Island Geography & Access
Tap Mun, also known as Grass Island, sits off the northeastern coast of the Sai Kung Peninsula within Mirs Bay. The island covers an area of roughly 1.69 square kilometres and features rolling grassy slopes, wave-cut platforms, and rocky headlands formed from Jurassic volcanic rocks. Its position facing Mirs Bay to the east, with an open, largely unobstructed horizon, has made it one of the more popular spots in the New Territories for watching sunrise, an activity that draws overnight campers to the grassland in numbers well beyond what the island’s small permanent population would suggest.
Reaching the island requires public transit planning. From the MTR East Rail Line, take a train to University Station, exit toward Exit B, and catch KMB bus route 99 or 299X to Sai Kung town. Alternatively, take the MTR to Diamond Hill Station and board bus 92. From the Sai Kung Public Pier, board the 90-minute kaito ferry service operated by Tsui Wah Ferry, which runs on weekends and public holidays. A direct kaito service also operates daily from Wong Shek Pier, taking approximately 15 minutes. Given the limited and schedule-dependent nature of these crossings, visitors should confirm current sailing times before setting out rather than assuming a fixed, year-round timetable, since kaito operators on routes like this one commonly adjust schedules around demand, weather, and public holiday timing.
History & Heritage
Historically, Tap Mun supported a fishing community and Hakka and Tanka farming population dating back to at least the mid-16th century, with population peaks reaching an estimated 2,000 residents by the mid-20th century — a figure corroborated by multiple independent sources, though the 1911 colonial census recorded a much lower count of 253. The two numbers describe different populations rather than contradicting each other: the 1911 count captured only registered Hakka and fisherfolk land-dwellers, while the mid-century peak included the transient floating-boat population that sheltered in the bay alongside them. Today, fewer than 100 permanent residents remain. Along the coastal paths, traditional wooden racks still used for drying seafood catch remain a common sight, a working reminder of the fishing economy that once supported a much larger population here.
The island’s cultural focal point is the Tin Hau Temple, constructed in 1737 during the Qing Dynasty to protect seafaring locals and fishermen. Built primarily of grey bricks and timber framing, the structure features intricate ceramic ridge decorations depicting historical figures and mythical beasts. Adjacent to the temple stands a smaller Kwan Tai Shrine. A prominent stone tablet dated 1798 documents historical maritime regulations and community tax exemptions granted during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor.
Lore
The 1798 stone tablet standing near the Tin Hau Temple, documenting maritime regulations and tax exemptions granted under the Jiaqing Emperor, is treated locally less as a dry administrative record and more as evidence of the island’s historical standing within the wider fishing economy of Mirs Bay — proof, residents have long pointed out, that Tap Mun’s fishing community was significant enough in its day to warrant formal imperial recognition and privileges, not merely a marginal, forgotten outpost. That status stands in some contrast to the island’s present-day quiet, and longtime residents sometimes invoke the tablet as a reminder of a more prominent past than the current population figures would suggest to a first-time visitor.
Economic Context
Tap Mun’s population decline from a peak of roughly 2,000 mid-20th-century residents to fewer than 100 today mirrors a pattern common across Hong Kong’s outlying fishing islands, where younger generations left for work in the urban core as the fishing economy that sustained earlier generations contracted. In recent years, the government’s Countryside Conservation Office has designated Tap Mun as a project site aimed at revitalizing the island’s remaining built heritage and supporting what economic activity persists — largely small guesthouses, a handful of restaurants near the pier, and grassland camping tourism drawn by the island’s namesake scenery. This kind of state-backed revitalization effort is itself a tacit acknowledgment that the island’s traditional fishing and farming economy is not coming back on its own, and that any future economic base here will look substantially different from the one that supported its historical population peak.
Wildlife & ESG Note
Tap Mun’s grassy hilltop, the source of its English nickname, supports a population of feral cattle that share the island’s paths and grazing land with residents and visitors alike — descendants, most likely, of domestic cattle once kept by the island’s farming households and left to range freely as farming activity declined. The island sits immediately north of Sai Kung West Country Park and within Mirs Bay, a stretch of coastline that attracts migratory birds using the area to breed or overwinter, giving the island a modest but genuine conservation profile alongside its better-known scenic and camping draw. Visitors should treat the cattle as wild rather than tame — they are unmanaged, not a curated tourist attraction, and should be given space rather than approached or fed.
Local Cuisine
Dining on Tap Mun centers around traditional seafood preparations rooted in Tanka and Hakka culinary traditions. Local eateries near the main pier serve dried seafood specialties, including sun-dried squid and locally harvested sea urchins. A signature regional dish is sea urchin fried rice (sea urchin fan yu), flavored with ginger, scallions, and soy sauce, utilizing roe harvested directly from the surrounding Mirs Bay waters. Most of the island’s eateries are small, family-run operations near the pier rather than a formal restaurant row, and menus tend to shift with what the day’s catch and drying racks actually produce rather than following a fixed printed list.