Geopark Sai Kung walking tour a unique natural area with special geological, natural and cultural landscapes Sai Kung Country Park / High Island Reservior New Territories
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The ever-surprising Hong Kong has a myriad of interesting landforms. The long and sinuous coastline is a natural geological gallery, featuring spectacular landforms and rock formations shaped by waves and weathering. The Hong Kong Geopark, opened November 2009, comprises of eight major geological sites and is of International stature.
The High Island Reservoir opened in 1978, helping to alleviate Hong Kong's fresh water shortage with a capacity of approximately 273 million cubic metres. The construction, contracted by an Italian company, cost more than HKD $400 million and spanned 10 years. This beautiful area was virtually inaccessible until the 1970s.
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Our tour starts alongside the reservior, in the Sai Kung East Country Park, journeying to it's most eastern end. From here we view the magnificent hexagonal columnar joints, one of the world's largest formations of such geological formations. We will walk in this area, and around the corner to take in the view of Long Ke. Here we can see how wind and water has crafted unique sea caves along the Sai Kung Peninsula coastline.
We walk back along the reservoir service road, part of the famous 100km Maclehose hiking trail here in Hong Kong into the Sai Kung Country Park. Both sections of the walk afford either turquoise blue reservoir or terrific sea views out to the many surrounding islands. We leaved the service road to join a lush green pathway used by villagers many years ago. From above we view the site of a refugee camp for boat people from Vietnam (closed 1998), an island for fisherman's graves, Hong Kong's only public golf courses on Kai Sai Chau and marine fish farms.
The tour ends at the Sheung Yiu Hakka Village Museum, A Hakka settlement. This is a compact and carefully preserved village, situated along the Lung Hang River. A Hakka clan named Wong settled here 150 years ago, when the coast was plagued by pirates and waterborne bandits. The village features homes built behind stout stone walls on a protective knoll, overlooking a narrow cove. The villagers moved on in the 1950's, around the same time that farming began a gradual decline in Hong Kong.
Cost: HK$750.00 per person, includes transport Total tour time 8.5 hours Walking distance: 10km Grade: easy/moderate Facilities: Toilets en route Sheung Yiu museum closed Tuesdays.
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Private tours of Geopark
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Our journey starts, as with the trip to the Geopark, and returning along the High Island Reservoir dam wall, then a side trip into the area described below.
From about the 14th Century fishing folk lived on their boats in sheltered inlets in the Sai Kung peninsula. Later they founded coastal villages, building temples in honour of Sea Godess, Tin Hau, in places of permanent anchorage. The agricultural settlement of these areas came later.
Our trip will take us down to the old settlement of Tung Au on the waters edge. En route we pass one of the smallest schools in Hong Kong, now abandoned, and then onto to a wonderful Tin Hau temple built in the Ching Dynasty. Modern fisherman and their families still make offerings here before heading out to sea. Inside the temple, you can see a two hundred kilogram copper bell and a sedan chair.
Coming into the area, we are surrounded by fish farms and old Hakka clan village houses. Here we will rest and have a seafood feast, before continuing to Sai Kung town on a local wooden junk, a journey of about a 40 minutes. While on the water we see more Geo park wonders of the hexagonal columnar joints, Sharp Island which is connected by a tombolo to the small island of Kiu Tau, also Kau Sai Chau, (site of our spectacularly sited three public golf courses complex), the island for the fishermen's graves and the inland water dam wall of High Island Reservoir.
Total tour time 8.5 hours Walking distance: 4km Grade: easy Facilities: Toilets en route
A tombolo is a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island.
