Episode 151 - Pirate from the Long Island

This photo was taken at the entrance of the Cheung Po Tsai Cave at Cheung Chau.

Literally, Cheung Chau means long island. It is one of the outlying islands of Hong Kong, with a population of some 30,000.

This beautiful island has a number of spectacular points of interest of which the Cheung Po Tsai Cave is one.

Cheung Po Tsai was a pirate living in the 19th Century. It was said that Cheung had a strong team of pirates with over 600 ships. People believed that Cheung had stored some of his treasure in various secret locations - the Cave was supposed to be one of such secret places. Backed up by the legend, the Cave attracts a large number of visitors every day. As you can appreciate from the photo, there was a long line of tourists on the day of my visit.

Both the entrance and the exit of the Cave are very small, allowing only one person to pass through. The internal area of the cave is reasonably spacious. No light is installed inside the cave. If you are not comfortable with moving around in total darkness, you can rent a light torch from the local hawkers at a cost of HK$5. It would however be fun if you could manage to find your way out from the dark cave without a torch.