Zhang Baozai and Stanley Beach
During the time around 1844, there were pirates around the southern shore of China, there existed a notorious personage named Zhang Baozai. He became the subject of talks in many Hong Kong folklore about pirates. Tales has been told that he had killed countless kidnapped victims on a huge rock located close to the Stanley beach on the island.
Every time Zhang Baozai robbed a merchant ship, other than valuable things, he kidnapped men, women or children on board and ask their family to pay huge amount of ransom. If they fail to pay the designated among of money in time, he then killed the victims on the rock publicly .
If you have read something about Hong Kong, you are very likely to have heard reports about this pirate leader because at one time the number of pirates under his command was as many as 70,000. The level of armament of his pirate fleet was thrice that of the English fleet and Spanish armada combined at the 1588 battle between England and Spain.
Zhang Baozai, was initially named as Zhang Bao. The last part of the name zai in Cantonese means a kid. He was indeed a kid of an ordinary fisherman family before becoming a pirate. But before he reached the age of 16, he was kidnapped by some pirates and was adopted as foster son of a member in the gang.
By the time he was 21 years old, he proved himself a brave and intelligent fighter and he was soon chosen as one of the pirate leaders. Under his leadership, his fleet scored high record of repeatedly defeating the navy sent to capture the pirates .
The spot on which Zhang Boazai killed his victims is a rock protruding above from the water close to a ferry pier in Stanley Beach. People have given this rock a nickname as "Head Chopping Platform".
