The Soko Islands () are a group of

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s in Hong Kong. The group consists of

Tai A Chau Tai A Chau is an uninhabited island of Hong Kong, part of the Soko Islands group, located south of Lantau Island. It is referred to as South Soko Island in some media articles. Geography With an area of 1.2 km², Tai A Chau is the larges ...

, Siu A Chau and several smaller nearby islands, in the southwesternmost waters of the territory, to the southwest of

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located West of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands ...

. An older name for this island group was "Sok Kwu Kwan To" (Fishing Net Islands). The islands are mainly composed of granite and a band of

rhyodacite Rhyodacite is a volcanic rock intermediate in composition between dacite and rhyolite. It is the extrusive equivalent of those plutonic rocks that are intermediate in composition between monzogranite and granodiorite. Rhyodacites form from rapid ...

. Waters of the island group are brackish due to being in the

Pearl River estuary The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong–Hong Kong– ...

Islands

The islands of the group are: * Cheung Muk Tau () *

Ko Pai A KO is a knockout in various sports, such as boxing and martial arts. K.O., Ko or Kō may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * KO (musician), Canadian musician who plays a fusion of hip hop and folk music * ''K.O.'' (album), a 2021 ...

() * Lung Shuen Pai () * Ma Chau () * Shek Chau () * Siu A Chau () *

() * Tau Lo Chau () * Wan Hau Chau () * Yuen Chau () * Yuen Kong Chau ()

History

Now uninhabited, the islands formerly accommodated a

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

for

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

boat people Vietnamese boat people ( vi, Thuyền nhân Việt Nam), also known simply as boat people, refers to the refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its h ...

. Vietnamese detention centres were established in Hong Kong following waves of Vietnamese fleeing after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The Tai A Chau Detention Centre (IN59) was closed in September 1996. In 2016,

CLP Power CLP Group () and its holding company, CLP Holdings Ltd (), also known as China Light and Power Company, Limited (now CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd., ), is an electricity company in Hong Kong. Incorporated in 1901 as China Light & Power Company Syndi ...

proposed the islands as site for a terminal to receive liquefied natural gas (

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

) for use in electricity generation. This proposal is opposed by local environmental groups because the surrounding waters are an important habitat for various marine species, particularly the rare

Chinese white dolphin The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (''Sousa chinensis'') is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese white dolphin in mainland Chi ...

. In February 2020, OceansAsia reported finding 70 face masks washed up on one beach of the islands. The same beach was examined the following November, and OceansAsia volunteers reported collecting 54 more masks.

Conservation

The soft shore beach of Siu A Chau can attract

green turtles The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

and the islands were proposed to be a protected marine park. The South Lantau Marine Park () was designated as a marine park in June 2022. It encompasses the Soko Islands and an area between Siu A Chau and Tai A Chau. The stated aim of the marine park is to help conserve the

Chinese white dolphins The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (''Sousa chinensis'') is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese white dolphin in mainland Chi ...

and

finless Porpoise ''Neophocaena'' is a genus of porpoise native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, as well as the freshwater habitats of the Yangtze River basin in China. They are commonly known as finless porpoises. Genetic studies indicate that ''Neophocaena'' is ...

Education

The Soko Islands are in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 97. Within the school net are three aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) on

Cheung Chau Cheung Chau (lit. "Long Island") is an island southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is nicknamed the 'dumbbell island (啞鈴島)' due to its shape. It has been inhabited for longer than most other places in Hong Kong, and had a population of 2 ...

; no government schools are in this net.

References

External links

* {{Conservation designations in Hong Kong Islands District Marine parks of Hong Kong