Lantau Island in 2026

It is not very often you stop and think 20 years into the future and imagine what a place will be like.

Lantau Map 2026 is just that.

It is written by a good friend, Gordon Andreassend.

The comments shown below were prepared in January 2006 in a project where writers gave their views of development in Lantau in 20 years time. Here is what Gordon wrote at that time.

I have known Lantau’s tracks and trails for about 40 years, and as a surveyor and a mapper had almost 30 years to look at Lantau in greater detail on Lands Department aerial photos and maps.

If I may, please let me do some crystal ball gazing, and optimistically give my views as a surveyor, as I open up the January 2026 edition of a brand new map :-

LANTAU ISLAND, JANUARY 2026

The first thing I notice is the amount of Country Park on the island. Approximately 75% of the total area ! Hong Kong is indeed fortunate that so much of Lantau’s hinterland and scenic coastal areas have been preserved this way.

The network of major roads has been developed, but not extended over the past 20 years. The most prominent route is the Expressway from the Airport and Tung Chung along the NE coast to the Tsing- Ma Bridge. The major route on the southern side of Lantau is the road from Mui Wo to Tai O, now widened to provide 3 lanes for most of its route. The link road to Ngong Ping is two lanes with passing lanes that adequately handle tourist traffic fed by the Cable Car.

The Tung Chung Road to Cheung Sha Beach is a two to three lane road, that is sufficient to handle the tourist and local traffic. All minor roads providing access to village areas are well developed.

Vehicle access on most Lantau roads is still controlled to allow use to permit holders only, and a speed-limit of 50 kph on all roads other than the expressway, has made the roads safer.

Tai O, one of the oldest settlements on the island, has expanded slightly and has been cleaned up to fit in better with its title of “the Venice of the East”. It has a flourishing cultural complex, and its harbour is well served by high-speed ferries from Hong Kong and Tuen Mun.

Mui Wo has been developed to cater for local residents, many of who work in Hong Kong and Kowloon, and as a tourist area - and locals and visitors keep the restaurants and beachfront areas busy. The face-lift given to Mui Wo beach about 10 years ago has improved this asset considerably. Part of the area has been developed with low-rise blocks, so that some areas resemble part of Discovery Bay. The improved ferry services to Central and Tsim Sha Tsui make access easy. The upgraded walking path from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo has proved to be a most popular hiking route.

Discovery Bay reached its full capacity 15 years ago and has concentrated on improvements within its allocated area. The beach area and watersport facilities have been improved to cater for locals and visitors alike. The Central ferry service, and bus routes to Tung Chung and Sunny Bay function well.

Nearby Disneyland has been extended to occupy all the Government land allocated for its use and its Disney Marineland facility is most popular. The road past Disneyland to Pa Tau Kwu gives access to the 36 hole Disney Golf Course, and is popular with local and visiting golfers. The five hotels and resorts managed by Disneyland are operating at almost full capacity.
The Lantau North Country Park and Marine Park to the north of DisneyLand, and adjacent to the golf course is well-used by visitors.

The area adjacent to the Sunny Bay MTR Station has also been developed as a recreational and waters sports area. The old buildings and jetty at Luk Keng in Yam O Wan, have been preserved as part of a heritage area, with other fishing village artifacts also on display. The log pond areas have been removed except for one log-filled display stand near the heritage area. The company hiring boats to visitors wishing to fish in the Cheung Sok area is doing well.

The CLK Airport has been expanded with the opening of the new X-terminal to the west of the old Y-shaped terminal, and the twin runways are probably running at their full capacity. The throughput of passengers has more than doubled in the post 20 years, and the use of the Conference facilities and the nearby CLK Sky City are bringing in a good return. The Heliport facility and the Business Aviation centre are functioning well.

The New Town of Tung Chung, which recently celebrated its 25th birthday, has been developed to capacity, without the reclamation that was proposed 20 years age. Its shopping malls, and its hotels are doing good business and many of the residents are employed at CLK in the airline industry, or at Disneyland. Tung Chung promises to be one of the best of the new town developments, and it is pleasing to note that the additional reclamation mooted in the past has not eventuated. The retention of the waterfront and some buildings near the old Tung Chung wharf, is a fine example of historical preservation.

The Ngong Ping 360 Cableway stands out prominently on the map, and this facility which is to feature its 20 years of existence on a Hong Kong stamp issue this year, has also helped to put Tung Chung on the map. Ngong Ping development also features on the map, and this tourist drawcard is something that Hong Kong can be proud of, while the Big Buddha still sits and smiles benignly at all he sees before him.

Cheung Sha Beach with its adjacent resort development is doing well and is popular as a tourist destination. The other resort built on the site of the former Ma Po Ping and Tong Fuk Prisons is most popular with those seeking access to the higher ground along the Lantau Trail. It is indeed fortunate that the SAR Govt was able to negotiate the repatriation of Mainland prisoners back to the PRC, to serve their prison terms. The reduction in inmate numbers has cut back on expansion, and other prisons may also be phased out soon.

Hei Ling Chau also gained a new lease of life as a resort and windsurfing centre once the prisons there were cleared.

On the northern coast, the Tai Wan Ho basin with its surrounding development of recreational and watersport facilities, has proved to be extremely popular.

The coastal walking trail from Tai O to Tung Chung has been upgraded for its entire length, and is an increasingly popular hiking route.

Following the improvements made to the Lantau Trail and other major tracks, and to the provision of designated trail bike tracks and nature trails, there has been a phenomenal increase in the use of the trails, and this has pushed Lantau ahead of the Sai Kung area as Hong Kong’s most popular recreational area. The Lantau Island Countryside Map is now the best seller of all 5 maps in the Countryside Series.

The walk from Shek Pik via Fan Lau to Tai O is very popular following the construction of the Fan Lau Historical Centre. The development of the Fitness Centre at Yi O, and construction of the fitness trail through Shui Lo Cho up to Man Cheung Po has also made this walk more popular.

I note that the map still shows in the sea above Tai O a dotted proposal for the Zhuhai - Lantau Bridge. It is indeed fortunate that the construction of more northerly connections from the PRC to the N.T., coupled with the considerable opposition from concern groups and the residents of Tung Chung, has put this project almost permanently on hold. Let’s hope that it stays that way.

Gordon Andreassend
January 2006

Thanks Gordon for those thoughts. It is interesting to see what develops in only 2 years!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog06 - From Winter we Spring

My last update on a ‘green’ life in Hong Kong was written in early February just when it was starting to get a little cool in Hong Kong. Actually it was bloody cold! Little did we know that most of February was to herald the coldest and longest winter in Hong Kong for about 20 years!! As you can imagine our little house at the top of the valley is not built for the cold (or the hot weather for that matter). We spent most of February huddled over a heater, wearing ski jackets and practically all the warm clothes that we’d brought to Hong Kong (which we never thought we would need). We were actually very lucky to have a heater as the cold snap caught many by surprise and all of the shops in HK had sold out of all the heaters that they had ordered for the whole season in a matter of days.

On some days the top temperature was 10°C …and that was inside our house. We needed to stop the gales blowing in through the cracks in the windows so you guessed it we had to rely on a little Kiwi ingenuity. .This amounted to buying a roll of bubble wrap and covering all of the windows and/or stuffing the gaps with newspaper to increase the warmth factor. I’m sure this approach did make some difference but it really was hard to tell some days.

Needless to say during this cold snap we still did not have a hot water system installed for a shower. As you can imagine this resulted in a few tears of frustration and stamping of feet from Louise, who was beginning to wonder why the hell we had left our lovely home on the hill in Wellington with all its mod cons. Thankfully I can now report that we do indeed have a hot shower in our little abode. With the help of a friend who spoke Cantonese we managed to enlist the services of a local electrician/plumber. Up the valley he cycled initially to install the electrical wiring. A few Cantonese phone calls to and fro and we established that he could also install the plumbing. So Sunday 2 March became a very auspicious day indeed! Voila….we now had a shower… There was one heart stopping moment a few weeks after installation when the water pressure (such that it is) dwindled to nothing. More tears from Louise! Being a good keen Kiwi man I managed to find the source of the problem (this being an air bubble in the pipe from the water supply) and soon all was good again. So for all of you, our friends and family who have been waiting for this modern convenience before you came to stay, I can now report that there is no excuse anymore. Oh course the 30 minute walk up the valley may still faze some of you but just think of the exercise value.

Now that there is a shower in the bathroom, Louise was of course on a mission to ‘decorate’ said bathroom. Actually ‘decorate’ seems a little far fetched. What she was actually trying to do was ‘create’ a bathroom. Off she went on many a reconnaissance mission to source the relevant accessories. The result is not the most stylish bathroom in the world but pretty good under the circumstances. She managed to source a shower caddy, trolley, wooden hooks, shelf, toilet roll holder and a mirror and two rather cool bamboo floor mats, which prevent one from getting ones wet feet as you walk ‘through’ the shower to get to the toilet. The mats were found in the Causeway Bay big GOD store…yes ‘Goods of Desire’ a great place to go if you want to add a touch of flair to…well any room in the house actually!

Actually the addition of a shower caddy suspended off the wall was a bonus in other ways! Prior to installation we had been having some problems with a visiting soap eating rodent. We thought that we had sufficiently covered all of the holes in the wet area (kitchen/bathroom) but a sneaky rodent was coming in and gnawing away at my soap! Not to mention rifle-ling through the rubbish bucket looking for other tasty morsels. Eventually a stop was put to his visitations by covering all small entry spots to the kitchen/bathroom outhouse with metal gauze.

As the cold winter period drew to a close I really started to notice nature changing in the valley. The pomelos in our garden finished soon after our return from NZ. They were replaced by some lovely large grapefruit on the tree growing next to the steps up to the house. The flesh of these is quite orange in colour but they are definitely on the sour side of the spectrum. Lovely to be able to pluck fresh citrus fruit for breakfast for several months of the year though! We had planted tomatoes and basil interspersed with marigolds as companion plants, prior to our NZ holiday. The cold slowed down the tomato crop but once it warmed up again we were able to continue to pick tomatoes right up till now. Have just pulled the last plants out and have replanted more tomatoes and basil, plus aubergines, parsley, lettuce chives etc. Just call us Tom and Barbara Good - aka Merrin and Lou living ‘The Good Life’ Hong Kong style. Actually I do love to head off into the wilderness that is our garden armed with a slasher and hoe, clearing paths and creating viewing platforms.

The valley is a wondrous place to be at times. To be woken up in the morning by the dawn chorus is quite special. There are also the ‘night birds’ who seem to spend all night calling to their mate and the owls hooting to theirs in their roosts near the house. As the temperatures got warmer I also noticed the return of the insects with different varieties taking it in turns to make their presence felt. When all the fruit trees in the garden were flowering a few weeks ago, the drone of bees was the most prevalent sound during the day. Now it is the drone or should I say high pitched screech of the cicadas. Wasps, hornets and beetles are also flying about but fortunately these do tend to mind their own business. The large and small snails and slugs are also about now and the other day there was a rather large worm trying to share my shower. I did however manage to encourage it out through the drainage hole in the floor. The butterflies are also many and varied around our home. They come in all shapes and sizes from really big brightly coloured ones to small white cabbage and common yellow butterflies. We also had an influx of brightly coloured tiger moths….actually hundreds of these flying around and settling in the trees around our home.

Last week we saw our first snakes of the season near the house. First we saw a Red Necked Keelback slithering up the bank near our vege garden. Later that same day another Red Necked Keelback (it may have been the same one) decided to curl up in the little drain hole of our patio next to where Louise was washing the dishes (outside in the basin filled with water boiled from the kettle – as you do). She noticed it when she went to place a bucket practically on top of it. Now this one was a little too close for comfort! Mind you, when it realised that this large thing next to it was trying to squash it with a bucket off it went down the wall. Lou then walked to what she thought was a better viewing spot only to disturb another snake also less than a metre from where she now stood! Talk about palpitations! Not sure what variety this one was but we did manage to take a photograph of it to try and identify it in the snake book.

A few days later when I was leaving to go to an early morning meeting. He opened the front door to find another snake similar to the brown one curled up on our doorstep! Needles to say out came the camera again (for identification purposes). As I was in a rush to catch a ferry into Central I left Louise to usher it off the threshold. This she managed to do by giving it a gentle poke with a ‘long’ stick of bamboo. We haven’t seen any more snakes quite as close to the house lately, just a few down the valley as we are walking home! Not so keen on the fact that the snakes come quite so close to the house but really there is not a lot that we can do about it. One just has to keep a wary eye out and ‘believe’ that they are more fearful of us than we are of them!

Of course, the most unwelcome critter at the moment (and one which definitely makes their presence felt) are mosquitos. We currently have daily competitions to see who can kill the most. It really is unwise to leave the door open on the damper days…especially in the early evening. One of our most useful Christmas presents was a mossie net for the bed. When we first started using it we did have a problem with rogue mossies sneaking in through the gap. Once inside they would have a feast! These little blighters even know how to bite you through the sheet! After a few nights of having to turn the lights on in the middle of the night to act as the great white mosquito catcher Louise fixed the problem by sewing up the gap!

We haven’t got any resident animals of the domestic variety (apart from our resident geckos). Stumpy the gecko (tailless due to some trauma) was one of our favourites for a while, but he eventually went to the big gecko place in the sky. Over the last couple of days the flying ants (these winged ants come in waves at certain times of the year) have been making a nuisance of themselves by coming into the house through every crack and cranny (of which there are many). The only good thing about this event was that we could watch gecko TV…i.e. watch the geckos scurry up the walls catching and munching on the winged ants. The bad thing about these nuisance insects (those not caught and munched by geckos) is that they drop their wings overnight and then you end up with a colony of ants inside!

If we feel the need to get close and personal to domestic animals we can go to Jenny’s and say hello to Charlie the pig, Cherry the cat, the 2 turtles and 5 dogs that make up her menagerie. We sometimes volunteer to take the five girls for a walk (Jenny’s dogs – Radar, a collie bitser, afghans Yuki and Carmen, Pepper a small fluffy something?? and ‘Belle the Beautiful’ - a pug who is the smallest dog but makes her presence felt the most). Belle is the self acclaimed star of the family!

We also always stop and talk to the self styled guardians of the Valley. These are the seven cats that reside around the ‘pink gates’ at the entrance to the valley (which is also where our letter box is - about 10 minutes walk from the house). They are wild cats but all have been caught by the cat’s protection society, taken away to be de-sexed and brought back to their ‘home’. They do not belong to anyone in particular but are fed by many people. All are a tad timid except for Mama and Boy (the names we have given them). My guess is that Mama is actually Boy’s mother (they are very similar in colouring and natures). She is the most gorgeous moggie who always stops for a chat and a roll. She sees us coming and runs up the path and jumps on the 1.5m high concrete pad for her chat and pat. Boy has also become more confident and he too is often hanging out with his mum lolling in the sun and waiting for our attention as we cycle by.

On that note of cycling – bye

Grow Well
Dr Merrin

The Joy of Spring

Take time to go and look closely at the plants in your garden or your nearest park.

Look closely at those plants that look just like dead branches. I mean get up really close to them and look for signs of green buds on the ends of the branches.

What you will find is the amazing transition from a twig to a leaf or a flower.

Walking the valleys and hills around Mui Wo we were amazed by the variety of the blossom and flowers that are emerging at the moment.

Spring reminds me that you can not judge a plant by its looks at one time of the year and expect to know all its glory. That twig can later provide you with wonderful fruits!

The Magic of Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong

The classic photo that a tourist will take in Hong Kong will be of the high rise buildings stacked along the ever changing (should that be shrinking) waterfront of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Yet 30 minutes by fast ferry there are numerous places to visit where you will not even be able to see one single high rise building.

Mui Wo, on South Lantau Island is one place that I love. It is a community of bicycle riders that share the narrow paths and beach with each other.

Our accommodation is up a valley and you can only see two other houses from it. The view is of greenery and bush, with the mountain Lin Fa Shan taking centre stage, and at 700m high it certainly does.




We love sharing our "home" with others. It is like a homestay or bed and breakfast experience that you get in so many other parts of the world though very rarely in Hong Kong.

From the patio you can hear the birds during the day and night. There are butterflies of all shapes and sizes and the thrill of picking your own fresh fruit is so rewarding.

The response we get from people who visit is wide ranging. If you are not used to getting close to nature then it is a great spot to experience it without needing to fly to another country or visit a zoo.

Come and visit Mui Wo (also often called Silvermine Beach) see a real contrast in Hong Kong. So come and visit us for the day or even stay the night!