Lantau Island

Lantau Island

Lantau Island is highlighted in red.
Geography
Location	Southwest Hong Kong
Area	147.16 km2 (56.82 sq mi)
Highest elevation	934 m (3,064 ft)
Highest point	Lantau Peak
Administration
Hong Kong
Islands District and Tsuen Wan District
Demographics
Population	105,000 (2011)

Lantau Island (also Lantao Island; Chinese: 大嶼山) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located at the mouth of the Pearl River. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands District of Hong Kong. A small northeastern portion of the island is located in the Tsuen Wan District.

Originally the site of fishing villages, the island has been developed in recent years with the construction of Tung Chung New Town on its north-western coast and the completion of several major infrastructure projects, including Lantau Link (1997), Hong Kong International Airport (1998), Hong Kong Disneyland (2005) and Ngong Ping 360 (2006).

With a land mass of 147.16 square kilometres (56.82 sq mi), it is the largest island in Hong Kong, almost twice the size of Hong Kong Island.

Lantau Island primarily consists of mountainous terrain. Lantau Peak (934 metres (3,064 ft)) is the highest point of the island. It is the second highest in Hong Kong, after Tai Mo Shan, and is almost twice the height of Victoria Peak. Other mountains include Sunset Peak at 898 m (2,946 ft), Lin Fa Shan at 766 m (2,513 ft), Nei Lak Shan at 751 m (2,464 ft) and Yi Tung Shan at 747 m (2,451 ft).

Lantau Island is often referred to as "the lungs of Hong Kong", because of its abundance of indigenous forest and relative scarcity of high-rise residential developments which characterise Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The largest country park of Hong Kong, Lantau South Country Park is located on the island, which hosts two other parks, namely Lantau North Country Park and its extension. These parks cover slightly more than half of the area of Lantau Island.