About Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls
Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls (梧桐寨瀑布 [Wútóng Zhài Pùbù] or [m4tung4 zaai6 buk6bou3] in Cantonese; “Parasol Tree Village” or 黃峰寨瀑布 [Huáng Fēng Zhài Pùbù] or [wong4fung1 zaai6 buk6bou3] in Cantonese) could be Hong Kong’s most impressive.
Situated in Tai Mo Shan Country Park, which covers the foothills of the 957m Tai Mo Shan (Hong Kong’s highest peak), the adventure to these waterfalls also included a Taoist temple, scenic views, and jungle scenery that’s about as wild as Hong Kong gets.
While you have to earn your waterfall sightings (you’re looking at a roughly 7km loop hike, which is said to take about 3-4 hours; though it took me longer than that), you do get a very different vibe and atmosphere in a more tranquil Naturesque setting.
This is as opposed to the bustling cityscapes you see almost everywhere else you go in Hong Kong’s intensely developed metropolis.
Of course, when I say that this is an adventure, I mean it in every sense of the word – from the lesser-known (but no less busy) rural metro lines and buses to the somewhat rough and steep jungle hiking that’s involved.
Nevertheless, this is on a well-signed and well-maintained trail that most people with a good degree of fitness and preparation can finish so it’s not like this is a dangerous off-trail scramble (though it could be dangerous if the weather’s bad).
As for the waterfalls themselves, I’ve managed to encounter at least 6 of them ranging from 10m to 35m in height, where 4 of them are officially signed and named along the route and 2 of them are lesser known.
The main waterfalls are the Bottom Fall, Middle Fall, Main Fall (the most impressive one of the bunch), and Scatter Fall.
The lesser known ones were the Choi Hung Falls and a series of waterfalls by the Man Tak Yuen Temple.
There was also an opportunity to visit the Yuk Nui Waterfall, but that involved a bit of an overgrown, off-trail stream scramble, which I opted not to do.
So indeed, if waterfalls in Hong Kong are what you’re after (which sounds a bit strange considering how intensely developed it is), this could very well be the premiere waterfall hike to do.
And I’ll describe below how I was able to do it on my late November 2024 visit.
Trail Description – from Lam Kam Road to Man Tak Yuen Temple
The adventure begins from the intersection of the Lam Kam Road and Ng Tung Chai Road (see directions below).
Since I took public transportation to get here, I managed to get off at a bus stop along Lam Kam Road just west of the small roundabout with Ng Tung Chai Road.
Note that on the east side of this roundabout in the opposite direction of Lam Kam Road, there was the bus stop going back to Tai Wo or Tai Po Market (where I boarded the bus initially).
Anyways, I then walked up the ascending Ng Tung Chai Road, which went past a small car park after 400m (something of note if you happen to be self-driving) and eventually towards Ng Tung Chai Village (about 800m from the roundabout).
Although there were sounds of rushing water and even cascading water in the distance, I just continued to follow the signs and continue up the paved road in the direction of the waterfalls and the Man Tak Yuen Temple.
There really wasn’t much to keep me in the village as it seemed more of a residential village and not really a touristy one.
Anyways, beyond the village, the uphill path narrowed some more as it went past some small shrines and some remote residences along the way.
At about 500m after leaving Ng Tung Chai Village, I reached a traditional-looking archway, which was essentially part of the infrastructure for the Man Tak Yuen Temple.
After another 300m from the archway, I found myself right at the elaborate entrance of the Man Tak Yuen Temple.
When I first showed up at 8:10am during my hike, the temple was closed.
However, when I eventually came back towards the end of my excursion, I did explore this Daoist temple for a bit, and so I’ll punt the description of this temple visit for later on towards the end of this write-up.
Trail Description – the Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls
Beyond the Man Tak Yuen Temple, the path crossed a small stream before going past a sign and the start of some steps next to a small waterfall.
It turned out that this waterfall was just the bottom tier of a larger three-drop series of waterfalls, but you can’t see the whole thing until you get into the temple complex.
So ascending these steps, it went past an opening with a nice contextual view of the upper reaches of the Man Tak Yuen Temple before it eventually reached a signed trail junction right at the boundary of Tai Mo Shan Country Park.
I kept left at this intersection to take the path to the waterfalls (as the path on the right was a more direct route to Tai Mo Shan Peak without the waterfalls, and that will be the return path later on).
Anyays, the climbing is pretty consistent as the path pretty much hugged the ravine carved out by the Ng Tung Chai Stream.
While I was able to hear quite a few cascades or sounds of falling water (suggesting there were more waterfalls than the 6 I’ve been able to witness and am about to describe), the foliage cover was too thick to glimpse them.
After about 1km from the Man Tak Yuen Temple, I reached a signed trail junction for the Bottom Fall.
Taking this detour, I then descended steeply (and carefully) down the slippery cliff hugging path before descending to the Ng Tung Chai Stream right in front of the so-called Bottom Fall.
This waterfall consisted of two drops, where each one had a plunge pool, but the upper drop required a scramble to go above the lower drop.
Continuing on with the main trail, after about 200m, I went past another trail junction and kept going straight towards the signposted Middle Fall.
This waterfall seemed a bit taller than the Bottom Fall, and it had a more satisfying singular drop followed by shorter intermediate drops further downstream.
There were also some overhanging rocks nearby suggesting that there’s always that everpresent danger of rock falls (in addition to flash flooding), which is something you always have to consider if you choose to take a dip and cool off here.
The main trail then climbed even more steeply before over a series of switchbacks and some hand-over-feet rock obstacles before flattening out and following alongside the Ng Tung Chai Stream, which had some minor intermediate cascades.
There was an easy-to-miss switchback, where the trail continued up steps to keep climbing onwards, but the other path continued along the Ng Tung Chai Stream before disappearing into the stream itself around some jumble of wet rocks.
With some nifty scrambling, I was able to stay dry and get right into the middle of the stream to witness the Choi Hung Fall, which is a modestly-sized waterfall with a fairly sizable plunge pool fronting it.
I’d imagine that some people might choose to go for a dip here to cool off given the amount of climbing to even get to this point, especially since not a lot of people even know about this spot considering it’s unsigned and required a mild scramble to see.
But in any case, after having my fill of the Choi Hung Waterfall, I backtracked to the steps switching back and continuing to climb before I finally reached the Main Fall (roughly 800m or so beyond the Middle Fall).
At the Main Fall, there was an elevated lookout area with a rest “bench” made of the slate around here, and it offered a nice view of the waterfall as well as allowing me to appreciate its scale, especially when people walk by down below.
Beneath this elevated lookout, the main trail skirted before the Main Fall’s base before doing a fairly easy unbridged creek crossing and then ascending some more.
During this stretch of ascending, I noticed a thin waterfall that was coming from a separate stream that fed the Ng Tung Chai Stream.
However, aside from a short informal scrambling detour to get close to it, there was nothing compelling about it to keep me longer.
Finally, after more ascending along more ledges and going past a small cave next to a small cascade, the trail finally approached the next signed waterfall called the Scatter Fall.
This waterfall also had its own plunge pool as well as an adjacent cave (which I suspect was another sealed off mine entrance).
While Scatter Fall was relatively short in stature, I did have more of a segmented fan shape, and it was also situated just upstream from the brink of the Main Fall.
Anyways, this could either be the turnaround point of the overall hike, or I could continue on and turn this hike into a loop.
I ultimately chose the latter, which I’ll get into the final leg of this trail description below.
Trail Description – finishing the loop route
Continuing to ascend steeply alongside then beyond the Scatter Fall, the trail eventually reached another trail junction.
There were some confusingly-marked arrows scrawled on nearby rocks pointing the way towards Tai Mo Shan, I believe, but I actually did some brief exploring just to see how feasible it was to get to the Yuk Nui Fall.
This was the last named waterfall on my topographic map, but I saw that the trail got wiped out by an apparent landslide.
So I didn’t push my luck and try to push through to find the Yuk Nui Fall, and thus, I returned to the trail junction and took the path leading northwest along a maintained trail staying level as the terrain sloped towards the Ng Tung Chai Stream below.
This stretch went by some interesting trailside rocks as well as going through some ruin, but it eventually reached a signed junction near Kai Kung Tau Peak.
At this point, I kept straight ahead via the path that returned to Man Tak Yuen Temple without going by the waterfalls, which will eventually close the loop route.
There was another path that went left (southwest), and that continued climbing up towards Tai Mo Shan.
Eventually after about 1.2km of steep descending switchbacks and slopes, this path ultimately deposited me back to the trail junction by the sign for the Tai Mo Shan Country Park.
From there, I returned to the Man Tak Yuen Temple, which happened to be open when I returned, and this allowed me to explore the complex.
Within the steep complex (connected by steps flanked by fountains and some lower prayer rooms), I eventually climbed up to a terrace with a few more prayer rooms (each with their own separate pagoda or pavilion) and decorations.
At one corner of this terrace, I finally witnessed the remaining tiers of the three-tiered waterfall I partially saw earlier on (where I only saw the bottommost tier).
It was a satisfying surprise and a nice photo spot in a lovely temple that definitely reinforced the peace and tranquility of this wild side of Northern Hong Kong.
After having my fill of the temple complex, I then returned back the way I came to the Lam Kam Road, which took me about 15 minutes to cover this 1.6km stretch.
That was where I awaited the bus to connect me back to the MTR mass transit rail lines to return to the busier and more touristy spots of Hong Kong’s centre.
Overall, just the hiking part of this excursion took me about 5 hours, but this also doesn’t include the roughly 75-90 minutes I spent on the public transportation to even get to the point where I could start hiking.
I go into more about these transportation logistics in the directions part of the write-up below.
Authorities
The Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls are in Tai Mo Shan Country Park near the town of Tai Wo in the Tai Po District of the New Territories Region of Hong Kong. It is adminstered by the Tai Po District Council. For the latest conditions or other inquiries, you may want to try the Hong Kong Tourism Board website.
The Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls are in a somewhat remote rural part of Northern Hong Kong, yet it can be reached by public transportation, which was something I was able to exercise.
So I’ll describe how I was able to utilize it from Tsim Sha Tsui (where we were staying) to get started on the hike in this section.
Starting from the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, I should be able to walk to the Tsim Sha Tsui East MTR Station and take the Tuen Ma Line (maroon) east to the Hung Hom Station.
Ordinarily, this is should be pretty straightforward to do, but since I happened to start before 6am, I learned the hard way that most MTR lines and stations do not operate until after 6am (and in some cases after 7:30am).
So I actually wound up walking the 1.4km from Tsim Sha Tsui Station to the Hung Hom Station (which took me around 20-30 minutes).
From there, I was then able to take the East Rail Line (light blue) for about 7 stops to the Tai Po Market Station (note that I also could have gotten off at the Tai Wo Station at the next stop).
From the Tai Po Market Station, I was able to walk underground and follow signs for the 64K bus bound for Yuen Long.
This bus route tends to leave every 7-10 minutes, and I took this bus roughly 18 stops (maybe fewer because I noticed our driver didn’t stop at all the stops) to the Ng Tung Chai stop.
Once I left the bus, I then walked back towars the roundabout intersecting the Lam Kam Road (the route that the bus took) and the Ng Tung Chai Road (the ascending road leading to Ng Tung Chai Village and the Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls).
From there, I then walked up the Ng Tung Chai Road to start the adventure.
Note that to return to Tai Wo or Tai Po Market Stations, the 64k bus stop is on the other side of Lam Kam Road beyond the roundabout with Ng Tung Chai Road.
Overall, this journey took me about ??? hours to get to the Ng Tung Chai stop, and it took me about ??? hours on the return (aided by the fact that the Tuen Ma Line was operating when I was on my way back).
For geographical context, Tai Po is about 22km (under 30 minutes drive) north of Kowloon, about 24km (under 30 minutes drive) north of Hong Kong City, about 46km (over 30 minutes drive) northeast of Tung Chung, and about 19km (under 30 minutes drive) southeast of Shenzhen, China.
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Downstream to upstream sweep of the Bottom Falls
Approaching the Middle Falls before ending up with a zoomed in panning of it once at the end of the spur trail
Downstream to upstream sweep of the Choi Hung Falls
Checking out the Main Falls from the elevated viewing area
Looking up and down the Main Falls from its base
Angled view from across the stream checking out the elevated lookout area as well as the profile of the Main Falls itself
Nearly 360 degree sweep starting with the trail then panning over to the brink of the Main Falls before panning over to the ascending trail and the Scatter Falls and then panning over to the mine cave before going back to the Scatter Falls at the end
Checking out the waterfall tiers as seen from the Man Tak Yuen Temple
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