June 2024 (ROTM#186) Tai Wan Beach, Hong Kong

Hong Kong like you’ve never seen it. Rips galore!

Professor Chris Houser is a friend and colleague of mine who is now the Dean of Science at the University of Waterloo in Canada. We’ve done a lot of work on rip currents and beach safety together and a few months ago he sent me pictures from some beaches he visited on the eastern side of Hong Kong in a Geopark. I was impressed because I’ve been to Hong Kong and had no idea they existed!

The picture below is the one he sent me of Tai Wan Beach, commonly known as Tai Long Sai Wan Beach, to show me some examples of channelised rip currents. If you can’t see them look for the embayments along the beach and the narrow dark meanders of greener water heading offshore between the breaking waves.

As I put together this ROTM I googled Tai Wan Beach and the first site was Trip Advisor with a ton of pictures (making me wonder again how I missed these beaches when I was there!). Boom…the picture above was the first picture shown at https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g294217-d2003133-Reviews-Tai_Long_Wan-Hong_Kong.html#/media-atf/2003133/290029311:p/?albumid=-160&type=0&category=-160 and it is rip current city! Holy cow! There are at least 4 classic channelised rip currents along the beach (the narrow green channels). The fact that there are no lifeguards makes it an extremely dangerous beach for a swim…but beautiful for sure. Hong Kong eh? Who would’ve thought?

Same beach, but rip currents are further down the beach - look for the embayments and dark gaps.