Deep Bay (Hong Kong)
| Deep Bay, China | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 后海灣 | ||||||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 后海湾 | ||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Hòuhǎi Wān |
| Hakka | |
| Romanization | Hiu4hoi3 Van1 |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | hau6 hoi2 waan1 |
Deep Bay is a bay between Yuen Long, Hong Kong and the city of Shenzhen. It is otherwise known as Hau Hoi Wan (Chinese: 后海灣) in Hong Kong, and Shenzhen Bay (Chinese: 深圳湾) in Mainland China.
The local Cantonese name of the bay is Hau Hoi Wan (后海灣), which mean the back (sea) bay. It is opposite to another bay, Tsin Hoi Wan (Chinese: 前海灣; pinyin: Qiánhǎiwān), which means front (sea) bay, on the other side of Nantau Peninsula. The Chinese character 后 (Hau, lit. queen) in 后海灣 is the homonym of 後 (Hau, lit. back), and also its simplified character. Some attribute the character 后 (Hau) to the goddess of mercy and sea, Tin Hau (天后).
The name of Shenzhen Bay came much later, at least after the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 1980. The name became more notable after a hotel was named Shenzhen Bay. While the government of China uses the name widely, the people and government in Hong Kong continue to use the official name (后海灣).
As the bay is largely enclosed by lands, fresh water from the surroundings are injected to the bay, formed by a large sheer with a shallow shore of wetlands. The margin of fresh water and salt water forms a valuable habitat for a wide variety of life.
The bay's northern shore used to be lined with marshes. As Shenzhen began to develop into a major urban centre, the northern shoreline was reclaimed to provide land for buildings. Some departments had tried to preserve the endangered environment but mistakenly introduced foreign species of mangrove, which threatened their indigenous counterparts.
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Wikipedia