MacLehose Trail Stage 8 – Ridge of Hong Kong!

I continued by my quest to hike the MacLehose Trail from backward, ie. Hike from Stage 10 to Stage 1.

At Stage 8, I started at the Twisk Management Centre, which was conveniently arrived by taking Bus No.51 (20 mins trip, scheduled hourly, be mindful of this). The first two kilometre is all about hiking up, there were well paved stone stairs along the way. Do take rest from time to time and remember to hydrate yourself. You will soon see the Tai Mo Shan Country Visitor Centre, I passed that because of time, but seems not bad to spend some time there (website). Mind you, if you find yourself walking on concrete road after passing the visitor centre, you are walking on the wrong path. True back and look for the signs or you can check with my route in Runkeeper, or buy a map!

Panoramic View in Tai Mo Shan

You will soon find youself standing in front of a checkpoint near the end of the 2nd km. This is where the fun starts. From the guard post onwards walk along the road, it will lead you up to Tai Mo Shan, the tallest hill of Hong Kong, standing at 957m. You will see two radar installations and some antennas at the tip of the hill. And don’t forget to enjoy the scenery, you should be able to see 2 suspended bridges (that’s the Tsing Ma Bridge and the Ting Kau Bridge), container terminal (Kwai Tsing Container Terminals), an island (Tsing Yi), a bigger island (Lantau Island), something like that.

You will soon see the main gate of the Radar Station, which of course, not allowed to get in unfortunately. Turn right and you will soon start finding yourself hiking in nature again. Do mind you two things, 1) cell phone might switched to carrier in Mainland, I blocked roaming so hopefully you too. 2) Cow droppings are everywhere so careful for what cantonese would described as the “land mines’.

At the 8th km, you will see stone stairs once again and begin to descend. As always, careful for slippery stone surfaces and don’t fall.

Utility gloves will come in handy which I regretted not to bring. I might go on fancy to get a pair of low-end Machanix, perhaps this one. After all, it can be double as gloves for cold weather, which seldom fall under 10c in Hong Kong. So the descend will be around 1 km to 1.5 km and you find yourself arrived at Lead Min Pass (see Fun Facts) with picnic tables, toilets, campsite and barbecue etc. facilities. And you arrived the end of Stage 8! To carryon the Stage 7, just walk up along the road and you will find it on the right side.

So here you have it. I like Stage 8, you will get the most pleasing view from the highest point of Hong Kong, Tai Mo Shan and, an enjoyable hike on its ridge. The beginning and the end would be bit rough because of the stairs that seems endless. To tackle these stairs, I would opt for gloves than hiking sticks for these sections, since I strapped my hiking sticks on my backpack all the time and never used it, waste of carrying it compare to gloves.

It’s been real fun reverse hiking the MacLehose Trail, carryon to Stage 7!

Fun Facts: Lead Mine Pass

“The pass is the mid-point of the ancient path from Tai Po to Tsuen Wan. It derives the name from a lead mine near the pass which went out of economic production before the lease of the New Territories in 1898.

Lead was the first mineral to be mined on an economic scale in the New Territories and it is believed that it was used for debasing coins. This minerals appears locally is the form of galena (PbS) but of rather inferior quality.

The hill slopes on both sides of the pass were used extensively for the growing of tea until late 19th century. Some stone wall of the tea terraces can still be seen, especially after hill fires”

from the Country Park notice board at Lead Mine Pass

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