Junk Bay

Junk Bay
Tseung Kwan O
Aerial view of Tseung Kwan O, with Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate on the right. The waters at the top of the picture are part of Port Shelter.
Junk Bay
Location	Sai Kung District, New Territories, Hong Kong
Coordinates	22°17′N 114°16′E / 22.29°N 114.26°E / 22.29; 114.26Coordinates: 22°17′N 114°16′E / 22.29°N 114.26°E / 22.29; 114.26
Type	Bay
Native name	將軍澳  (Chinese)

Junk Bay known in Chinese as "Tseung Kwan O" (Chinese: 將軍澳; also transliterated as "Cheung Kwan O") is a bay in Sai Kung District, New Territories, Hong Kong. In the northern tip of the bay lies the Tseung Kwan O Village.

View of Junk Bay (Tseung Kwan O) in 2019

The Tseung Kwan O New Town, one of the nine new towns in Hong Kong, was mainly built on reclaimed land in the northern half of the bay. The population as of 2011 is about 368,000.^[1]

Name[]

In Cantonese, Tseung Kwan (將軍) means the "general" of an army, and O (澳) means "bay". Therefore, Tseung Kwan O literally means "general's Bay".

The exact origin of the name Tseung Kwan O is unknown, but it is said to be named in honour of a Ming Dynasty soldier who visited Tseung Kwan O at some point. Another theory is that the name was chosen in the 17th century, when naval battles were fought against pirates from Japan at Tseung Kwan O. Yet another theory is that the pronunciation of "將軍" can sound like "Junk Wan" to the ears of English speakers; wan is also a transliteration of the Chinese word for "bay" (灣).

The current town center of Tseung Kwan O stands on reclaimed land. The English name Junk Bay was said to be derived from the existence of junks in the bay, and the reclamation land based on the landfill^{[citation needed]}. The first landfill was opened in 1978, decades after Junk Bay was named.^[2] The Fat Tong Chau (Junk Island) is in the southeastern part of the bay.

History and geography[]

Junk Bay in 1950s

The bay is near the eastern mouth of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. A local gazette, Genuine record of Guangdong province (Chinese traditional: 粵大記), clearly contained the place name: 將軍澳 (Chinese characters of Tseung Kwan O). A genuine record of Guangdong province was published during the Ming Dynasty: Residents inhabited Tseung Kwan O area then.

Before the development of the new town, the area around the bay was occupied by fishing towns and villages. Settlements in the area began as early as in the 13th century. Major settlements, however, did not occur until the late 16th century when small fishing villages were founded in the area. Hang Hau quickly emerged into a market town and became the most populated and prosperous place in the whole of Clear Water Bay Peninsula; it continued for the next few centuries as such.^[3] Other towns and villages include Rennie's Mill (Tiu Keng Leng), Hang Hau and Yau Yue Wan. Rennie's Mill was where Kuomintang loyalists were settled following the end of the Chinese civil war, and Hang Hau had a ship-building industry.

The Hong Kong Government had been interested in developing a new town at Hang Hau because of its proximity to the urban area. The project was postponed for a long time owing to the extensive scale of reclamation in the bay, which is rather deep. It finally started under the name of Tseung Kwan O. The area of Tseung Kwan O is about 1,790 ha, with a projected population of 490,000 upon completion.^[4]

Tseung Kwan O today comprises five main areas: Po Lam, Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O, Tiu Keng Leng and LOHAS Park.

Climate[]

Development of Tseung Kwan O[]

In 1983, development of Phase I of the New Town to an initial population of about 175,000 was formally endorsed. By 1986, construction of the two tubes of Tseung Kwan O Tunnel began, which provided potential for further increasing the population of the New Town. To maximize the utilization of the road infrastructure and to meet the demand for land for public housing, the Government decided that the New Town should include a Phase II development, with an increase in the projected population to about 325,000. To cater for redevelopment of the Tiu Keng Leng Cottage Area and to provide land for development of Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate and deep waterfront industries, in 1988, the Government further decided to proceed with Phase III development of the New Town for about 490,000 people.^[6][7]

Education[]

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A new campus of the French International School of Hong Kong as well as the new Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong are scheduled to open in 2018 in Areas 67 and 85 of Tseung Kwan O respectively.^[8]

Photo gallery[]

• 

  Tseung Kwan O Library at Dusk

• 

  High density buildings in Hang Hau

• 

  Tseung Kwan O Town Centre

• 

  Tseung Kwan O Village

• 

  Po Lam Estate

• 

  Tseung Kwan O South

• 

  Tiu Keng Leng and Tseung Kwan O South

• 

  Above Tseung Kwan O

See also[]

• List of bays in Hong Kong
• Tiu Keng Leng
• Po Lam

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tseung Kwan O.