories West (constituency), western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite Tsing Yi, Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market ...

(close to the Tsuen Wan MTR station). Starting from 3 July 2008, urban taxis were permitted access into Ma Wan between 8 pm and 7 am the following morning to meet residents' transport needs. Starting from 14 December 2012, urban taxi were permitted access into Ma Wan 24 hours daily. Private vehicles are generally not permitted to enter the island, an arrangement which also exists in

Discovery Bay Discovery Bay is a picturesque residential community located on Lantau Island. The 2021 census recorded a population of 19,336 residents in DB, with 55% of them being non-Chinese. DB is home to a significant community compared of expatriates ...

on the nearby

; however a permit can be requested from the Transport Department of Hong Kong. Minibuses are not allowed, but the Park Island management company operates cars in case of emergency or special situations, though their availability is not guaranteed. Lorries may enter the island between 10 am to 4 pm daily without the need for a special permit.

Water

There are several ferry piers on the island: Park Island Ferry Pier on the northeast, one on the old Tin Liu village on the west (formerly hosting

ferries), Man Wan Public Pier on the southwest at Ma Wan Main Street Village,Public Piers maintained by CEDD
Town Planning Paper
Administration's paper on planning and land lease arrangements regarding the private residential development and the provision of a theme park on Ma Wan
B(1)1668/07-08(01) 18 July 2008 and 27 May 2008 Tai Pai Tsui Pier on the south of the island facing Tang Lung Chau, one on the north of the island used for the garbage removal, one on the southeast side (but on a Government land not open). Park Island Transport Co., Ltd. operates ferry services between Park Island and Central Piers (Pier 2). Another route to Tsuen Wan Pier (near West Rail Tsuen Wan West station) is also available.

Education

Ma Wan is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 62, which includes schools in Tsuen Wan and areas nearby. The net includes multiple aided schools and one government school, Hoi Pa Street Government Primary School.

References

External links

Delineation of area of existing village Ma Wan Main Street (Ma Wan) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)

Delineation of area of existing village Tin Liu (Ma Wan) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)

Photos of Ma Wan's abandoned town

Ma Wan Blog featuring photos and information on Park Island

"The road to salvation", a brief history of Ma Wan
{{Authority control Restricted areas of Hong Kong red public minibus Populated places in Hong Kong Islands of Hong Kong

Geography

Geology

History

Features

Park Island

Villages

Leisure

Religion

Education

Culture

Others

Infrastructure

Transport

Road

Water

Education

References

Further reading

External links