The Sun On Clear Water

Clearwater Bay First Beach, Hong Kong.

When I was little, I loved listening to Jackanory - a TV programme, where for fifteen minutes every week day a variety of presenters would read installments of a children's story book. One of my favourite stories was called 'The Moon on the Water' by Nina Warner Hooke. In this story a group of wooden carousel horses, who are about to be burnt as firewood, magically come to life and escape. Although this has absolutely no similarities to my day out whatsoever, when I was thinking of a title for my trip to Clearwater Bay, it suddenly sprang to mind, so I adapted it to fit.

A few months ago I followed the Lung Ha Wan Trail from Tai Hang Tun to Lobster Bay and thought to myself: 'I should come back and explore more of this area'. Well yesterday, I finally got round to it. When I was looking into what to see around here, I discovered that the oldest and biggest Tin Hau Temple in Hong Kong was in this area. I had first heard of this temple several years ago. I had read it was very inaccessible and that most people only went here during the Tin Hau Festival in April when special boats were put on. This may have been true at one time, but it's certainly not true any more. I think in the past this area could only be accessed on foot or by sea, but now there is a road.

Well, regardless of how lovely Joss House Bay Temple is, it seemed like a long trip to see one thing, so I started to look for other things in the area and I discovered a little fishing village called Po Toi O Chuen and that both the temple and the village were within walking distance of the beaches of Clearwater Bay.

It took me quite a while to get to the start of my explorations. I had to catch a bus, travel on three MTR lines and then take a minibus - a travel time of around two hours. I basically live at the opposite end of Hong Kong.

I began my day out in Po Toi O. To get there I went to Po Lam MTR, exited through Exit B1 and walked towards the shopping mall. Before entering the mall, I headed left down an escalator into Metro City Phase Two public transport interchange. I wandered around until I found the minibus part and then found minibus number 16. The final stop of this minibus is Po Toi O fishing village. If you just want to go to the temple, you should get off one stop earlier at the Clearwater Bay Country Club. The temple is just three minutes walk from here.

I was very impressed with the coastal scenery on this journey and was delighted to be able to see it all at my leisure later on when I walked from the temple to the beaches.

Po Toi is Chinese for 'sack' and O means 'bay', so this is the village situated on a sack shaped bay. The villagers here mainly make their living by fishing and there are two seafood restaurants in the village. Apparently, these are popular at weekends. I was here before lunch time on a week day, so they were fairly quiet.

One of the seafood restaurants is down here.

Seafood restaurant.

Seafood Restaurant. Choose your own fish.

The village has a small Hung Shing Temple which dates from around 1663. I also came across a couple of shrines.

Shing Hung Temple.

Lion outside the temple.

Doorway in Shing Hung Temple.

Shrine in Shing Hung Temple.

Village shrine.

Village shrine.

I wandered around for a while. It should have been a peaceful place, but there were some noisy road works being carried out in the centre of the village. Very typical of Hong Kong. I liked some of the colourful village doors. There were also some weird and wonderful plants around.

Doors decorated with wishes for good luck in the new year.

Decorated door.

Decorated doors.

Strange plant in a doorway.

There was a pier in the centre of the village. I walked out to the end of it and took photos, including some of fish that were hanging up to dry here, but unfortunately the camera setting on my phone had gone wrong, so they all came out overexposed. I was not worried as I think I still ended up with plenty of pictures. There were some nice views over the water and several colourful boats bobbing around.

Looking at Sack Bay.

A little jetty out to the boats.

Boats in the bay.

Lots of boats in the bay.

Boats by the pier.

Lots of boats in the bay.

I had read that it was a steep walk up Po Toi O Chuen Road back to the Tai Au Mun Road, but I didn't find it steep or difficult. I think the person who wrote that must have done it on a summer's day. Walking anywhere here is horrendous in the heat. If you do the same walk again in the cooler months, you often can't believe how short it is.

Po Toi O Chuen Road sign.

Views on the walk uphill.

Views on the walk uphill.

Views on the walk uphill.

Selfie on the way up the hill.

At the top of Po Toi O Chuen Road I turned left. There were signs for Joss House Bay Temple. I could see the entrance to Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club ahead of me. I had thought this walk may involve walking in the road, but fortunately there were pavements the whole way. Just in front of the country club, on the right hand side, there was a path to the temple. The whole walk from Po Toi O to the temple is only around 800 metres, so pretty short.

Sign for Joss House Bay Temple.

Path down to the temple.

To get to the temple I walked straight down the path and down some stairs. At one point the path split. One part continued straight on; the other went to the left. It had a sign in Chinese saying where it was going, but I had no idea what it said, so I decided to ignore it and continue straight. That turned out to be the correct way.

Before I got to the temple, I reached a large rock. This has the oldest dated inscription in Hong Kong. It was carved in 1274 and is now a declared monument. The inscription records a visit by a salt administration officer during the Song Dynasty.

Rock with inscription.

The temple is very close to the rock. It is located in Tai Miu Wan, which literally translates as The Bay of the Big Temple. In English, however, it is normally called Joss House Bay.

Side view of the temple.

This is a beautiful temple and, as I said before, is supposed to be the biggest and oldest Tin Hau Temple in Hong Kong. It is believed to date back as far as the Sung Dynasty and was built around 1266 by Lam Tao-yi, a Fujianese salt trader. The Lam Clan looked after the temple until 1939 when it was handed over to the Chinese Temples' Committee.

All around the outside of the temple there were colourful windmills turning in the breeze. The Chinese believe that spinning a windmill will bring them good luck and it's common to see these in temples. I don't think I have ever seen so many anywhere else though.

Windmills.

Close up of Windmills.

The view through the windmills

The temple is constructed from grey bricks and has murals above its door. Its roof is made of green tiles.

The front of the temple.

Incense in front of the temple.

Incinerator in front of the temple.

Inside the temple there are models of boats and images of Tin Hau surrounded by her attendants.

Incense coils and Tin Hau images.

Incense coils, Tin Hau and her attendants.

Boats.

Inside the temple.

Inside the temple.

Paper offerings.

Roosters.

Looking out of the temple doorway.

There were other shrines, too, including a colourful Buddah shrine. There are also drums and bells. In some Chinese Temples you cannot take photos. Here, I'm pleased to say, they didn't seem to mind.

Images of gods.

Buddha.

Buddha.

Personally, I was delighted to see that this temple to the goddess of the sea is still located on the waterfront, so many Tin Hau Temples are no longer near the sea due to land reclamation or because they have been dismantled and relocated.

There were just a handful of visitors when I was here. Apparently when it is Tin Hau's birthday, on the 23rd of the third moon of the Chinese calendar, thousands of worshippers flock here. This temple is a grade one listed building and is open daily from 8am to 5pm.

After wandering around the temple, I walked down to the sea. There's a long pier here. Some people were fishing at the end of it. I could see Tung Lung Chau, an island I want to visit, in the distance.

Looking down on the pier from the temple.

The pier.

The Pier with Tung Lung Chau.

Coast from the pier.

The front and Tung Lung Chau.

There was a tiny sandy beach here. The whole place was incredibly peaceful.

The beach.

Beach.

How to park your boat on the beach.

Looking back at the temple from the beach.

When I had seen all I wanted to see here, I climbed back up to the country club and headed towards Clearwater Bay Second Beach. This was about three kilometres away. I walked there along Tai Au Mun Road, which had pavements for the whole route. I was delighted with the coastal views along the walk.

Looking down on Po Toi O Chuen from the main road.

Looking down on Po Toi O Chuen from the main road.

Coastal views.

Coastal views.

Coastal views

Selfie with coastal views.

Selfie with coastal views.

Wild flowers on route.

At one point I noticed there was a statue on the other side of the road, so I went over to take a look. It was a kingfisher and it was marking one of the ways up High Junk Peak. This is a difficult walk up a 344 metre high sharp peak, which supposedly has fantastic views. Apparently High Junk Peak's Chinese name translates as Kingfisher Mountain.

Kingfisher

Kingfisher and route up the peak behind him.

There were some people flying a model aircraft in this area. It kept shooting up into the air all over the place making a tremendous noise.

I kept walking and in a short time reached a bus station. The 91 bus which starts in Diamond Hill terminates here. Behind the bus station, I walked down stairs to Clearwater Bay Second Beach. I've been here several times, but not for years. It was smaller than I remembered, but that may just be because the tide was a long way in. It was a lovely warm day, but it's February and I would imagine the sea is pretty cold, however to my surprise there were several people in swimming. Some elderly Chinese people are incredibly hardy and swim all year round.

This rather unimaginatively named Clearwater Bay Second Beach is more popular than its sister beach known, also unimaginatively, as Clearwater Bay First Beach. The sand is finer here. There are toilets, changing rooms, a refreshment kiosk and a shark net. The last known fatal shark attack in Hong Kong happened at Clearwater Bay in 1995.

Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Brave swimmer.

Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Shrine on Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Selfie on the beach.

Looking down on Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

Looking down on Clearwater Bay Second Beach.

I read there was supposed to be a footpath between the beaches, but there were workmen repairing something on the pathway and it was closed, so I could not find this. I climbed back up to the main road by going up an incredibly steep path. Then I walked to the first beach along the main road. Although this involved more walking and too much climbing up and down, it did have the advantage that I found good view points to look down on the beaches.

Clearwater Bay First Beach is 108 metres long. To get to it, you have to go down a lot of stairs. I certainly would not like to climb back up them in the height of summer, that's for sure. I noticed there were some barbecue pits here.

Welcome to Clearwater Bay First Beach Sign.

Looking down on the beach from the stairs.

Clearwater Bay First Beach.

Clearwater Bay First Beach.

Clearwater Bay First Beach.

Clearwater Bay First Beach.

Waves breaking on the beach.

Shrine on the beach.

Selfie on the beach.

Nonstop stairs.

Looking down on Clearwater Bay First Beach.

Looking down on Clearwater Bay First Beach.

After having a wander around this beach, I climbed up all the stairs to the road and began the epic trip back home. Although it was a long way, it was certainly well worth it.