It might be the most well-known of the perilous scrambles in HK. Once a feared courage & skills test, dangerously becoming an Instagram spot…
- Beauty/fun: 7/10 very impressive short gorge section with a 30m waterfall in the background. The upper section is very worthwhile hiking too with several rock rivers and interesting cliffs around. The lower section is only for those who want to see all the streams.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 10/10 for the main area if with no rope help. As you should assess this unless you are 100% sure the ropes are OK, which you can only do from above. Very slippery rocks when wet. The lower & upper sections are significantly easier, around 5/10. With quite some ribbons guiding you even in the otherwise not-so-clear woods sections. It can be thorny bushy in the lower section. Mainly dry in the upper.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track from a day scrambling Lion Head first and the main part of Feng Bi & another day checking the lower and upper sections.
It is sometimes tricky to decide which routes to write about. On the one hand, I want to avoid inexperienced people heading to too difficult routes. On the other hand, I would have appreciated myself, long years ago, to be able to read online as much information as possible before heading to those. Feng Bi is becoming more and more known with tons of YouTube videos and Instagram posts… Time to write about it.
First, if you are new to this web, seriously, read the difficulty section. “I have seen a tiny girl doing this”, “I have seen a group of helpers doing this. It can’t be so difficult” 🤦♂️ You don’t know their background or skills. You don’t see the pics/videos of those who had an accident there or needed to be rescued. Just a few months ago I was there checking the ropes and I needed to guide and rescue a group of 3 relatively experienced hikers, who were far from prepared for this. One of them would have had a very serious accident, from broken bones to even worse, if I was not there when he started to slide down from almost the top of the waterfall he was trying to climb…
I will start explaining the main gorge area and then the lower and upper sections. The easiest access point is Ngong Ping. Bus, cable car, or taxi up to there. Walk to the Wisdom Path and down the Shek Pik country trail till here.
Start scrambling up the stream and in a few minutes, you will arrive at the gorge itself. From all the videos of this area I have watched, I like this the most.
Fully geared they abseil and check all the climbs and scrambles. They even arranged this very useful diagram.
You can see how they grade the climbs (full explanation of grades here). I am far from an experienced enough climber to know if they are accurate, but I think the grading difference can give you good a sense of the difficulty. So I will use them as a reference for easier understanding.
So, as I was mentioning, after some minutes of relatively easy scrambling you arrive at the first 5.4 Climb #1, next to the waterfall.
It is a proper climb. High. Doable without the ropes. But high. As mentioned, the previous week I had been checking the ropes from top to bottom and they looked OK. There were (mid December 2022) several sections with solid green climbing ropes and a bit sketchy white generic ropes. I was bringing our 30m rope, in case we needed to escape mid way and there was any problem with the fixed ropes.
First section up to the bottom of the big waterfall where you can rest. As Summer was doing in the lower left pic while I was climbing the next section. A lot higher and where the three of us touched the rope at least once, to make one sketchy movement easier. Not pull ourselves up.
As you can see this section is way higher and what most associate with Feng Bi + the lower cliff viewpoint just below with the views of the Buddha.
After, a bit more of an easier climb and you have finished the Climb #1. Time to move to the 5.2 Scramble #1. In dry conditions, this feels significantly easier but
for the height. Just a little after the 5.9 Climb #2. In the panorama below you can see Summer looking at it and the alternative waterfall climb on the left. If wet, as it was our case, the latter is pretty tricky.
On the dry wall, the initial 3 meters climb is short but technical. Good for a bouldering problem way above our ability without protection. So we needed to use the ropes to pull ourselves up. If the ropes are OK and you are strong enough a few seconds and done. Hold the trees, go a bit higher, and walk within the bush for a tiny bit before connecting again with the stream.
A little later the 5.6 Climb #3 or alternative Boulder waterfall. Janis is a decent climber, zero afraid of cold, and doesn’t like the rope pulling. So up the waterfall she went.
Five Ten S1 at its best, slow, careful climb with me spotting under for the difficult movements. There is a very old rope that you should avoid but in extreme need. Soon it will decompose completely.
It was pretty cold, with air below 10C, and therefore Summer didn’t even consider the waterfall. Up the dry wall. You can do it without ropes, but certain angles of the rocks are significantly more difficult than what they look from below. Good climbers territory. If with the ropes, the easiest way is to start on the right side using only one of the ropes, cross to the left getting close to the side wall and being able to use both ropes each in one arm and pull yourself up.
After the arms exercise, a little walk, the last waterfall and next to it the 5.3 Scramble #2. Some people do so next to the tree, easier if completely dry. It was not our case and therefore you can see Janis climbing up starting a bit further down.
This last scramble is completely optional. There is already a path on the right side of the stream connecting with the Lantau Trail. After the Climb #3 keep on the right side continuously with several ribbons guiding you.
Social media posts. For example in Instagram. Ina and a friend did it in pretty but bad conditions (humid)
Hardcore Indonesian ladies. As Summer used to say “they are not afraid to die”. This + being in good shape made them very calm in extreme situations but also taking a lot of risks. A few times I forced Ina to take the safe route, “wet, we don’t go up that (left side of the main fall of Dragon’s Jaw) but if I bring my 60m rope la”. I don’t think I’d do Feng Bi in rainy conditions without canyoning gear. For sure not barefoot! 😅 Had you realized when you saw the pic above? She decided that her sandals grip was not good enough and she is extremely comfortable barefoot. Eventually one of their friends had a very serious accident at Tung Ma To (helicopter and months in hospital) and they don’t hike any more…
This might be the video that the group of three hikers I helped had watched. After the almost accident they were trying to explain to me “I watched a video of a small girl who was climbing through the waterfall, that is why I thought it was better”.
Brief comparative analysis. They recorded that video in almost the very best conditions possible. All the waterfalls with almost no water, far from the conditions that we were facing. If I am not mistaken she is wearing Five Ten shoes, another one looks like Chamonix, and another wildconquerors’ shoes. All of which have way better grip than the regular hiking shoes that the three were using. Actually, the best grip of all of them was a pair of Hokas with Megagrip. Which are far from ideal for climbing with such a high midsole. Everything is explained in the shoes post.
Finally, and most importantly, their skills. I do not know the lady or her friends. But after watching a few of her videos she looks a very confident scrambler and she does it with other people who I know sport climb regularly. The three looked completely inexperienced in those situations. They had already struggled with the second climb. The third required my full help. The first one attempting it needed around 8 minutes to climb through the ropes… I explained to him step by step how to climb safest “look first for good footholds, you need to put your foot there on the right, try to keep your legs as close to the wall as possible, now cross under the rope to the…” + tons of rest and encouragement in the last section where he was most aware of the danger. In short and sped up Instagram video mode.
The other two tried to climb the waterfall after removing their shoes… No footage of that. I eventually needed to jump to avoid one of them falling…
When did I realize that they would have problems? When I met them on top of Climb #1. They were trying to explain to me that the best ropes were the old ones, cause they had a better grip for their cotton gloves… Ehhhh… Old generic ropes that are starting to fray vs pretty new proper climbing ropes… Nah. “The rest is easier, right?” Ufff… Let me try to keep them safe and eat my mini lunch while waiting for them.
This video is closer to their experience.
Really foggy day (quite common there), some rocks wet slippery (also common), non-approach shoes, all of them heavily relying on the ropes… If that slip at the 25 seconds mark would be a few meters upper… I guess we would not have watched the video…
I hope I haven’t bored the regular readers of this web and newbies that are looking for information understand the dangers of this spot. For the former, you could try the full stream.
The lower section: The closest bus stop is next to the access road. Just remember to shout to the driver well beforehand that your are going down. They tend not to stop there. Walk down the road for 10-15 minutes to here.
You might want to jump down to the stream / water channeling structure on the left side of the road. Otherwise, if you continue the full road, you will need to roll under the fence or find yourself another way down to the reservoir. Cross the second “stream” coming from the tunnel that goes under a big chunk of the island from around Shek Mun Kap. And just after you will find the stream that goes up to Feng Bi 鳳壁 but also 獅壁石澗 heading towards Lion Head. The fork is not specially clear with ribbons in both tributaries. Just spend some time and check the GPS and/or compass to confirm that you continue on NE direction, not N-NW.
Most of the lower section is a jungle stream without much fun. There are ribbons, but a few times you might think you are not heading in the right direction. I am guessing that not many hikers come here and therefore there are a few sections with heavy vegetation. Not bad enough for me to use the pruners, but I was happy with my full clothe cover. In some sections the stream opens. Not much water in mid May even if it rained that day.
There are several mini forks all the way up. It was relatively easy to guess which tributary to go through, but not all had clear ribbons. Again, check the GPS if in doubt. The very last part starting from 6 on the map is the only thing remarkable. A nice waterfall with a pool under, several smaller falls and mossy sections up till the connection with
the aforementioned Shek Pik country trail.
The upper section: The entry is here, partly hidden within the vegetation.
Even within the fog, I enjoyed this more than the lower section. The route is relatively easy to follow but several times you will need to decide where to go. I have marked two alternative routes. I wanted to keep on the (dry) stream to the top. But it can be, above all without the fog, more photogenic on the rock forest around (brown line).
I stayed mainly within the woods and eventually I arrived at Lantau Pass within the clouds. Pretty cliffs just below. From there connect with Lantau Peak and jog down under the drizzle to Pak Kung Au.
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