Deep Bay is a bay between

Yuen Long District Yuen Long District (formerly romanised as Un Long) is one of the districts of Hong Kong. Located in the northwest of the New Territories, it had a population of 662,000 in 2021 Geography Yuen Long District contains the largest alluvial pla ...

, in the

New Territories The 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, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

, Hong Kong and the city of

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Province. It is otherwise known as Hau Hoi Wan () in Hong Kong, and Shenzhen Bay () in Mainland China.

Name

The local Cantonese name of the bay is Hau Hoi Wan (), which means the ''back (sea) bay''. It is opposite to another bay, Tsin Hoi Wan (), which means ''front (sea) bay'', on the other side of Nantau Peninsula. The Chinese character 后 (Hau, lit. queen) in 后海灣 is the homonym of 後 (Hau, lit. back), and also its simplified character. Some attribute the character 后 (Hau) to the goddess of mercy and sea,

Tin Hau Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. ...

(). The name of Shenzhen Bay came much later, at least after the establishment of

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone () is a special economic zone (SEZ) of China. One of four special economic zones (SEZ) established in May 1980, it was the first SEZ created by Deng Xiaoping, and, like the other three zones, was modeled after Ir ...

in 1980. The name became more notable after a hotel was named Shenzhen Bay. While the government of China uses the name widely, the people and government in Hong Kong continue to use the official name ().

Ecology

View Tin Shui Wai,Hongkong from Shenzhen,China

As the bay is largely enclosed by land,

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

from the surrounding land enters the bay from a shallow shore of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

. The margin of fresh water and

salt water Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water, ...

forms a valuable habitat for a wide variety of life. The bay's northern shore used to be lined with

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

es. As Shenzhen began to develop into a major urban centre, the northern shoreline was

reclaimed Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

to provide land for buildings. Some departments had tried to preserve the endangered environment but mistakenly introduced foreign species of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

, which threatened their indigenous counterparts. The marshes remain largely intact along the southern part of the bay, which is under Hong Kong's jurisdiction.

Mai Po Mai Po Marshes (; Hong Kong Hakka: ''Mi3bu4 Sip5ti4'') is a nature reserve located in San Tin near Yuen Long in Hong Kong. it is within Yuen Long District. It is part of Deep Bay, an internationally significant wetland that is actually a ...

is an important

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

for

migrating birds Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

in the area and is the site where the Mai Po bent-wing firefly (''Pteroptyx maipo)'' was discovered. Pools of former fish farms is another attraction to birds. Like many coastal areas, it is at risk of sea level rise due to climate change, which would damage the roots of the mangroves.

Agriculture and fisheries

The bay is rich in

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

and

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

s. Lau Fau Shan is particularly famous for oysters in Hong Kong. From Lau Fau Shan to Mai Po, the villagers made use of the special environment's pools to cultivate fishes. A by-product of this cultivation, greasyback shrimp (), is also a delicacy in Hong Kong.

Illegal immigrants

Before 1949, Chinese people were free to travel between

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

. In order to halt a large influx of refugees from mainland China, the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong Special administrative regions of China, ...

established border control and compulsory registration of Hong Kong residents. As a result, it was harder to migrate to Hong Kong than before and thus many crossed the border illegally. Deep Bay became the main access for illegal immigrants because border controls were harder to enforce at sea. It was relatively easy to cross the bay and there were major roads to the urban centres of Hong Kong. The rural town of Lau Fau Shan was the major landing point.

References

External links