Sheung Yiu Nature Trail

First day of Chinese New Year, and the first day of a three day holiday. It’s the only day during the year that some businesses close. The little paper stand across the street is shuttered and locked up tight, as are many other businesses. But there are enough that stay open to make the shopping continue.
So what can we do with our day off? Go traveling of course.

Old bridge at beginning of trail

There is a country park out past Sai Kung that we have wanted to visit, so today was the day. We rode the bus out to Diamond Hill, where we transferred to another bus to Sai Kung, and there caught another bus. This is not an easy place to get to.

There is a visitors center just as you enter the park, so we got off there. And of course it was closed for the holidays, but you can still walk to your hearts content inside the park. It’s an interesting place. There are private homes inside the park, but the road is closed at the visitors center, unless you are a bus or live there so it’s great walking. And as we sauntered along, we passed a huge water buffalo with a hump on his shoulders that made him look like a Brahma bull. He watched us pass and then followed for a while, before he lost interest and went his own way.


We walked over to what is called a "Family Walk" that led to the Sheung Yiu Folk Museum. It’s located deep in the woods of Sai Kung country park and on the shore of the Pak Tam Chung estuary. It’s a tiny walled village that was build by the Hakka villagers years ago. They lived in the gated village, and manufactured bricks, tiles and lime, as well as farmed and fished. It also, was closed, which means we have to go back again.


We followed the family walk past old deserted houses which were lived in until the 1960's, and up over a hill that gave us a good view. Along the way we passed a grundle of huge, stupid, noisy dogs that were menacing everyone on the trail, but didn’t really cause much trouble. From the top we could even see the golf course on the island in the Sai Kung harbor. It was a beautiful circular walk, and we ended up back on the road.

We decided to take the bus out to the end of the route to see where it went, and discovered it went to a small ferry pier, which didn’t really have "ferries", but small junk boats that took you to other islands.

By late afternoon everyone was out to enjoy the holiday and the BBQ’s were busy, busy, busy. Then back home, and where did the day go? It was almost 6 by the time we got back. Nice day, nice walk, nice views. What more could you want?