Yam O () is a bay located on the northeast shore 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 ...

, 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 ...

of Hong Kong. It is part of the Ma Wan constituency of the

Tsuen Wan District Council The Tsuen Wan District Council () is the district council for the Tsuen Wan District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Tsuen Wan District Council currently consists of 21 members, of which the district is divided into 19 constitue ...

. Yam O was the only natural lumber preservation zone in Hong Kong. Even today, travellers passing through Yam O can see natural lumber on stilts in the bay. Today, Yam O is known for its interchange for the

Disneyland Resort line The Disneyland Resort line is a heavy rail MTR line connecting Sunny Bay to the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, coloured pink on the network diagram. It is the seventh line of the former MTR network before the merger of MTR and KCR, and the w ...

via the nearby Sunny Bay MTR station, built on reclaimed land near Yam O.

History

Plans were made in the PADS (Port and Airport Development Strategy) of 1989 to reclaim the bay for ancillary port facilities. The bay was eventually reclaimed in the 2000s under the Northeast Lantau Development Strategy to accommodate a tourism gateway to

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 ...

; this included

Sunny Bay station Sunny Bay () is an MTR station in Yam O. It is between and stations. The station is an interchange station between the and the to Hong Kong Disneyland. The station was originally to be named ''Yam O'' (). ''Yam O'' was not used probably b ...

Sunny Bay

Sunny Bay () is a recent incarnation by 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 authorities of Hong Kong SAR. It was formed on 1 July 1997 in accordance with the Sino- ...

, which emerged after the plans to build

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is a resort built and owned by Hong Kong International Theme Parks Limited, a joint venture of the Government of Hong Kong and The Walt Disney Company in Hong Kong on reclaimed land beside Penny's Bay, at the ...

on nearby Penny's Bay. This was done so because ''Yam'' () in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

literally means ''dark'' (the same word as the Mandarin ''yin'', well known to most

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

speakers from the expression '' yin-yang''); while ''Yan'' () means ''happy'' - a significantly more favorable name to

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. But according to ''

Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...

'', ''Yam'' () originally is a geographical syntax which means "North of a hill or south of a body of water", so the change of the name is seen a violation of local culture and opposed by Hong Kong citizens and some Chinese language professionals.

is today also a transport interchange for

Discovery Bay Discovery Bay (DB) is a resort town on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It consists of mixed, primarily residential, development, in particular upmarket residential development and private and public recreational facilities, including garden houses, ...

residents, being served by bus route ''DB03R''.

External links

Map of Yam O and Penny's Bay by the MTRMap of Yam O and vicinity by Centamap.com
{{coord, 22.32932, 114.02281, display=title Bays of Hong Kong Places in Hong Kong Lantau Island Tsuen Wan District

History

Sunny Bay

See also

External links