On hot summer days, I like to trail run on the North side of Lion Rock. Shaded & with several creeks to cool down in. In this post all the area.

See full screen & the Garmin track for the streams (blue line) & the creeks and springs route (purple).

As mentioned, I started exploring this area while summer trail running. My main training ground was going up to Tai Mo Shan, mainly shaded path with several dips in Tai Shing. But this is a bit far and only doable if I had quite some time available. For shorter training, I started with a few variations of the purple line, which starts at the bottom of Beacon Hill. I live in Yau Tsim Mong and it takes me approx half an hour running to arrive at the first fountain. Marked on the map. Old people go there to fill up their big bottles with spring water. In my case, in the summertime starting to overheat already, I grab the bucket and throw it all over my head.

Perfect first cooling spot. Continue up the road, down a few stairs and instead of heading towards Eagle Nest Nature Trail (a nice shaded path that I also like and run in cooler months) turn right here.

Before the path was a bit bushier, but in the last years it is way more open and hiked. There are several springs in succession where I cool down and refill my bottle (with a filter).

Little by little the old people have been building gathering areas around them. After a flattish path section, there is a small downhill and the connection with the Wilson Trail stage 5 concrete. Exactly next to the connection, there is a tiny creek. Nothing interesting. Tiny falls & pools and a few very bushy sections. Not marked, therefore. Instead the rock step path up with a few points where you can cool down in that creek, before arriving at Kowloon Pass & down to the city again. There are tiny tiny creeks, water channeling structures, and even a few springs on the South side too. But I seldom use them. If you go on very hot days look around carefully, I have seen Chinese Water Dragons several times. They also need to cool down 😉

Extending a bit the running on the aforementioned Wilson Trail concrete section, I found a couple of decent-sized streams. Later I spent a day checking them completely. The Blue line. Even later, I brought a couple of buddies there for an easy and short outing.

The closest MTR station is either Tai Wai or Che Kung Temple. We went to the latter. Head up the streets, an elevated pass over the highway,

walk among small houses, a very clear dirt path up to the concrete and the entry of the first stream next to the Heart Rock.

雞胸北坑 (Chicken Breast North pit 🤷‍♂️ no idea why it is called that way, called that why due to the peak kinda on top. Thanks Chris in the comment below!) has all its highlights in the first section. Just a few meters in the stream you have this man-made pool, where you can find people cooling down on hot weekends. BTW, pics are from both days. If you don’t see Pedro & Enrique, from a better flow day on my own.

Continuously we could see tons of thin water pipes that go to the houses passed before. A little hut and more man-made pools.

After those the stream becomes way less interesting. More “jungly”. No more pools. Just one 3m waterfall that you can climb, or now bypass through a side path on its left. Slightly vegetation-dense exit to MacLehose trail.

We hiked a few minutes on it and just before Garter Pass (the start of the stairs up to Lion Rock) we took a faint path that soon heads downhill. There is, what I think is, a small WW2 Japanese tunnel. Not the most robust. Marked on the map. Continue downhill and the entry to the second stream is just on the crossing on the path heading towards Amah Rock.

獅紅石澗 Lion Rock Red stream. It has less flow, more jungly in the lower part, a couple of thorny spots included, there are very few waterfalls and no pools.

But there are a few tiny caves carved by the stream. I had fun checking them. The easiest exit is by connecting back again with the faint hiking path done before. Up to MacLehose and down to the city the “civilized way”.

Some videos of the tunnel and caves, and the Chinese Dragon among others in the Instagram post.

Everything you should know before stream hiking.