The view from one of the abandon villages along the hike to Lai Chi Wo.
One of the things I love about Hong Kong is the contrasts: Big crowded massive city and big wide open green forests and country parks. For the Mid-Autumn Festival I decided to go on a hike in the Plover Cove Country Park. The hike was close to my home, in Tai Po and it only took a few minutes from my home. I had to take the 20C Mini-Bus from Tai Po Market MTR Station to Wu Kau Teng. It is then a 3 – 4 hour hike to Lai Chi Wo. One could get there by boat, but why would you?
The hike was easy meaning there were not any huge hills or mountains to climb. Most of the path is flat and winding. There are some paved path parts of it but a lot of it is natural path with some over grown brush and such. Most of the trail is along a river, which means a few mosquitos and other smaller insects being a bother. I swear I felt like a bee was following me throughout the hike with its constant buzzing.
The trail runs through a number of run down and abandoned villages. They are called Hakka Villages in this area. There are no roads between these small villages and the main road. They are mostly broken down buildings being destroyed by nature more than by humans. I have always liked the look of an old broken down house being destroyed by a tree growing through the building itself. It is almost as if nature is reclaiming its land and it is rare in this day and age.
Lai Chi Wo was an old walled village that has been restored. No one lives there but it has the beginnings of a Geo-Park for the area. The history of the village dates back 400 years ago. The name itself means and reflects the lychee trees, which once flourished here at one time. They are no longer here.
It is a GREAT day hike and you can actually hike north and close to the border with mainland China before coming back towards the Fanling MTR Station.