Sha Lo Wan

Sha Lo Wan (Chinese: 沙螺灣) is a bay in the northwest Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The bay faces north to Hong Kong International Airport. The area is occupied by indigenous inhabitants. There is no vehicular access to the area and thus their communication is on foot or by ferry. Because of their inconvenient access to urban areas, villages in the area have suffered from depopulation. Only older generations live in these villages.

Villages in the area include Sha Lo Wan Tsuen (沙螺灣村; "Sha Lo Wan Village"), Sha Lo Wan San Tsuen (沙螺灣新村; "Sha Lo Wan New Village") and Sha Lo Wan Chung Hau (沙螺灣涌口).

Sha Lo Wan was noted for its incense production during the Ming dynasty. Following the orders imposed by the Great Clearance, the village was evacuated, together with the whole of Lantau Island. People were allowed to return to settle on the island in 1669, but Sha Lo Wan was not resettled at that time.

Sha Lo Wan Tsuen was probably erected in the 18th century, as a Ba Kong Temple (把港古廟; "guarding the bay") dedicated to Hung Shing was built by the villagers in 1774 at the northwest of the village, close to the seashore. Villagers were engaged in fishing and farming. The population was small reaching up to a few hundreds before the Second World War. Being close to the sea, the village was often attacked by pirates and bandits. In the late 1930s, it was occupied by a group of pirates for one year.

Tungsten was discovered in Sha Lo Wan, and its ore was quarried in the area in the 1950s, leading to a population increase, which reached 4,000 in 1971. The population has dropped again since the 1970s.

The bay is a preserved tropical natural environment. Thick and high trunks of trees can be found in the area.

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Wikipedia