Cheung Chau is shaped like a dumbbell, with the old village and ferry pier at its waist where the two headlands narrow. No private cars are allowed, so the lanes are given over to bicycles and pedestrians. The ferry from Central Pier 5 takes about 35 minutes.
The seafood restaurants along the waterfront promenade serve straightforward Cantonese fish and shellfish at reasonable prices — the squid and the crab are consistently good. Cheung Chau Beach on the western shore is clean, sheltered, and swimmable in summer; rental kayaks and windsurfers are available from huts on the sand. Rental bicycles are easy to find at the pier and the headlands are worth exploring at a slow pace.
The island is best known internationally for the Bun Festival (Cheung Chau Jiao), held annually in late April or May. The centrepiece is a tower of steamed buns stacked about 15 metres high; competitors race up the structure to grab buns (which are considered lucky) from as high as possible. The festival has its roots in a 19th-century plague that the islanders believed they ended by appeasing the spirits.