Wok Tai Wan

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Wok Tai Wan (Chinese: 鑊底灣) was a bay on the northwest coast of Tsing Yi Island, Hong Kong. The beach in the bay was once nudist paradise. Its hardness to accessing the bay on foot, with high hills surrounded, or by small boat, with turbulence in the nearby sea, made it the idea place for nudists to swim and have sunbath. Because of the nudist paradise, the bay once became an attraction for hikers even the activities ceased.

Wok Tai in Cantonese means the bottom of the wok, a round-bottom pan. The bay named with its wok shape.

[edit] Nudism

In 1932, an European Lam Part (林伯氏) set up a nudist club in Heung Fan Liu (香粉寮) in Sha Tin. He later sold the premises in 1938 because the building of Shing Mun Reservoir in 1935 and the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 seriously affected his business.

Between 1938 and 1941, he used his boat to take his nudists' club members to the bay to continue their gathering. The number of members reached its height, 20.

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (1941-1945), he lost his boat and the club's activities was interrupted. He rented boats instead to take the members to the bay and renamed his club to sunbathing club 1950s.

In 1960s all nudist activities halted owing to insufficient participants.

[edit] Tsing Ma Bridge

The bay remained largely silent in 1970s and 1980s, and only occasionally explorers came to find its past.

The bay became more accessible when Hong Kong United Dockyards (HUD) was built closer to the bay in 1976. Tsing Yi Road was extended to the dockyard.

In early 1990s, Tsing Ma Bridge, an integral part of Port and Airport Development Strategy, started. The suspension bridge spans from the hill at the back of Wok Tai Wan. Wok Tai Wai was reclaimed for the building one of the two towers of the bridge and a pier supporting the road from the tower to the hill.