Sha Tau Kok (Chinese: 沙頭角; Cantonese Yale: Sā Tàuh Gok) is a closed town in North District, Hong Kong.

Its residents are mostly descendants of Hakka farmers and Hoklo fishers who settled the area as a consequence of the Qing dynasty's "Great Clearance" in the 17th century.

However, visitors who do not possess a valid Closed Area Permit and identification are turned away at the police checkpoint guarding the entrance to the town.

Although the Hong Kong government now promotes tourism in the historically isolated town, Chung Ying Street remains closed off to most outsiders, including Hongkongers.

[3] Stone tools such as hammers, pounders, axes, and adzes dating to the Neolithic Period were excavated from San Tsuen, Sha Tau Kok, in 2001.

[7] The "Great Clearance" of the 17th century expelled most of the area's original settlers, who immigrated to locations such as present-day Yuen Long and Shenzhen.

Alliance of Three Villages) occupied the original shoreline of Sha Tau Kok, which was called Tai Tan Tung (Chinese: 大坦洞).

[11] This petition failed to change the lease, leading to a host of problems in the 20th century which led to the decline of Tung Wo Market.

At the time, the present-day area of Sha Tau Kok Chuen and Yim Liu Ha was covered with marshes and salt fields.

[17] In July 2023, it was announced that the government was working on a feasibility study to redevelop the border control point between Sha Tau Kok and mainland China.

[citation needed] A section of Starling Inlet located offshore of Sha Tau Kok is one of the 26 designated marine fish culture zones in Hong Kong.

[22] Sha Tau Kok on the Hong Kong side of the border is a small town located in the North District.

As both farming and fishing have declined in the past few decades, better-educated younger people tend to move out and live and work in urban areas.

Built in the 1960s and redeveloped in 2004, it spans 280 meters to reach the deeper waters of Starling Inlet, allowing larger vessels to berth at Sha Tau Kok.

[27][28] However, it simultaneously became a notorious point of goods trafficking, attracting businessmen and unemployed individuals looking to capitalize on the market opportunities created by the policy.

Hawking and touting, smuggling, unlawful import and export of goods, and illegal employment became prominent on Chung Ying Street.

[29] These traffickers would then unload their burden to collect their pay inside Shatoujiao, or sell further inland in the mainland for greater profits.

Live chickens, pirated CDs, animal products of protected species as pangolins, owls, eagles and tigers have also been seized.

[26] Attempted drugs trafficking is common to the present day, with cocaine, methamphetamine, and cannabis being intercepted at the Sha Tau Kok border.

Travellers are taken through the Shek Chung Au (石涌凹) border checkpoint without a permit search, then head directly to the Sha Tau Kok Control Point.

[36] Here, passengers disembark, go through customs, and have their documents processed, before reboarding the coach to be driven to the mainland border immigration checkpoint.

Police personnel will board the bus at the checkpoint to check the identification documents and the required Frontier Closed Area permit of each passenger.