Tai To Yan Hike: An Epic Ridge Trail In Hong Kong

Tai To Yan is a challenging ridge-line hike in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It is often referred to as the Dragon’s Back hike of the new territories. I thought it was a great trail, with lots of tough stair sections throughout the ridge. On a clear day, views of Shenzen are aplenty along the trail as well as lots of panoramic viewpoints.

MY EXPERIENCE ON THE TAI TO YAN HIKE

On a cloudy afternoon, I headed out into the New Territories. I was hoping for the sun to break through but despite it’s best efforts, it would be a bit of a cloudy atmosphere for this hike. On a brighter day, the views would be that much sweeter but it was a great hike and maybe one of the best out and out ridges in Hong Kong.

When we got off the bus at Kadoorie Farm, the trail entrance was on the same side as the bus and off we set into the forest. The trail begins under dense coverage and begins in quite a relaxed fashion with no views to get you excited about. Lots of stairs and that beautiful smell of the woods will ease you into the Tai To Yan hike.

The trail is only about 3-kilometers to the Tai To Yan summit of 566m, but it is quite steep so it will take you a little bit of time and effort. Don’t expect to be up there in 40-minutes. At times the stairs were pretty relentless and the undulations gave us little time to take a breather and take in the views. Every so often I would turn around and despite the gloomy weather, be impressed by the backdrop as we climbed higher and higher.

The total incline for the hike was 656-meters, but most of it comes in these early stages as you climb your way up to the ridge. The section pictured below was probably the toughest climb of the lot. If you hate stairs, this trail (and most Hong Kong hikes) will not be your friend. It’s constantly up and down.

Once you make it up on the ridge it is just a few slight undulations to deal with but you can then enjoy the view and appreciate the drop-offs on either side. We found a few brilliant viewpoints throughout the ridge and really enjoyed seeing what was over the next little hill as we neared in on the summit.

After a couple of hours (slow going due to photo breaks), we reached the summit. To be honest, not much is going on at the summit and the best viewpoints were earlier on during the ridge. The summit simply has a trigonometric pylon as found all over Hong Kong. There are nice views but no better than elsewhere on the trail. It is simply slightly higher than the other parts of the ridge. Even with the dreary weather, we could still see across the border to Shenzen, China. On a clear day, it would be very visible.

After the summit, the trail continues on the ridge for a little while with similar undulations, before whipping off to the left and sending you back into the forest. This is where the downhill assault begins. It seems like a neverending staircase. I think it may be one of the longest continuous staircases in Hong Kong and just seemed to go on forever. I guess that’s why people start from the Kadoorie end of the ridge to avoid climbing up so many stairs in a row!

The hike finishes back at Fanling Station where you can catch the train back to wherever you might be staying in Hong Kong. This would be a good hike for sunset on a clear day as the way down would be relatively safe in the dark (with a head torch) due to the infrastructure of the stairs. 

I hope you enjoy this beautiful ridge out in the New Territories of Hong Kong!