Lantau Island - Geography

Geography

With a land mass of 147.16 square kilometres (56.82 sq mi), it is the largest island in Hong Kong, almost twice the size of Hong Kong Island.

Lantau Island primarily consists of mountainous terrain. Lantau Peak (934 m) is the highest point of the island. It is the second highest in Hong Kong, after Tai Mo Shan, and is almost twice the height of Victoria Peak. Other mountains include Sunset Peak (869 m), Lin Fa Shan (766 m), Nei Lak Shan (751 m) and Yi Tung Shan (747 m).

Lantau Island is often referred to as "the lungs of Hong Kong", because of its abundance of indigenous forest and relative scarcity of high-rise residential developments which characterise Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The largest country park of Hong Kong, Lantau South Country Park is located on the island, which hosts two other parks, namely Lantau North Country Park and its extension. These parks cover slightly more than half of the area of Lantau Island.

Shek Pik Reservoir is the fourth largest freshwater reservoir in Hong Kong. Completed in 1963, it covers an area of 1.01 km² and has a capacity of 24.5 x 106 m3.

Fan Lau Kok at the end of Fan Lau Peninsula is the southwest end the territory of Hong Kong. The small island of Peaked Hill, off Tsin Yue Wan (煎魚灣), marks the westernmost point on land of Hong Kong territories.