Sunshine Island (), also known as Chau Kung To () indigenously, is a companion island of

Hei Ling Chau Hei Ling Chau, formerly Hayling Chau, is an island of Hong Kong, located east of Silver Mine Bay and Chi Ma Wan of Lantau Island. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District. Geography Hei Ling Chau is located south of Peng Chau and ...

in Hong Kong. Located northeast of Hei Ling Chau and south of

Peng Chau Peng Chau is a small island located off the north-eastern coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It is known locally for its temples, fishing industry and seafood. Geography Peng Chau has an area of and a perimeter of about . The tallest point ...

, the island was once the site of a drug addiction treatment centre. The island features scenic rocks and some abandoned buildings. It has only one inhabitant, a 78-year-old named Lam Chi-ngai, and there is no public transport to the island.

History

Friend (

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

) Gus Borgeest, born in

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

in 1909, gave the island its English name and founded an audacious and successful resettlement and rehabilitation centre for Chinese refugees on Sunshine island in 1952. At the time opium addiction was endemic among many Chinese and the model farming community founded by Borgeest provided many mainland refugees and addicts in Hong Kong with a second chance. Borgeest's method was to provide land, housing, tools, seeds, training and assistance to refugees and give them the opportunity to each start a small farm on the island. The opportunity provided by Borgeest's project helped many refugee families re-establish themselves after the trauma of fleeing to Hong Kong. On a May 1956 visit to Sunshine Island one of the resettled refugees expressed the success of the project to then Hong Kong Governor Sir

Alexander Grantham Sir Alexander William George Herder Grantham, GCMG (; 15 March 1899 – 4 October 1978) was a British colonial administrator who governed Hong Kong and Fiji. Early life, colonial administration career Grantham was born on 15 March 1899 and ...

: "Sir, owning one's own land, managing one's own affairs, does something to a man. Such cannot be achieved, or even understood, by those who are content to let the government fill their rice bowls for them." For this work, Borgeest was awarded the 1961 Ramon Magsaysay Prize, also known colloquially as "Asia's Nobel Prize". The work of the Sunshine Island community was supported by The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Hong Kong. Sunshine Island formed the basis of later drug rehabilitation settlements still existing in Hong Kong.

Fauna

After the construction of

Hong Kong Disneyland Hong Kong Disneyland () (local nickname ''HKDL''; also known as HK Disneyland) is a theme park located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and it is owned and managed by Hong Ko ...

white-bellied sea eagle The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related t ...

s moved from their habitat in

Pa Tau Kwu Pa Tau Kwu () is an area of Tsing Chau Tsai Peninsula, on Lantau Island in Hong Kong and the site of a former village. Administratively, it is part of Tsuen Wan District. Administration Pa Tau Kwu is a recognized village under the New Territories ...

() 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 ...

to Sunshine Island. There is also an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species, the Bogadek's legless lizard (''

Dibamus bogadeki ''Dibamus bogadeki'', or Bogadek's burrowing lizard ( Chinese: 鮑氏雙足蜥), is a species of legless lizard in the family Dibamidae. The species is endemic to Hong Kong. Etymology ''D. bogadeki'' is named after its first collector, Father A ...

'') living on the island.

References

External links

Gus Borgeest biography
on

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealis ...

s website
Webpage about wildlife protection (WWF HK) on Sunshine Island

Satellite image from Google Maps
{{Islands of Hong Kong Uninhabited islands of Hong Kong Islands District

History

Fauna

See also

References

External links