A Guide to Cheung Sha Beach on Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Are you wanting a beach day out from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong and wondering if Chung Sha Beach is the perfect spot for a beach day? In this guide to Cheung Sha Beach, we’ll cover everything you need to know to get to Cheung Sha Beach, what to do, where to eat, and the other amenities along Cheung Sha Beach.
Looking for the best beach in Hong Kong
Cheung Sha Beach makes the top of many people’s ‘best Hong Kong beaches’ list, so we decided to check it out.
Did you know there are approximately 50 Hong Kong beaches? Before booking our flights to the city we had no idea of this fact.
For us, images of Hong Kong consisted of skyscrapers and bright neon lights, not stretches of glorious white sand.
But it’s true, Hong Kong has some lovely beaches that are the perfect refuge from the busy city centre.
Our reasons for choosing Cheung Sha Beach out of all the other Hong Kong beach options included the following:
We wanted a quiet beach, away from the crowds.
We wanted a long beach with soft sand for walks.
We wanted an ‘easy to get to’ beach, but not too easy so too many others would be there.
So we were looking for the perfect “beach day” beach, and Cheung Sha Beach ticks all the boxes. Cheung Sha beach has got to be one of the best things to do in all of Hong Kong!
Cheung Sha Beach Location
Cheung Sha Beach is on Lantau Island, one of Hong Kong’s most popular islands for day-trippers from the city. As well as its beaches, Lantau island offers visitors a selection of other interesting sights.
These include:
– Big Buddha (Tian Tan Buddha) – At 112 feet (34 meters) high, it’s the most popular attraction on Lantau island and is located on Ngong Ping Peak.
– Po Lin Monastery – is located on the plateau of Ngong Ping, near the Big Buddha.
– Tai O fishing village – is found on the western side of Lantau island and is built on stilts.
– The Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car is a 25-minute gondola ride that you can take to get up to the Big Buddha and for fantastic views of Hong Kong.
Once we discovered these other Lantau Island highlights, we decided to make a whole day of it.
The Best Lantau Island Beach
There are some other beaches on Lantau Island, these include Pui O and Silvermine, but Cheung Sha beach beats them all.
Cheung Sha beach is split into two sections, Upper Cheung Sha Beach, and Lower Cheung Sha beach, and at 3km in length, is one of Hong Kong’s longest beaches. Despite this, it still remains quiet and is the beach to go to for some peaceful isolation.
Apart from four or five expats taking a barefoot stroll on Upper Cheung Sha beach, we were the only people on either beach. We almost had the 3km to ourselves!
We visited Cheung Sha beach on a mid-December Friday afternoon. The weather was sunny and warm but due to Hong Kong’s approaching winter, the sea was too cold for swimming.
Instead, we enjoyed a walk in the sand and lunch on the rocks that separate the beach’s two sections.
Lower Cheung Sha Beach
Lower Cheung Sha village is about a 20-minute walk from Lower Cheung Sha Beach. That’s probably why Lower Cheung Sha Beach has the most facilities, and we hear at weekends it gets busier than the upper end, over the small headland.
The lower end has a couple of restaurants serving fresh fish and cold beer if you’re feeling like it’s time to eat. These are popular with expats arriving by junk but you won’t see them here Monday to Friday.
There’s also a good restaurant called Bathers Restaurant & Bar with a lovely deck over the beach where you can watch the sea and eat burgers and seafood.
We also noticed a campsite but we couldn’t see anyone using it at the time of our visit. There are also some public facilities including toilets, shower facilities, and changing rooms should you need them.
There are also public toilets at the far east of Lower Cheung Sha Beach.
Upper Cheung Sha Beach
The upper section of Cheung Sha Beach felt more remote due to the lack of amenities. We liked how we had access to those amenities on the lower section but could get away from it all by just walking over the rocks to the upper end.
We felt a million miles away from Hong Kong city and even just this one stretch of Cheung Sha Beach is the longest beach in Hong Kong.
There are public toilets a little west at Tong Fuk Beach and there’s camping, glamping, and hotels just off Upper Cheung Sha Beach that have mushroomed over the last 5 or so years.
Welcome Beach is a camping site just behind the beach, and you’ll find a variety of water sports including surfing lessons that have set up along both Upper and Lower Cheung Sha Beach.
You can see from our pictures that Upper Cheung Sha beach doesn’t have strong waves, so it’s a perfect spot for beginners to learn to surf.
Getting to Cheung Sha Beach from Hong Kong Island
We were based on Hong Kong Island in the Wan Chai area and getting to Cheung Sha Beach was pretty easy.
Ferry to Cheung Sha Beach
We decided to take the ferry but there are buses you can take to Tung Chung on Lantau Island. Tung Chung also has an MTR station.
If you fancy taking the ferry, which drops you off closer to Cheung Sha Beach, then read on.
Follow These Steps
– Take the MTR or tram to Central Station
– Walk to the Central Ferry Terminal
– Follow signs to pier number 6 for Mui Wo (Lantau Island)
– Take the fast (35 mins) or ordinary (50 mins) ferry to Mui Wo
– Once at Mui Wo, take buses 1 or 4 from just outside the ferry terminal
– Get off at the bus stop at Cheung Sha Police Headquarters (20 mins from Mui Wo)
– From the bus stop, walk in the same direction the bus is going for a few meters until you reach a small road turn off on the left.
– Walk down this short dead-end road until you see a footpath on the right. This path will lead to Lower Cheung Sha Beach.
You can check out the Central to Mui Wo ferry schedule here, and the various ferry prices here. We took the fast ferry each way.
Once you reach Lower Cheung Sha Beach, you could do as we did by gradually making your way to the upper end.
At the top end of the beach is a short rocky path to the upper Cheung Sha Beach bus stop where you can head back to Mui Wo or take another bus to one of Lantau’s other sights.
There are loads of buses that take you all over the island. We jumped on bus number 21 to the Tai O fishing village. We recommend doing the same! 🙂
Driving to Cheung Sha Beach
We’ve heard that a lot of people drive to Lantau on the weekend, and there are free parking lots at three points along Upper Cheung Sha and Lower Cheung Sha beaches.
It’s a 40 km drive from the center of Hong Kong Island to Lower Cheung Sha beach.
Taxi to Cheung Sha Beach
It’s also possible to get a taxi to Lower Cheung Sha village and then walk for 20 minutes to reach the beginning of Lower Cheung Sha Beach.
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