Shek O Bus Terminus

Coordinates: 22.2308N, 114.2511E, Map:
Shek O Bus Terminus
Terminus view (March 2023)
Chinese name	石澳巴士總站
Citybus Location Code	SHO
Location information
Region(s)	Hong Kong Island
District(s)	Southern District
Place(s)	Shek O
Location	190 Shek O Village, Shek O Road 石澳道石澳村190號
Design information
Nature	Bus terminus
Design	Single platform
No. of stop(s)	1
No. of route(s)	2

Shek O Bus Terminus (石澳巴士總站 , Citybus Location Code SHO) is a lay-by bus terminus located near Shek O Beach at the eastern end of Shek O Road, Shek O, Hong Kong Island, within the remainder of Shek O Lot No. 1149.

History

Shek O Bus Terminus is located at Shek O Village Gate No. 190. The two-storey regulator's office next to it was built in 1955 and designed by Hing Yip Architects, a renowned Chinese architect founded by Tsui King-chi (徐敬直). It is a building constructed of steel-reinforced concrete frame and is designed in a pragmatic manner in the international modernist style of architecture, which is generally regarded as having originated from the Bauhaus Academy of Fine Arts in Germany in the 1920s.

According to the accounts of the villagers of Shek O Village, the building was once occupied by the station master and staff of China Motor Bus (CMB) during the 1950s and 1970s, and the title was owned by CMB. In view of the historical value of the regulator's room, the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office recommended in June 2011 that the building be graded as a Grade III historic building and on 10 September 2013, the building was upgraded to Grade II. Renovation and restoration works of the building commenced in August 2021 and were completed in January 2022; the overall renovation cost about $500,000 and the discovery of the old well and the old stop sign of the CMB.

Since the Shek O Bus Terminus began operation, there was only one route in use most of the time; in 1974, CMB operated a special peak-hour Route 90, which was cancelled after only a few days of service, and a seasonal Route 9A, which was in service from 1976 to 1982. As time went by, CMB introduced holiday air-conditioned bus route 309 to Central (Exchange Square) in 1997, and 2001 was the golden age of Shek O Bus Terminus when, in addition to routes 9 and 309, there was also a seasonal swimming route 319 to and from Siu Sai Wan, but it was cancelled in October of the same year, and route 309 ceased to operate on 22 June 2008 after 11 years of service, leaving the terminus with one remaining route. On 26 June 2021, NWFB Route X9 was introduced for holiday service, making this stop no longer served by only one route.

Temporary terminus outside the car park

Due to the narrowness of Shek O Road outside the Shek O Bus Terminus and the lack of footpaths, Routes 9 and X9 have to be served by short-bodied buses, which usually have to reverse when leaving the terminus. Due to the small size of the Shek O Bus Terminus, the bus terminus is relocated to the car park at Shek O Beach during summer weekends and holidays in order to move passengers as quickly as possible. This arrangement originated from an unpleasant incident in the mid-1970s that left nearly 10,000 swimmers stranded at Shek O. On 20 June 1976, the bus terminus was relocated to the car park at Shek O Beach.

In the evening of 20 June 1976, nearly 400 red minibuses were waiting for passengers at Shek O, blocking the traffic on Shek O Road. The minibus drivers raised the fare from $2 to $6. A large number of swimmers were unwilling to pay the high fare and continued to wait for the buses, and the minibus drivers were also unwilling to drive, resulting in the complete paralysis of the traffic in Shek O. None of the 45 buses dispatched by the CMB to Route 9 were able to enter or exit Shek O. Nearly 10,000 swimmers were stranded in the city, and even though seven CMB buses were fully loaded with passengers in the bus terminus, they could not depart from Shek O. The incident was disturbed until 11:00pm when the swimmers were completely dispersed.

Lyndon Rees, the Transport Manager of CMB, was present at the scene and proposed to convert the private car park in front of Shek O Beach into a bus stop on weekends and holidays during the swimming season in order to improve the traffic situation . After discussion with the Police and CMB, the Transport Department decided to adopt Rees' suggestion and temporarily removed 100 of the 232 parking spaces in the car park on a trial basis from 27 June to allow buses and minibuses to set up their stops . CMB was also allowed to operate a new route 9A the following month to relieve the load of Route 9 . Despite Rees' dissatisfaction with the Administration's failure to ban minibuses from Shek O and his view that the Government could only choose between buses and minibuses serving Shek O , franchised buses and red minibuses still co-exist in Shek O today, and the measure of relocating stops during the swimming season has been repeated every year.

Route information

List of Franchised Bus Routes terminating at Shek O
Operator	Route No.	Origin	Destination	Service Type
Stop pole 2939A (NWFB)
Citybus	9	Shek O	Shau Kei Wan	Service daily ●
Citybus	9 Special Trips	Big Wave Bay	Shau Kei Wan (One-way)	Service during afternoon on swimming season holidays, via Shek O ●
Citybus	X9	Shek O	Central (Star Ferry) (One-way)	Service Saturdays and holidays during afternoon ●

Routes previously using this stop

The termini of the following routes are based on the date of relocation. For the current termini, please refer to the relevant route articles.

List of Bus Routes once terminating at Shek O
Operator	Route No.	Destination at that time	Terminus changed to	Date no longer using this terminus
CMB	9A	Sai Wan Ho Ferry Pier	Route discontinued	Summer 1982
CMB	90 1st generation	Central Bus Terminal	Route discontinued	14 October 1974
NWFB	309	Central (Exchange Square)	Route discontinued	22 June 2008
NWFB	319	Siu Sai Wan (Island Resort)	Route discontinued	October 2001

Gallery

This gallery saves only part of the images related to Shek O Bus Terminus Only a limited number of representative images will be included in this gallery. To see more related images, please go to the related gallery page

Taken in 2009, with the wording "SHEK O BUS TERMINUS" outside the balcony walls on the upper level still alike brand new

Taken in 2009, with the queuing railings still existed at the waiting area

Terminus view

Terminus view, with the exterior walls became old and the wordings "SHEK O BUS TERMINUS" even incomplete (June 2021)

Queuing markings and position with a wheelchair queuing area

More pictures, photos and related information about this article are available in the following Gallery Page:

Shek O Bus Terminus (Edit)

Related articles

• Big Wave Bay
• Shek O (Shek O Beach) Bus Terminus

External links

• Citybus website: Photo of the bus stop 2939 (Note: The site view may not be updated)

Template:List of Southern District Bus Termini

To facilitate quoting and enquiries, the following redirect page(s) will direct to this page:

SHO, Shek O Beach and Shek O