Remote and very photogenic islets a long swim away from Grass Island. Possible good snorkeling, scrambling, and extra fun around.

  • Beauty/fun: 7/10 These islets are a beauty. Narrow but long with nice sedimentary rocks. A cave, fun cliff scrambling, a high “safe” jump spot, a couple of lookouts, and possible good snorkeling. You can combine it with the best coasteering of Grass Island. Just a bit small for the long “commute” required.
  • Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 7.5/10 if you do it our way. Long two swims (600+ meters each), a bit of bushwalking, and the most technical coasteering on Grass Island to finish the day. If you only do Kung Chau on a calm sea day with a boat, this is really easy & short.
  • The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)

See full screen & Garmin track.

The swell had been really big for weeks. I was trying “to finish” all the non-concrete coastline of Hong Kong, but Beaufort and others didn’t look safe. I saw a post of Meko here and I remembered that it looked interesting when we passed next to it kayaking on our way to Port Island. Supposedly it should be a bit more sheltered from the East swell… Let’s try!

The full route looked short enough so that we didn’t need to take an early ferry. On weekends hourly departures from Wong Shek Pier, which is already pretty far. You could take full public transportation, with the number 94 bus, among others, going there from Saikung center. But the traffic around can be a mess. We took MTR to Wu Kai Sha Station and a taxi from there instead.

Arrive at Grass Island at 11 am and start with a hike. Very civilized and well marked initially, slightly bushy walk later already seeing the island in front. Steep and a bit sandy last downhill before easy coasteering and time to swim!

Land on the islet and start counterclockwise. Almost immediately first entertainments: fun scrambling, a mini tunnel to squeeze through, and the views.

We went to the very end enjoying the geology around and returned to the main “pillar”. It has a wall to “boulder” on the East (watch the video below at 0:51 Denvy climbing that way). Easier way up on the SE. A tiny cave and potential high cliff jump on the West.

Go back to the main islet, a bit more scrambling on the Northern coast, and

time to swim again. Janis (not the best with directions and ahead) and the tide current made us swim a bit longer on the return. Really big waves once we were back on Grass Island (1:25 at the video).

Windy’s forecast was definitely not correct 😅

I think that the main swell direction changed coming directly from almost perfect SE. My guess is that if this happens the waves can be similar sized to Tai Long Wan area, where the forecast was over 1 meter.

Nevertheless, we coasteered the most interesting East side of the island with some tricky in and out of the water. Janis got a deep scratch on her leg (coasteering with no leg or arm protection…) and I sent them up the easy hike path next to Kung Pui pebble beach meanwhile I jog and fast coasteered back to the ferry where we met again.

Video with full drone footage of the islets.

And another one showing how it can look on a calm sea day. With decent snorkeling.

Everything you should know before coasteering.