Close to the now urban area of Ma On Shan the biggest mining activity in Hong Kong was recorded in the 20th century. Remains are still there.

  • Beauty/fun: 6/10. The deepest tunnels to walk through in Hong Kong.
  • Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 7/10. First of all, there are clear signs here prohibiting the entrance, so beware of what you are doing. Second, this is one of the places where you are going to be closest to practicing speleology in Hong Kong. This same route outdoor would be classified as a 3/10 wet stream hiking: some loose terrain, water areas, “moderately” steep (30 degrees)… But you are doing it underground! I’m not trying to sound like Mr. Obvious, but without proper gear and care you might get into serious trouble here. UPDATE Nov 2018: The Government sealed completely, with metal and further concrete, the upper entrance. Only the lower exit was accessible (someone had unscrewed the fence there). If it remains this way, the difficulty increases significantly (9/10) due to the longer way and due to the danger associated with having only one possible exit. I would discourage trying it unless you are very experienced. UPDATE Feb 2019: Someone reopened the upper entrance on its side. But I am guessing that this will continue as a battle between Gov and Urbex like groups…
  • Map

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The iron ore mine of Ma On Shan operated from early 1900 to the mid-70s. Up to 5,000 miners worked there at its peak, building several kilometers long tunnels. In 1981 the mining lease expired and since it has been closed (more info here). HK URBEX and other adventurers have gone in though and set up ropes, signs, and ribbons.

You could take a taxi or minibus (84R with only 7 departures daily) almost to the entrance. The road going up to the “parking” of Ma On Shan Country Trail passes next by. If you want to start your hike from the MTR, Heng On station, on the map above the shortest distance route I know. It will take you through quite some concrete. Finally, you will arrive around here

with several dirt paths guiding you to the entrance of the mine. Actually, this could be the exit too… Explained later.

From here onwards some 360 pics found on the internet. The entrance tunnel on the left and the downward tunnel on the right.

It looks way brighter than what it is. Without torches here it’s pitch dark.

There are signs and ribbons all around.

Deep holes full of water.

Old mining gear.

You can see tons of things left behind that remind operating times: office material, construction machinery, rooms with carved “beds” on the rock…

The reflective ribbons mark the main path. On the way you can find quite some water (even if it has not rained in days/weeks) and some dust, so bring a mask and eye drops for contact lenses if you are sensitive. If you follow the main path you will go down two times through steep downward sections. Finally arriving at a section of the tunnel that becomes substantially wider and with signs marking the distance to the exit. Starting at 2,200m and 50 or 100m intervals. Here is where the water can be highest (waist high sometimes) and where several bats have set up their home. You will come out squatting or crawling through a 75cm high hole.

You could do the route reverse, which is easier as you will be going uphill in all the rope/steep sections. You will be in the more boring part initially.

A couple of videos showing you the place.

And more information, map, pictures.

Pictures and videos from the last visit in Jan 2018.

Visit in Jan 2020 going in the easiest way bottom up. Tight exit.

Visit in Oct 2021. Diana was going to leave Hong Kong for good in little time and she asked to go there as it was on her list of places to visit before leaving. We spent really long time exploring way more, almost every corner. The tunnels were full of spray paint indications now pointing you to the different levels, mainly: 110 adit, 192, 240 adit. The 192 level requires just slightly more difficult climbing and squeezing, but deserves the effort. Big level. We tried the pools. Not as deep as expected, approx 4 meters and short. No more than a little corner, 10-15m? A detonator box in and a little more.

It took me a long while but I also found the entry to the 280m level. You can walk on the stairs on the right side of the 240m adit (looking at it) and connect with a faint path that starts from the road. Continue on it, pass next to several abandoned buildings. After the last one find some kind of dry creek look like (in reality I think it was the path they built) on the left side of the fence and head up the hill for very little while turning. It was completely hidden in the vegetation and I barely saw the entry from below, the second time there. I have added the exact GPX spot on the map, although the GPS reception there was pretty bad and the path is very approximated. The 280m adit is completely different mine style. More similar to those in Lin Fan Shan. Just a hole on the hill that soon starts to become tighter. There was a big bat colony sleeping almost on the very entrance under a ceiling barely my height. Without the red light and being so warm the chances of waking them all up were very high and I decided to avoid the commotion and leave them rest. In wintertime, I know people that have been able to squeeze under them without waking them up and continue in. Some of the passageways are very tight and full of mud. If you go, please, be very careful with the bats. Thanks.

Jan 2022 just checking the 280m adit. No bats, really tight

Jul 2022: as per a few people who have been in recently, there have been some new collapses in some of the main tunnels. So the main structure might not be safe…

Feb 2024: We went again. The additional collapses I saw were out of the main 110 to 240 way.

We started from 110m. Almost no side paths, directly to the 144m level. One of the guys was feeling sick and they headed from the office directly to the 240m exit in approx 20 min. I lead the rest to the 192m level. The way is not well marked, but I could remember it from the previous time. After the office go next to the pool and continue walking on the corridor. It gets drier and warmer (approx 13C outdoors when we started).  No wind there, compared with the 240 to 110 main passageway. Continue on it and we found the slope up to 192. Way more loose rocks and no ropes. But there is a pipeline you can use to help you a bit. It is not anchored atop. So beware. The wagons in the 192m level and quite some walls have been graffitied…