Castle Peak, Hong Kong
Encyclopedia
- For a formal area name in Hong Kong, see Tuen MunTuen MunTuen Mun is a town near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in Hong Kong which can be dated back to the Neolithic period. In the more recent past, it was home to many Tanka fishermen who gathered at the Castle...
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Castle Peak or Pui To Shan (杯渡山) is a 583 m high peak in the western New Territories
New Territories
New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...
of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
In contrast to its Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
name, which means green hill, Castle Peak is notorious for its severe loss of vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
and weathering
Weathering
Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soils and minerals as well as artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, biota and waters...
of its Granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
surface.
The area to the west of the hill was also named Castle Peak. It is an industrial area with several power plants owned by CLP
China Light and Power
The CLP Group and its holding company, CLP Holdings Ltd , is a Hong Kong electric company that businesses in a number of Asian markets and Australia....
(Castle Peak Power Station
Castle Peak Power Station
The Castle Peak Power Station is the largest coal fired power station in Hong Kong, China. It was commissioned in 1982 with its newest generation unit installed in 1990. The station consists of four 350 MW and four 677 MW generating units, with auxiliary facilities. It is one of the three...
and Black Point Power Station
Black Point Power Station
Black Point Power Station is a gas fired power station in Hong Kong, near to Castle Peak Power Station, another power station serving China Light and Power....
). It is also the old name of Tuen Mun
Tuen Mun
Tuen Mun is a town near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in Hong Kong which can be dated back to the Neolithic period. In the more recent past, it was home to many Tanka fishermen who gathered at the Castle...
during early British rule before starting development of Tuen Mun New Town
Tuen Mun New Town
Tuen Mun New Town is a new town developed by Hong Kong Government in Tuen Mun of the New Territories, Hong Kong in 1970s. At the time of planning in 1965, the satellite town, as new town was then known as, was named Castle Peak....
. In early proposal of the development, the new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
was named Castle Peak New Town.
Most of area of the hill is under firing range used by military and police forces in Hong Kong. Warnings are issued to public before exercises was carried out. And it is therefore among the few hills in Hong Kong which are not part of a Country Park
Country park
A country park is an area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment.-History:In the United Kingdom the term 'Country Park' has a special meaning. There are over 400 Country Parks in England alone . Most Country Parks were designated in the 1970s, under the...
.
History
The name Pui To Shan was associated with a Buddhist monk Pui To Sim ShiPui To
Pui To was a Buddhist monk living at the time of the Liu Song Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.The legend has it that he once went to Tuen Mun in the New Territories of Hong Kong to construct roads, and he lived at a big cave at the present day Castle Peak...
(杯渡禪師). In Cantonese, Pui means cup, To means water-crossing, Sim Shi means Monk of Zen. Legend has it that the monk who had travelled over water in a cup and finally reached the Castle Peak. He established a monastery on the hill which became the present-day Tsing Shan Monastery
Tsing Shan Monastery
The Tsing Shan Monastery is situated at the foot of Castle Peak, Hong Kong. The Monastery is graded as Grade I historic building.-Overview:...
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Early records have indicated the peak was an island once named Tuen Mun Island (屯門島). Its former channel with Kau Keng Shan
Kau Keng Shan
Kau Keng Shan is a hill in Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong and stands opposite from Castle Peak. Kau Keng Shan has a height of 507 metres...
of an important sea route in South China
Northern and southern China
Northern China and southern China are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions has never been precisely defined...
. Defence structures were built on both hills.
See also
- Castle Peak HospitalCastle Peak HospitalCastle Peak Hospital is the oldest psychiatric hospital in Hong Kong. Located at the east of Castle Peak in Tuen Mun, the hospital was established in 1961...
- Castle Peak BayCastle Peak BayCastle Peak Bay is a bay outside Tuen Mun. Tuen Mun River empties into the bay. In the past, large amount of Tanka fishermen harboured at the bay....
- Castle Peak RoadCastle Peak RoadCastle Peak Road is the longest road in Hong Kong. It runs from Tai Po Road in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon to the very north of the New Territories, serving south, west and north New Territories, being one of the most distant roads in early Hong Kong.-Name:...
- List of mountains, peaks and hills in Hong Kong