Tseung Kwan O
Tseung Kwan O (also called
Junk Bay;
Chinese: 將軍澳,
Cantonese Jyutping: zoeng1 gwan1 ou3;
Cantonese IPA: ;
Mandarin Pinyin: Jiāngjūn Aò) is a bay in southeastern
New Territories,
Hong Kong. In the northern tip of the bay lies the
Tseung Kwan O Village.
The
Tseung Kwan O New Town, one of the nine
new towns in
Hong Kong, was mainly built on
reclaimed land in the northern half of the bay.
In
Cantonese,
Tseung Kwan (將軍) means the "General" of an army, and
O (澳) means "bay". Therefore,
Tseung Kwan O literally means "General's Bay".
The exact origin of the name Tseung Kwan O is unknown, but it is said to be named in honour of a
Ming Dynasty general who visited Tseung Kwan O at some point. Another theory is that the name was chosen in the 17th century, when
naval battles were fought against
pirates from
Japan at Tseung Kwan O.
The English name
Junk Bay was said to be derived from the existence of
junks in the bay. The
Junk Island is in the southeastern part of the bay.
|
Tseung Kwan O Library at Dusk |
|
Tseung Kwan O Swimming Pool and Library |
The bay is near the eastern mouth of Hong Kong's
Victoria Harbour.
Before new town development, the area around the bay was occupied by a number of fishing towns and villages. The Tseung Kwan O Village in the northern tip of the bay is about 600 years old. Other towns and villages include
Rennie's Mill,
Hang Hau and
Yau Yu Wan. Rennie's Mill was where
Kuomintang loyalists were settled following the end of the
Chinese civil war, and Hang Hau had a ship building industry.
The
Hong Kong Government had been interested in developing a new town at Hang Hau because of its proximity to the urban area. The project was postponed for a long time owing to the extensive scale of
reclamation in the bay, which is rather deep. It finally started under the name of Tseung Kwan O.
*
List of bays in Hong Kong*
Website on history and other information of Tseung Kwan O - Chinese Version only 
