Discovery Bay

One of the things we enjoy about living in Hong Kong is that our weekends are largely for leisure. We don’t have a yard to mow, landscaping to maintain, home improvement projects, etc. So far I’ve been able to keep all of Lydia’s activities on weekdays. We know this luxury won’t last forever, so we try to make the most of each weekend and see new areas of the city.

This past weekend Discovery Bay, located on Lantau Island (west of where we live), was on our list.

Discovery Bay, also known as Disco Bay or DB, started as leisure resort for tourists in the 1970s but the developer went broke. The property was purchased and converted into a “resort style” residential development. The entire development is privately owned (unusual in Hong Kong where the government even has a majority ownership in Disneyland). The infrastructure and even the government-run fire and police stations were built by the developer. As you might imagine, the result of these factors is a place that doesn’t really look or feel like Hong Kong!

The community is built around a central plaza, which seemed much like a town square. It was a really active and vibrant place.

In the plaza were shops, a grocery store, and restaurants that faced the waterfront.

The architecture was definitely not Asian styled - it seemed more suburban strip mall-ish (and I actually mean that in a nice way) – and there was a lot of very pretty landscaping.

The housing was mostly low-rises rather than skyscrapers.

And, of course, there was a beach – with a playground in the sand. Lydia loved it.
Other unusual characteristics of DB it is accessible almost exclusively by ferry and no private cars are allowed within the development (with a few exceptions). The ferry runs every 30 minutes, 24-hours a day from the Central district.

It was a much nicer ferry than others we’ve been on. The seats were more like an airplane seats instead of the primitive wooden bleacher style seats that are used in “normal” ferries. The downside of the whole ferry arrangement is that if there is a typhoon, the ferry service is suspended. And, the ferries make the plaza area smell a bit like diesel fuel.

Golf carts are the only motorized vehicles in the development and they are heavily restricted – only 500 golf carts are allowed (the population is 16,000). And, it is quite costly to buy one of the carts that are allowed – I’ve read they can cost up to $150,000 (USD). Apparently, the golf cart is the Maserati of Disco Bay!

Many people in HK revile DB and describe it as “Pleasantville” or “Stepford Wife-ish.” While I wouldn’t go that far, I could see living there feeling a bit confining. Overall, I thought it was nice – at least for the day!