Ma On Shan the difficult way

Start at Shun Yee San Tsuen, not far from Ma On Shan town. There is a path uphill which is not well marked but can be found using the mobile phone and this app. Go steeply uphill through bamboo tunnels to a path junction. Then there is a choice - hard scrambling up golden wall ridge (straight ahead); go left then right after the stream bed as we did to do the hard scrambling up Tiu Shau North Ridge; or go right on the main path to join the Easter route up to Tiu Shau Ngam. Then there is an easier section across the wide ridge to Hunchbacks and Ma On Shan itself. Great 360 views from Ma On Shan summit, it is the highest mountain in the eastern part of HK.

Decend the steep southern side of Ma On Shan, and meet up with MacLehose trail stage 4. If you go left on MacLehose trail then this is the early escape route to Sai Kung town for those who are tied. For those with the energy, there are two more challenging mountains to the south - the steep sided Pyramid Hill, with great views over the islands near Sai Kung, and then Buffalo Hill, where unfortunately this map finishes due to a lack of battery in my phone. From the summit of Buffalo Hill, the easiest finish to the route is to keep going to West Buffalo Hill and keep going straight down the ridge to Tai Chi village (near Sha Tin). There is also the option of turning left at West Buffalo Hill, and going down a steep track past the famous rock hole to the MacLehose trail heading southeast. This route finishes either at the gentle slope of Jay’s incline down to Kowloon, or the last final challenge of Kowloon peak, with the best views of HK to be had on this side of the bay. Careful with the steep decent from Kowloon peak, it passes suicide cliff and is very steep all the way down to the road.