Big Wave Bay beach, apart of surfing and couple of coasteering routes (from Chai Wan or to Shek O), offers several streams around. Relatively short jungle-like.
- Beauty/fun: 6.5/10. A picturesque pool, several waterfalls, possibility of starting and finishing on the beach…
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 5.5/10 There are few forks where you could have doubts of which tributary to go up through. There are a few old ribbons around. Only one really high steep scramble. Jungle like, cover yourself accordingly. Fung Mun stream is not too steep, therefore you can hike it down.
- The map (how to download to your phone)
See full screen and the Garmin track doing the loop with a slowish group.
Usual public transportation: MTR to Shau Kei Wan Station and minibusses departing from the A2 exit towards Big Wave Bay / Shek O. Head down from the bus stop in the beach direction and once around the restaurant area turn into the car park and village itself. Navigate the small streets and soon you will see the stream to be hiking in (watch the video for further visual clues). There are some stairs down to the stream and you will start walking between private properties initially.
Soon you will get into the jungle. Nevertheless it is initially quite open and not completely natural. The villagers created a water gathering system from this stream. You will be hiking all the time next to pipes and you will see man made pools too.
If you do not want to get completely wet (some pools are quite deep) you will need to scramble up some few times. Highest here.
3 meters waterfall a little upper. Someone set a rope/hose to help scramble next to it. Do not use it! Every time you find any old rope or else you should check how safe they are. This one was close to break point.
I had my own rope in case the rest needed help, but it was not necessary (all with Five Tens). Continue and soon you will arrive to the main attraction of this stream. An 11+1 meters high waterfall.
With enough security gear and skills you could climb it in. But you can do it a lot easier on its left side, on the rocks initially and then helping yourself with solid roots next to the stream.
Just afterwards and for 100m the vegetation gets significantly denser and thorny. I opened the way a bit with pruning scissors (May 2019), but cover yourself and bring your own scissors/machete just in case. All those in the picture are thorny…
After little time you will come to a not very obvious fork. You need to turn right and find this little waterfall. Check the GPS and further visual cues in the video below.
Just a few meters up you will find the connection with one of the main hiking paths, this within the woods, going down to Big Wave Bay. Go up instead to the connection with the concrete road and turn left into the path next to the catch water. Just after the concrete in the middle of this Google Map pic.
You will walk next to the water catch for a bit more than a half kilometer before finding Fung Mun stream. Unless it has been heavy raining beforehand the flow can be close to non existent here. Go down to the stream bed itself.
And continue down. Initially you will be within the forest/jungle. If going down, the path has no mystery. I have marked a possible confusing fork that you would encounter if going up.
In any case, you will start within the woods, with significantly less vegetation than in the previous stream. Little by little the trees open and you will start seeing the sea and the village below. Some few 1 to 3 meters waterfalls till you arrive at the pool itself
Enjoy the views and scramble down easily on its right side (going down), next to the waterfall just below the pool.
In a little time you will be back within the jungle. This part got badly affected by Mangkhut. I moved out several branches and pruned some of the thorny sections (May 2019), but get cover just in case.
You will arrive back at the village, last part of the stream next to a house and similar stairs out into the little street. Video with all.
If you want to do it even easier you could go back down to the beach after the first stream and hike up again the second. From the top I have marked on the map the shortest route possible through the cemetery to Chai Wan MTR station. 10min running, double the time downhill concrete walking.
More pics in Instagram.
Everything you should know before stream hiking.
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