Ma On Shan Hike (Sai Kung West Country Park)

“Here one experiences only the mountain tops and the sky.”

This trail is part of the famous 100km MacLehose hiking trail, running east to west in the New Territories. Ma On Shan, called Horse Saddle Mountain by the locals, is the second highest peak in the New Territories at 702 metres.

The hike starts at sea level and takes you through lush green subtropical forest and dense exotic vegetation. You will visit an abandoned Hakka clan village with its ancestral graves. As you head uphill, the hike encounters low shrubland, colourful with wild azaleas and rhododendrons and the mighty Ma On Shan range rises imposingly above. Behind is a superb coastal panorama reveals the Sai Kung Peninsula. From the saddle, with its rugged rock formations, the trials of hiking this formidable section of the MacLehose Trail are rewarded by stunning views of the New Territories and Mainland China.

The path takes you along the remote, wild and windswept ridge, down to a rolling plateau. A scenic track winds downwards to the charming fishing town of Sai Kung, where you can watch the fisher folk selling their wares from the Sai Kung jetty, and visit the local Tin Hau temple, dedicated to the goddess of the sea.