Qualla: The Brothers Islands, Hong Kong

The Brothers Islands, Hong Kong: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Minghong, CC BY-SA 4.0. Two islands were sacrificed to build one airport. The Brothers — Tai Mo To and Siu Mo To, West Brother and East Brother — once rose from the waters north of Lantau Island, modest humps of rock reaching 68 and 63 metres above the Pearl River estuary. They don't anymore. Hong Kong needed flat ground for a new international airport, and these islands stood in the way — literally, in the approach path. So they were leveled, and the stone that made them was used to create the platform on which Hong Kong International Airport now stands. The islands gave themselves to the project, or rather, the project took them.

Image: Minghong | CC BY-SA 4.0

The Brothers Islands, Hong Kong: Islands That Gave Way to the Sky

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CX257, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Brothers lie midway between Chek Lap Kok — the artificial island on which HKIA was built — and the town of Tuen Mun to the north. West Brother measured 550 by 430 metres; East Brother, narrower and longer, ran 800 by 180 metres. Together they occupied a patch of water that, o...

Image: CX257 | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Brothers Islands, Hong Kong: What the Leveling Left Behind

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CPJoseph, CC BY-SA 3.0. Flattening two islands and filling a bay does not erase an ecosystem. It displaces one. The waters around the former islands remained, and in the years after the airport opened they became important habitat for Chinese white dolphins — the pale pink Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins...

Image: CPJoseph | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Brothers Islands, Hong Kong: Navigation Markers in an Unusual Form

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LAmysuk BOOa, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the air, the Brothers' location is still meaningful — marked now not by rock but by infrastructure. East Brother (Siu Mo To) carries a VHF omnidirectional range and distance measuring equipment (VOR/DME) station, a navigational beacon that guides aircraft toward HKIA. The is...

Image: LAmysuk BOOa | CC BY-SA 4.0