Hongkong Family Hiking: From Tai She Wan to Pak Tam Chung History

Hongkong Family Hiking: From Tai She Wan to Pak Tam Chung History

Arek Madiun   4:15 AM   Comment  

My kids are still fairly young (the youngest will be 8 next month) but for several years now we have been taking them on some fairly decent hikes which they seem to love and loathe in equal measures. Said youngest did a very challenging 14km hike at the tender age of 5 a few years back, so this particular hike - being around 12km - was not really much of a challenge for his seasoned legs.

I wanted to write about this hike because it was one of the original "family hikes" that appeared in the fourth edition (and earlier?) of Pete Spurrier's The Serious Hikers Guide to Hong Kong. The book has since been revamped and separated into four separate booklets covering each of the major trails in Hong Kong (Maclehose, Wilson, Hong Kong and Lantau Trails), which is actually great, but the downside is that these enjoyable family hikes seem to have been discarded in the process.

One of the main challenges of this hike is actually getting to the start point located in a remote bay called Tai She Wan (??? - Canto: Dai Se Wan) which literally means "big snake bay". This additional logistical hassle is outweighed by the general enjoyment of a leisurely boat ride across Rocky Harbour to the bay. To get there you will need to strike a deal with one of the boat women along the Sai Kung waterfront. When Pete originally wrote his hiking book the going rate for a single trip was around HK$200. That was over ten years ago and the best price we could get was HK$350 for the whole family. If you can get it for less than that then you have yourself a bargain. Obviously, if you are hiking with friends then sharing the cost will make it more worthwhile, so don't let the cost put you off. Once the deal has been reached, you pay up and board the sampan for the 40 minute journey over to the bay.

The route our sampan took to the bay

Embarkation point: Sai Kung waterfront

Once on board just sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery because the islands in Port Shelter and Rocky Harbour are very picturesque. However, it does mean that you need to pick the right weather for your hike, otherwise you may end up at the other end feeling a bit ill and possibly wet!

 The ridge line of Sharp Island 

Green islands, sandy beaches

You'll also pass some of the landscape you will be walking back over later in the hike including the west dam of the High Island reservoir. Our destination, Tai She Wan, is in fact a bay on the southern coast of what was once an island called High Island. It's still called High Island but now joins the mainland of Sai Kung via two large dam walls that hold in the water of the High Island reservoir. Like its Tai Po counterpart, Plover Cove, the reservoir was formed from an area of sea between the island and the mainland. The ends were dammed up, the salt water was pumped out and the space refilled with fresh water. It's Hong Kong's largest reservoir by volume.

High Island West Dam wall

Anyway, you'll pass several small islands as well as Kau Sai Chau which houses Hong Kong's public golf course and also various fish farm rafts which rear fish in underwater pens for sale to local restaurants. It's not long before you enter the calm waters of Tai She Wan and disembark onto its stone jetty. 

Tai She Wan looking back towards Sai Kung town area

You are initially confronted by a couple of dilapidated buildings which were once part of a weekend resort set up by a rather wishful thinking entrepreneur who was hoping to attract big crowds at the weekend. The place opened in 2006 and was a complete flop, closing a couple of years later and subsequently left to rot. The guy even went so far as to ship over a bunch of animatronic creatures that were once part of the Rainforest Cafe in Festival Walk. If you have ever played "Five Nights at Freddy's" then you'll know how creepy they look.

Abandoned resort at Tai She Wan

Very creepy looking defunct animatronic gorillas 

It's fine to have a wander around here and take in some of the creepy atmosphere, but sadly it looks as though previous visitors have thought it might be fun to cause a bit of wanton vandalism and smash the place up. To start the hike you need to head to the right in front of the buildings and go over a small stone bridge that crosses the nearby nullah. Once there you should walk into the trees and see the start of a path that leads up the hill. Take some time to look back when you get a clear view because it is stunning. The trail is also relatively unspoilt - too far away from Govt eyes to have been concreted. The state of the trail looks like it serves as a conduit for rainwater during downpours and it's fairly rubble strewn in places, so watch your step. 

Tai She Wan seen from up the trail

The trail takes you towards another small bay that has two villages sitting on opposite sides of the bay. The first one you come to is Pak A. Don't be surprised to find this place quite busy because one of the junk/pleasure boat companies runs a small bar here for the purpose of client entertainment. Walk through the village and follow the edge of the bay around to Chau Tsai - a small island in the north part of the bay that is connected to the mainland by a sandbar.

Rock strewn trail

Basalt Island in the distance

Pak A waterfront

Chau Tsai

View from the pavilion

There is also a small pavilion here if you already fancy taking a breather. From here you should be able to see the nearby Tin Hau temple with its large forecourt. To get there you have to cross the bridge and as you walk along the waterfront you will pass one of the legacies of HK education in the 50's and 60's - a village school. The New Territories are full of old village schools that once helped educate the thousands of village children who were unable to reach larger schools in urban areas. These days they have all been closed down and some of the luckier ones have been adapted for other uses, but it's also common to find old school buildings just left to rot. This one even has its own basketball court.

View back towards Pak A

Old village school: Leung Shuen Wan Public School

Tin Hau Temple

This Tin Hau temple has intrigued me for a while because I was told Nancy Kwan filmed various scenes for a movie here back in the 1960's. The movie was called Mong Fu Sek and was based on the legend of Amah's rock in Shatin. Kwan was already famous but was persuaded by her father to star in the movie because he knew one of the film makers. The director was Brian Salt. I've been looking high and low for a copy of the film but have yet to lay my hands on one - please feel free to point me in the right direction if you know where I can find it.

Drying fish

Anyway, the temple's large forecourt is to support a large amount of festive activities during the Tin Hau celebration, but the day we were there the local fishermen were using it to dry out their bait fish. There is another fish farm here so its possible the dried fish would be used as feed for the larger farmed ones.

Fish farming rafts

Once past the temple you need to walk along to the next beach and into Tung A village. This is where you access the path towards Pak Lap, but if you fancy stopping for lunch then instead you can follow the bay around and walk over to Sha Kiu Tau where the famous Yau Lei restaurant is. Chris Patten used to eat here when he was HK Governor.

The path to Pak Lap is signposted in the village though and involves a fair amount of steps to get up the steep hill. The hillsides here are scattered with traditional graves, some of them impressively large, but once you get over to the other side of the hill and start walking down the view is truly amazing and serves as a great example of how Hong Kong can completely surprise you.

The best view is the beach itself. I must admit it's a while since I have been here. The last time I was here was around 8 years ago doing some scuba diving in the bay. It was a cold rainy day and looked nothing like this. Even though it was a Sunday, the place was deserted - I suspect the cooler (ha!) weather puts people off.

Pak Lap Wan

I think we can agree that these photos make it look like somewhere in the Caribbean rather than winter time Hong Kong. On the far side of the bay you can see the rock columns that are common in this part of Hong Kong and are one of the reasons for the Geopark. Here's a close up.

Columnar jointed volcanic rock formations at Pak Lap

The next part of the hike takes you past Pak Lap village which is fronted by a large open space popular with the bovine residents of the area. The route follows a concrete causeway that crosses the field and heads up into the woods. Look carefully as you walk up because you can see the remnants of what used to be rice terraces.

Moo!

Stepped former rice terraces

The old rice terraces should also give you an idea as to why there is so much feral cattle in HK - they are all the descendants of the cattle that used to work the rice fields when agriculture was still prevalent in the New Territories. Once at the top of this particular stretch of trail (which, by the way, has been newly concreted) you join the main road around the reservoir called Sai Kung Man Yee Road. This road also forms stage 1 of the Maclehose Trail. For the purpose of our hike, we turn left to follow the road back towards our destination at Pak Tam Chung.

Newly concreted path from Pak Lap

Sai Kung Man Yee Road

The road provides some amazing views over the reservoir but, in all honesty, lacks the appeal of the narrower trails, especially because the road is too busy with traffic. Although we are in a country park, taxis are a constant problem as they all zoom past, way over the 25km/h speed limit, so you must be careful. The other problems are private cars (you can apply for a day permit to drive into the Country Park), the shuttle bus to the Sai Wan pavilion and also (on the day we were there) big tour coaches.

East dam wall in the distance

The walk along the road is really easy and is one of the reasons why many people find Stage 1 of the Maclehose Trail a bit boring, but there is still lots to see. You can also still see the same volcanic columnar joints that are evident on the other side of the island (see below) which is a great reminder of the fact that this was still an island until the late 1970's.

The road is fairly bendy so you do need to keep your ears open for oncoming traffic (in both directions), but there are great views all around and at various points the road opens out to allow views back over to the other side of the island. The last picture below shows the Sha Kiu Tau area where we had just been walking near to the Tin Hau Temple and Yau Lei Restaurant. In the distance behind it is Bluff Island (aka "Ung Kong").

Eventually you reach the west dam wall which is the same place we passed earlier on the boat journey in. It gives great views to the west across Rocky Harbour back towards Sai Kung town and has a few things here to keep people occupied included a dedicated watersports centre and the not-so-well-known Astropark. The watersports centre occupies the lake that sits between the two dam walls.

Incidentally, that spit of land that forms the lower dam wall used to house the High Island Detention Centre. Anyway, at the other side of the dam wall is the commemorative stone that marks the opening of the reservoir. Hmmm, I wonder how long that old Colonial Crest will last under the current regime?

Once back at Pak Tam Chung you can catch buses back to Sai Kung town, or even the 96R (on Sundays and Public Holidays) all the way back to Diamond Hill MTR station, but beware that they are often already full by the time they get to Pak Tam Chung so you might have a long wait for a more empty one to turn up.

Hongkong Fist of the Unicorn � another �lost� Bruce Lee location rediscovered History

Hongkong Fist of the Unicorn � another �lost� Bruce Lee location rediscovered History

Arek Madiun   7:29 AM   Comment  

Not long after finally nailing down the location for the fight scene between Sammo Hung and Bruce Lee at the beginning of Enter The Dragon, I turned my attention to the next Lee-related film location challenge. Strictly speaking the film in question, Fist of the Unicorn (a.k.a Unicorn Fist/Bruce Lee and I), wasn't a Lee film at all - he had simply come to the set as a favour to his friend (the star, Unicorn Chan) and helped choreograph a fight scene. The location involved was a seemingly non-descript rural place with a small river and, other than that, no clues were obvious. It was an interesting bit of investigation and worthwhile repeating for any curious Lee fans who didn't read it when I originally posted back in 2011.

I was curious about this place simply because I couldn't find any other information about it, and I was in full-on Lee location finding mode. This place seemed to have eluded other fans and so I figured it would be good to have a stab and see what I could find.

The back story is also worth outlining briefly because it's a good example of the sort of stuff Lee was dealing with towards the end of his life. 

Lee had returned to Hong Kong to try and secure a film deal on the back of the various film and TV shows he had been doing in the US. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the Green Hornet series had made him into a local hero and as a consequence he was in a good position to try his luck. One of his childhood film star friends, Little Unicorn (whom he had co-starred in an old Cantonese films called Blame it on Father), had pulled some strings for Lee and got him some face time with some of the local film makers including Sir Run Run Shaw. It was a great example of what is known in Cantonese as gwaan hai (??) but is perhaps more familiar by its pinyin form: Guanxi. Basically, the personal networks and favour-granting that are quite fundamental in Chinese culture and are probably largely to blame for the massive corruption culture over here...

Anyway, as a result of these arrangements Lee was indebted to Unicorn and, in the spirit of reciprocation, knew that one day he would be duty bound to offer help in return. As it turned out, Lee was offered a tempting deal by Raymond Chow at the newly formed Golden Harvest and the rest is history. Over the next 2 years, Bruce made three films for Raymond Chow (two of which also featured Unicorn in small roles) and shot to super stardom in HK.

The circumstances aren't clear, but sometime around the middle of 1972, Unicorn approached a production company wanting to make a film and used his friendship with Bruce to secure a deal. The deal was that he would get a starring role as long as he could rope in his buddy in some way or another, that way the film could exploit Bruce's involvement and hopefully make some money.

This alternative title aptly underscores its Bruceploitation! 

Bruce walked into the situation without much choice and with full knowledge that he was being exploited, but it appears he underestimated what the production would do with the footage. It's not known for certain what he was expecting, perhaps he just thought his name would be used in the credits as fight choreographer? But what actually happened that Lee was filmed for several minutes putting some of the actors through their paces in preparation for a fight scene. Whether or not he was aware of the filming isn't clear but the footage was used at both the beginning and end of the film and a double (filmed from the neck down wearing the same clothes!!) was used in an inserted scene at a temple.

When the film eventually saw the light of day in the first few months of 1973 and was marketed as a Bruce Lee film, well, you can imagine that Lee was a bit peeved and it is my understanding that he launched some sort of legal action against the film makers. I don't think it was resolved before his death (he was also in the middle of suing one of HK's tabloid papers for other reasons when he died), and so we are left with a fairly bog-standard kung fu flick with all the usual stuff going on, but with some footage of Bruce Lee messing around with the actors (if you are curious, you can still view the film trailer here)

Anyway, let�s get back to that location. The available footage was filmed somewhere near to what looks like a river, and if you watch the film you will know that this river also has a very distinctive bridge going over it. So here are a couple of screen grabs to set the scene. 

That�s Bruce centre-screen. Note a few things: the river in the background (in the video you can see it is flowing towards us) and the bend it makes at the back. These were my first clues to the location. Let�s see another picture.

This one gives us a few more clues. First is that someone has disappeared into the background and dropped down onto the river bank (you can see their head between the two guys on the right). Also notice the partially exposed river bank in the background � can you see the dark line that runs along the middle? It�s a tidal mark and you should make a note of it because we will come back to it later. 

The next shot is actually taken from the film and I�ll be honest, this was the clincher for me. It took a while to identify but anyway, here it is as it appears on film.

This bridge features a lot in the film. It is basically next to the place where the young boy � played by Meng Hoi � lives with his mum. So it�s no surprise that a lot of filming took place around here and, of course, was next to the spot where Bruce was filmed doing the fight rehearsals. Here is a more modern shot, albeit taken from the opposite side of the river bank. Many people familiar with Sai Kung countryside will probably be able to place this bridge immediately once they see the next picture.

Yes, that�s right, this is the famous stone bridge that crosses the tidal river in Pak Tam Chung � also known as the Fuk Hing Bridge. And, yes, that IS its actual name! In case you need further convincing here is a shot from a HK Govt website that shows the background ridge-line much better than my shot (when I took these photos it was fairly hazy). See it in its original context right here.

Courtesy of AFCD

You can see the same (okay, it's been stretched a bit by the aspect ratio of the film) bumpy ridge-line in the background that can be seen behind the actors in the screen grab below.

Meng Hoi and Unicorn Chan

So what about the place where the fight choreography was going on...where Bruce was being filmed? Well, it�s not far away from the bridge � just a few metres in fact. The actual spot now looks to be over grown and has the Pak Tam Chung nature trail running through it (complete with concreted pathway), but the general area looks quite similar. I can confirm that there is a flowing �river� as seen on the clip but it is a tidal flow from the sea which explains why in the clip the water is running towards us - it was most likely filmed in the morning during an incoming tide. It was doing exactly the same when I was there on my exploratory trip.

There is also a river bank of sorts. It's not seen in the footage but we know its there because someone walks down to it. It's largely rocky and algae covered, but the one thing I did notice (and, remember, I told you to take a note of it) is that the opposite bank of the river � with its dark tidal stripe running along the middle - looks the same as it did in 1972. No surprise really. Here is a shot from my trip.

Compare it again (but remember the film grab is slightly stretched by its letterbox aspect).

Now, I couldn�t create the exact angle from the exact point because it's too overgrown. My camera should really be about 30 or 40 feet to the left of where I was standing so the background isn�t quite perfect - but this is as close as we can get after a break of 39 years. However, even from this closer angle the black line along the far bank is a perfect match. In case you can�t see it here it is indicated.

I reckon that the Pak Tam Chung nature trail pathway runs along the edge of the area they are on (where the guy�s head is) because even today there is a bit of a steep drop onto the river embankment.

Anyway, for those fans who are still keen to visit Lee-related film locations then you can easily get to this place by catching the #94 bus from Sai Kung bus terminus and get off at the Pak Tam Chung barrier gate (which marks the entrance to the Sai Kung Country Park). Walk along the road on the right hand side and after a couple of hundred metres you will see the bridge immediately on your right.

My parting shot is to give you a GoogleEarth shot of the same area (ringed in red) and you can see the Fuk Hing Bridge just to the north of it. Just put these coordinates into GoogleEarth to find it on there: 22�23�53.40?N 114�19�19.69?E