[1] As of April 2018, Discovery Bay consists of 15 residential development phases with properties ranging from garden houses to low-, mid-and high-rise.

Discovery Bay is a key community in Lantau Island (after Tung Chung) and enjoys a very low plot ratio of 0.15.

6122 of 10 September 1976, HKR agreed to surrender title to 800 Hong Kong properties, in total amounting to over 6.6 million square feet of New Territories agricultural land and buildings, in exchange for ten times that area at Discovery Bay.

[citation needed] The plan called for development, on Lot 385 at Tai Pak Wan, of "membership club houses and a leisure resort and associated facilities which shall include an hotel or hotels ... a cable-car system ... and a non-membership golf course ..." In addition, HKR handed over HK$61.5 million in exchange for the grant and undertook to spend no less than another HK$600 million on development (excluding site formation costs) within 10 years of the grant.

The Soviet-government-controlled Moscow Narodny Bank Limited filed a writ in Hong Kong on 1 April 1977 against Wong himself for return of US$7 million advanced in 1973, as well as against Wong's Panamanian bank holding company, Paclantic Financing Co., Inc. (which was HKR's majority shareholder), for US$22.12 million in proceedings in Panama.

Both the Chinese and British governments were concerned to prevent the property rights to the single largest piece of privately controlled land in Hong Kong falling into the hands of the Russian bank during times of deepening political uncertainty for Hong Kong.

Sir David Akers-Jones, then-Secretary for the New Territories, led the government's efforts to avert that prospect, steering HKR into the hands of Hong Kong-based Chinese industrialist Cha Chi-ming.

[4] Having lost control of HKR and facing bankruptcy proceedings, Wong left Hong Kong in January 1977[5] while mooting the establishment of a Pacific Atlantic Bank of Miami and going into the casino business with the Anderson group of whom one Robert B. Anderson, of One Rockefeller Plaza, had been a fellow director on the HKR board.

[6] Cha Chi-ming, better known for running China Dyeing Works Ltd during the 1970s, an international textile group, acquired equity interest in HKR in 1977.

[7] By 1979 all debts were paid off and work started on the reservoir and the core infrastructure but for a very different sort of project – essentially a residential community offering a relaxed lifestyle.

This decision was revisited in 2004 when it was discovered that Akers-Jones did not seek approval from the Executive Council (ExCo) for the deviation from the terms of the Land Grant.

[8] Unlike other large Hong Kong developments, everything in DB was built with private money, including roads, electricity and the water supply.

The government-operated fire and police station, community hall and the government-aided primary school were also built by the developer.

These developments have to be approved and checked by the government with the official Master Plan version 6.0a in 2003, including the major extension in 2003 in Yi Pak Wan.

Until the construction of the new Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok, wild cattle and water buffalo thrived in the pasture-like hills.

Increasingly vigorous development all over Hong Kong has reduced the habitat of the local dolphin and whale populations.

(See Environment of Hong Kong) Discovery Bay has a sub-tropical climate characterised by distinct seasons.

DB Plaza features a bus terminus, ferry pier, an open piazza, and a range of shops, medical and dental clinics, and a veterinary surgery.

Amenities include: two schools, a beach at Tai Pak Bay; four private membership recreational clubs including a 27-hole golf course and a marina (previously a residential area for houseboats, but now a premium yacht club); natural streams and rock pools: a bicycle track alongside Discovery Bay Road; an astro-turf football pitch; basketball courts; children's playgrounds scattered around the developments and hiking paths leading to other parts of Lantau Island – including the Trappist Haven Monastery and Mui Wo.

There is also a public landing stage for cargo boats and privately operated kat-to ferries that link DB to nearby Peng Chau Island and the Trappist Haven Monastery pier about 2 km to the south.

The 325-room resort features an outdoor swimming pool, gym, all-day dining, Spa Botanica, and 1,300 square metres of function space comprising a 700 square metres ballroom and 11 function rooms; all available to suit every need and stay for leisure, meeting, incentive, event, wedding or a special celebration.

The glamorous white chapel is 16-metre tall, offering a capacity of 100 guests and a sea view as backdrop for weddings.

DB is connected the rest of Hong Kong via a road tunnel to the North Lantau Expressway and by a ferry service.

The route between DB and Central is served by monohull and catamaran waterjets manufactured by Marinteknik in Singapore; seating 300 and 500 passengers respectively.

From the tunnel's inauguration, shuttle bus services ran to Tung Chung and the Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok, and shortly after the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland and the Sunny Bay MTR station in June 2005, an additional route between Sunny Bay and DB was launched, further shortening the time to reach Kowloon and New Territories.

The five external bus[14] are operated by Discovery Bay Transit Services Limited (DBTSL), another wholly owned subsidiary of HKRI: Private cars not permitted to enter the area, with a few exceptions for certain agents of the developer, local businesses or for emergency needs and Taxis are only allowed in DB North.

[16] Schools located within Discovery Bay include Nursery and kindergartens operating within Discovery Bay include There are a number of parents that send their children to the schools in Hong Kong Island, Tung Chung and the Kwai Tsing District.

As an ongoing residential development, construction sites, continual renovation work to many increasingly older apartments and the subsequent dust and noise is an ever-present issue in DB.

However, this is being faced with some resistance of the management company and residents as there are other green priorities including upgrading of the buses to Euro standards.

DB suffers few natural disasters, with the exception of typhoons and hillfires as a result of a mixture of dry weather and carelessness.