I already wrote about the lower section of this stream. The upper is even more fun and difficult.

Going up till almost the peak, Tai Mo Shan, the highest in Hong Kong. The “oficial” name of the tributary is Sai Nam after the first fork (orange line).

Garmin of the blue1&2, red, orange and purple tracks.

There are different ways to start this route. You could have a long day in the stream just going up from almost the reservoir itself. If you are going to do so first two sections fully explained in this post. Initial section on red and then continue on the green path up till Fat Man Rock. If you want a shorter/fast route but enjoy most of the nice spots, see the recommended route on the map above.

Minibus or taxi to the Shing Mun country park visitor centre. You can hike around the reservoir till the bathrooms mentioned in the previous post, but instead we took the concrete path upwards to make it faster. Connect with the dirt path and head up on the first Road Closed sign.

Continue up and find the entrance to the stream on your right here (post with GPS apps on your phone).

Find the ribbons going the steep dirt path down. This way you will see the biggest waterfall in the second section + test the grip of your shoes in a safer environment. Additionally, you have the best pool for swimming and cooling down. Both the pool and waterfall in the video for your reference.

Continue your way up to Fat Man Rock (the last “civilized” hiking path) and here the adventure starts. I’d suggest walking in the water immediately. You are not going to find any easy exit for a couple of hours, so you better get comfortable with wet rocks from the get-go.

There is only one major fork just next to this waterfall.

The right tributary goes up almost to the same height but I prefer the left one. A bit more adventurous and pretty. Climb next to the waterfall itself.

Here onwards I tend to avoid following the ribbons. The soil in the slopes around can be very loose; above all after rainy days, ie when you would prefer to go up the stream. So you either will be “hugging” the trees or slipping down quite frequently. I have seen scared people trying to do so.

Comparatively, scrambling

and hiking on the stream, with good grip shoes, is more fun and, I’d say, safe.

Gloves on as using your hands quite a bit.

Finding your way in most places

is kind of obvious.

Just continue going up the stream.

There are chalk marks and ribbons that can guide you to treacherous spots. Here she was stepping on a 10cm crack and on a 7m vertical wall… Better suited for climbing shoes than the hiking ones…

Unless you are into that kind of “fun” and you have better shoes than her Salomon, avoid it. As I expected, there is a lot easier route just detouring a bit into the lateral jungle area. But do not go too far from the stream. Get back in as soon as possible.

Some ribbons are in the middle of the stream itself.

More so the upper you go. Here the slope decreases, the moss starting to cover most of the rocks. This is the wettest area in HK and you clearly can see so.

Last waterfall. You can definitely avoid scrambling it up, with an easy side path on its right. But after all the previous, a bit of posing time.

Little after you will find the exit from the stream. Dirt and different trash material steps, a little construction and concrete steps up through the sometimes dense vegetation.

Some minutes later you will see the Hong Kong observatory and a completely open view path heading to MacLehose trail.

Arriving at the road coming from here.

You can go down through the kiosk to the road or, like in our case, enjoy a bit more of the green going a quite steep but clearly marked rock and dirt path

down to Tsuen Wan.

Late May 2021: Going there again with a fast group (all with Five Tens and happy to climb all the waterfalls), with the first rains. Still lower flow, but fun anyhow. Map, (how to download to your phone offline maps)

See full screen & Garmin track.

September 2022: With way more flow

Everything you should know before stream hiking.