Practical tips for visiting Cheung Chau

It’s worth paying the extra for a deluxe seat on the slow ferry to Cheung Chau from Central: you get the choice of an air-conditioned cabin or an open-air deck at the stern with stellar views.
In October, the island (specifically Saiyuen Camping Adventure Park) plays host to the two-day music and arts festival Shi Fu Miz.
If you visit in April or May, you may catch the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, a quirky, locally flavoured affair. It dates back to rituals that were first used to ward off an 18th-century outbreak of plague.
There are two main events: a parade and a ‘bun fight’, both amazingly photogenic. Local heroes vie with each other to scramble up a 14-metre-tall bamboo tower and grab as many ‘lucky buns’ from the top as possible – traditionally they were real buns, but nowadays they’re plastic.
And the stars of the cacophonous parade that winds its way through the streets are costumed children balanced atop long poles so they appear to be floating above the crowds.
During the festivals, shops including Kwok Kam Kee sell freshly baked buns stuffed with sesame, lotus or red bean paste and stamped with the character for ‘peace’ (or the shop’s logo). More than 60,000 buns are consumed every year and the entire island goes vegetarian for a month.