Monday, June 8, 2009

Yuen Tsuen Ancient Trail redux (photo-essay)


Last week, I put up my first photo-essay of the Yuen Tsuen Ancient Trail hike I went on back in February. Going as my hiking party did from Tsuen Wan, this meant that the hardest part of the hike -- an ascent of over 400 meters in about an hour along a path that was observably bereft of tree cover for the most part -- was completed first.

What was left to cover was not completely a breeze though -- seeing as Yuen Long district remained some distance away. Fortunately, it really was a very nice day weather-wise. And the company wasn't too bad either. So much so that my Yuen Tsuen Ancient Trail hike experience was a thoroughly pleasant one; even more so than the first, shorter hike through Tai Lam Country Park that I went on with Roz's Hiking Group back in September 2007...

More than 30 Hong Kong hikes on, I'm still
not too knowledgable
about the biology of the territory
-- consequently,
I'm not sure whether these trees
are diseased
or just naturally look this... picturesque!

An idyllic spot on the way that, alas,
my hiking group
didn't really
pause and linger all that much at!


Walking by the above, I got to thinking that
nature's achieved what many landscape gardeners
would love to be so
aesthetically pleasingly arrange!

Speaking of walking - here's showing
some hikers doing precisely that ;)


One of the streams that runs into the pretty sizable
body of water within
Tai Lam Country Park
that is the Tai Lam Chung Reservoir

A ruined but still functioning shrine
along the Yuen Tsuen Ancient Trail


Maybe not that impressive a sight
during the dry season
but
still good enough to photograph to me!


Civilization at the Yuen Long end of the trail --
albeit one still far from the concrete jungle image

that most people possess of Hong Kong! :b

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That blue office chair in the last pic is very inviting! ;D

YTSL said...

Hi duriandave --

Well spotted! And I have to say that I had/have visions of an angling fan putting it there to sit on... :b

Dragonstar said...

It looks such a pretty walk.

hcpen said...

wow..it's nice for u to put up all these hiking trails in hk....it's great to see another side of hong kong besides the usual image of city and glass and crowds..actually do you know how much of hong kong is urban and how much is rural? like the percentage?

YTSL said...

Hi Dragonstar --

It was indeed a pretty -- and generally very enjoyable -- walk! :)

Hi hcpen --

Thanks for appreciating my hiking photo-esssay and shots of rural Hong Kong. Re the rural:urban ratio -- it's been said that it's as much as 70:30... something I can believe when you consider that about 40% of the land is country parks and natural reserves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

kitliew said...

Wow, I'm impressed that there are still so many places in HK for you to hike. I always imagine HK is so small and there's not much places to explore, but you proved me wrong! Bravo!

YTSL said...

Hi Kit --

Absolutely re there being lots of places in Hong Kong for me to hike. And consider -- I'm only up to early February in terms of my hiking photo-essays right now! ;b