About Nei Sham Stream Waterfalls
The Nei Sham Stream Waterfalls (彌散石澗瀑布 [Mísàn Shí Jiàn Pùbù] or [nei4saan3 sek6gaan3 buk6bou3] in Cantonese) were essentially waterfalls that we noticed while riding the cable car towards Ngong Ping Village.
Indeed, it was kind of my waterfaller’s excuse to talk about the well-touristed Ngong Ping area, which is best known for the Tian Tan Big Buddha statue (天壇大佛 [Tiāntán Dàfú] or [tin1taan4 daai6fat6] in Cantonese]) – one of Hong Kong’s major highlights.
Most people who visit the Ngong Ping (昂坪) and the Tian Tan Buddha Statue do so by riding the cable car, which is probably the easiest and most convenient (albeit not the cheapest) way to get there from the station in Tung Chung (東涌).
The Nei Sham Stream is sometimes referred to as the “Thousand Layers Stream” probably because it has lots of these “layers” that gave rise to waterfalls.
We managed to notice this series of waterfalls on the final approach to the Ngong Ping Village (or as we initially left the village on the way back) as the sky rail passed over the Nei Sham Stream.
For the most part, we noticed at least two (maybe three) cascading waterfalls directly below us, but I’m sure there are more tiers to them (given that people associate this stream with a “thousand layers”).
Anyways, experiencing this series of waterfalls from above was kind of similar to how you’d experience waterfalls when flying over them by helicopter or drone or other aerial means.
In other words, you don’t really get up and close with the waterfalls unless you go on a much more difficult hike and scramble along a combination of the so-called Ngong Ping Rescue Trail and stream scrambling directly within the Nei Sham Stream itself.
According to my topo map, the shortest way to do this would be to hike from Ngong Ping Village for about 3km in a lollipop loop that would following along the Ngong Ping Rescue Trail for the first 1km or so to the Nei Sham Stream.
However, since it would meet the stream above the Nei Sham Stream Waterfalls, it would likely require looping back for about 700-800m around towards the lower reaches of this section of the stream.
This would be the stretch where you’d likely have to stream scramble up within the streambed or alongside it before returning to rescue trail and returning to Ngong Ping Village.
Alternatively, there are also people who have managed to experience more layers of the Nei Sham Stream in all-day adventures involving some of the roughest and hazardous scrambles to be found in Hong Kong.
We’re talking about clinging to narrow ledges, wading in rushing waters, clinging alongside wet slopes besides waterfalls, and bushwhacking through intensely vegetated ravines.
Indeed, for the majority of people who want to notice these waterfalls, the cable car is the best way to go.
That said, if you’re determined to get close to these waterfalls, there seems to be no shortage of bloggers and vloggers in the literature who have actually done this adventure from Tai O, Tung Chung, or Ngong Ping Village.
Authorities
The Nei Sham Stream Waterfalls reside near the Ngong Ping Village on Lantau Island in the Islands District of the New Territories Region of Hong Kong. It is adminstered by the Ngong Ping 360 Limited Company, which runs both the cable car and the themed Ngong Ping Village. For the latest conditions or other inquiries, you may want to try the Ngong Ping 360 website.
The Tian Tan Buddha is most easily accessed via the Ngong Ping Cable Car, which departs near the Tung Chung MTR Station.
The town of Tung Chung is the closest one to the Hong Kong International Airport.
Therefore, it makes sense to fit in an excursion to the Tian Tan Buddha from the airport (especially if you have a long layover) or to take the Tung Chung Line on the MTR (mass transit rail) from Hong Kong Central Station to the Tung Chung Station.
I don’t recall very much how long it took us nor how much it costed us to do the Tian Tan Buddha excursion from Hong Kong Central.
However, I do know that it took us about 3 hours to get from the left luggage service in Terminal 1 North of Hong Kong International Airport to the Big Buddha and back via the cable car.
The left luggage service was charged by the piece per hour, which was $14 HKD per hour.
Since we had to leave 6 pieces of luggage and they stored it for 3 hours, we wound up paying $252 HKD (or about $34 USD).
The S1 bus to get from Terminal 1 North (note there’s also a Terminal 1 South stop) to the Tung Chung Cable Car Station would take about 20-30 minutes (we paid $10 HKD each way for all of us as our daughter got the child rate).
The walking to get from the bus stop to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car ticket office and queue should take no more than 5 minutes.
The cable car ride takes roughly 25-30 minutes in each direction (not counting the queues).
Note that given the huge queues for the standard cable car to return from Ngong Ping Village back to Tung Chung, we actually paid to upgrade to a crystal cable car (basically has larger windows) to skip most of a 45-minute (or longer) queue.
As of November 2024, we paid $270 HKD for a standard cabin per adult to go to Ngong Ping Village (Tahia didn’t count for a half-priced ticket as a child).
However, since we upgraded on the return leg back to Tung Chung, we paid $310 HKD for the crystal cabin per adult.
Thus, we wound up paying $270 HDK x 3 + $310 HKD x 3 = $1740 HKD in total, which assuming an exchange rate of $7.50 HKD per $1 USD, this would mean roughly $232 USD for the whole thing.
So indeed, when you add up all the costs for our particular situation, this wasn’t a cheap excursion.
That said, the alternative would be to take the Bus 23 towards Ngong Ping, which would take roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes in each direction, and this doesn’t count the S1 bus to Tung Chung and all the walking and queueing involved.
For geographical context, Tung Chung was about 6km (less than 15 minutes drive) from the Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1, about 32km (about 30 minutes drive) west of Kowloon, about 35km (about 30 minutes drive) west of Hong Kong City, and about 40km (over 30 minutes drive) southwest of Shenzhen, China.
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