Shek Kwu Chau, Hong Kong’s drug rehabilitation island – changing times at the remote haven
Formerly called Coffin Island, the restricted area can only be visited with a special permit and its voluntary drug rehabilitation centre is home to 200 recovering male addicts
Less than 4km west of Hong Kong’s bustling outlying island of Cheung Chau is a much smaller, more remote island with a tiny, transient population.
Shek Kwu Chau, once known as Coffin Island, measures roughly 1.5km by 1.2km. In 1962, it was handed over to the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers, which established a treatment and rehabilitation centre for drug addicts. To this day, the island is a restricted area that can be visited only by those with a special permit.
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“You could ask 100 people in Central about Shek Kwu Chau and I am sure at least 80 would have no idea it even existed,” says Patrick Wu Shun-on, superintendent of the facility.
That’s despite the fact that the small rock in the South China Sea has had its brush with fame. The late Princess Diana visited the island’s recovering addicts twice and the centre has a building named after her.
Fifty-five years after it was established, the centre is still home to some 200 recovering male addicts, supervised by Wu and about 50 staff.
The centre, adorned with mock Roman baths and faux marble sculptures – some standing in fountains and lily ponds, a legacy from a time when residents were engaged in stonemasonry projects to keep them busy – is also home to a few sheep, rescued dogs and cats, turtles and many exotic birds. The island also has its own reservoir.
