Tai Hang 大坑 is a wide cute stream with clear water & tons of small fauna. Quite flat with a few waterfalls. It can be quite slippery & thorny.
- Beauty/fun: 5/10 cute, crystalline water, tons of small fauna, a few smallish nice waterfalls; quite some thorns.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 4.5/10 minimal scrambling, tons of potential early exits and clear navigation; very slippery rocks when wet. It can be thorny, so bring full clothe cover to avoid scratches.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track of the first day and the second.
Continuing the New Territories stream exploration I arrived at the Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve in late October. Very convenient too (like Tai Po Mei Hang) with the road just next to the stream start. Not bad a route. So I added for a short easy day out with friends.
Late May, first heavy rains during the week, too windy for coasteering, so there we went. Bus almost directly to the start or taxi from Tai Po Market MTR. Just next to the road the stream just here.
Video.
There is immediately a couple of waterfalls and some easy scrambling. But overall this section is quite flat and usually with little water. Under a dam.
After the dam we went to the hiking path (good WCs, better than at the bottom) & back into the stream here.
You have the hiking path next for a while. Passing next to several bridges.
I saw tons of small creatures (fish, lizards, moths, shrimps) in & around the crystalline water & mossy areas. A few waist deep pools & the first significant waterfall to climb in (1:11).
After the Blue Walk path bridge (7) the stream becomes a tiny bit more steep with a few more pools & waterfalls to climb to. All of them have easy side paths to avoid the climbs. The first one on the left in the pic below (1:58 video) is not well angled. The lower part has good holds but we needed to use the rope for the upper part. A good tree anchor atop. Another at 2:56 required using my leg for Tania to climb up, super easy on its right.
Final big pool and climbable fall at 3:09 and a little later connection with clear path. The first time I exited here jogging back to Fo Tan. The second time the ladies headed back to the starting point while I continued up the last section. I was ready with the pruners, but I didn’t need them finally. Someone had opened the way in between my two visits. Extremely thorny before. Way more manageable the second time. Nothing interesting here anyhow. Ending on concrete road (B11). Video of this last section.
From the road I jogged down to Tai Po Market MTR.
Another video of my first day with better flow & some of the animals you can see.
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