Cheung Chau (Chinese: 長洲; lit. 'Long Island') is an outlying island of Hong Kong, located 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is also called Dumbbell Island (啞鈴島; aa2 ling4 dou2) due to its dumbbell-like shape. It has been inhabited for longer than most other places in Hong Kong, and had a population of 22,740 as of 2011. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District.
The Outlying Islands are all the islands that make up the territory of Hong Kong, with the exception of Hong Kong Island and some smaller islands near its coast. There are 263 islands over 500 m in Hong Kong, the vast majority of which are located within the New Territories, with significant numbers located in Islands District in the south and southwest, Sai Kung District in the southeast, and Tai Po District and North District in the northeast. The term "outlying" is not strictly defined and in some cases islands very close to Hong Kong Island and mainland China are not included.
Inconvenient transport meant that development came relatively late compared to other parts of Hong Kong, and many islands are still undeveloped. Many of the outlying islands are sparsely populated and remain largely rural, although there are significant traditional villages and towns on the islands of Lantau, Peng Chau, Lamma, and Cheung Chau.
The New Territories is the largest of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it is the region described in the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. According to that treaty, the territories comprise the mainland area north of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula and south of the Sham Chun River (which is the border between Hong Kong and mainland China), as well as over 200 outlying islands, including Lantau Island, Lamma Island, Cheung Chau, and Peng Chau in the territory of Hong Kong.
Later, after New Kowloon was defined from the area between the Boundary Street and the Kowloon Ranges spanned from Lai Chi Kok to Lei Yue Mun, and the extension of the urban areas of Kowloon, New Kowloon was gradually urbanised and absorbed into Kowloon.
A tied island or land-tied island is a landform consisting of an island that is connected to the mainland or another island only by a tombolo, which is an isthmus of beach materials connected to land at both ends. St Ninian's Isle in the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland is an example: it was once an island but is now linked to the mainland.
Other examples include Maury Island, Washington in Puget Sound, Coronado, California, and Nahant, Massachusetts in the United States; Paraguana Peninsula in Venezuela; Barrenjoey, New South Wales and Wedge Island, Western Australia; Paratutae Island in New Zealand; the Argentario and Sestri Levante in Italy, Mount Hakodate in Japan, Howth Head in Ireland; Davaar Island, Campbeltown, Scotland; Chefoo island in Yantai, China; and Cheung Chau in Hong Kong.