Japanese WW2 bunkers, picturesque landscapes, an even more photogenic stream, in a route that can be as easy as you wish. Additional fun around.
- Beauty/fun: 7/10 as per all the above reasons. There is a dam upstream tha controls the water flow which can make the stream look significantly different, even water quality wise.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 2.5/10 up till Shek Pan Tam. Easy to navigate but slightly bushy hiking path and flat easy initial stream. 4/10 for the rest of the route, with a very few scrambles and very bushy mostly clear hiking paths above.
- Map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track.
The main attraction of this area for us is Ping Nam stream. A classic stream hiking and canyoning spot. I had pending to visit the Japanese bunkers mentioned in a scmp article around. Start of the dry season in early November with nice colors still expected. There we go!
Closest MTR Station Fanling. Mini buses heading to Luk Keng from there. Get down on the bus stop and head towards the restaurant. Just behind the stairs
to climb up.
Shenzhen, Yantian, on the opposite side of the bay. In WW2 the Japanese decided it was an important area to defend. Therefore on the top of the hill you can find a lot of small bunkers
Just walk on the faint hiking path
and look right and left. Different sizes, but very simple all of them. Basically just one entry and a main area with view points to the lower lands. Just a few had an additional (storage, I guess) room. The smallest was barely bigger than 1 square meter, good for holding a soldier in to die defending his position. After checking more than half a dozen we decided to head down.
Beautiful landscape and steep slightly sandy and bushy path.
The villagers have set some signs directing you to
the stream up to
The bathtubs, potholes or however you want to call them are really big. Even with the cool temperatures, Tania could not avoid the temptation of jumping into the water and trying different ones. The smaller the pool, the warmer. In summer time definitely there is way more water here. But the flow was not bad at all considering that had not rained in quite some weeks.
If you want to keep it simple, just head down the same way you came up. If you continue you will need to get your shoes and more wet and/or scramble a few times. For example, the exit to the bridge above is on the right side on the picture. Ribbons guiding you up sandy steep slope with roots to hold to.
In our case, we were back in the water immediately.
Higher you can still
see more potholes
and the clear water partly within the woods.
You could scape in this bridge
Recommended. Upper there are not specially big waterfalls or else
and the exit
brings you to a bushy path to hike up and down for a long while.
Not thorny, but full clothe coverage highly recommended.
If ready for a long day you could combine all the previous with the aforementioned Ping Nam stream (go through the bridge if so). But Tania was in a rush and we just jog back to the main Luk Keng road for taxi return.
July 12, 2022 at 12:39 am
Thanks for sharing as always.
Perhaps the names of the streams deserve to mentioned so that prospective hikers can find this page more easily: Ping Ka stream (屏南石澗) and its tributary Wong Ga stream (黃嘉石澗).
July 12, 2022 at 9:34 pm
Hi Cris.
Thanks! Yes. I am seeing more and more names in the Openstreetmaps lately. I should update the posts accordingly.
Best.