In the middle of nowhere Barry Girling NLESSa Hong Kongexplorer | tiny jetty sign marks the nameless spot. | in the boundaries of either of those is adept at reading maps and | I'sconnected toa luster ofhamletsbya | town's district board areas, but sur- Chinese characters, a journey | circular footpath, yet, mystifyingy, none | rounded by them. {nto the local unknown can be | of the hamlets are called Shap Se Ficung. | In apparent defiance of geopolitical ‘very confusing experience. For there | To make map-reading exercises even | logic, like “divided Brunei, the fre some places in the territory thatdon't | more puzzling, there's another ferry | peninsulls orthvéastern corner belongs ‘seem t0 exist — Shap Sz Heung for in- | route marked, also sidetripping on to | to TaiPo District, even though Tai Pos stance. the same headland. But this ferry route | across Tolo, Harbour, way beyond Half the fun of going to such Alice-in- | terminates there, at another uninkabit- | Shatin, nd the Tolo Harbour fery ser- ‘Wonderland spots is not being sure that | ed nameless jety, from which a footpath | vicessiartat Ma Liu Shui, which is closer ‘one is actually oing to them: the only | leads to a different hamlet, called Sai O | to Shatin than Tai Po. {roubles that when one has got to where | (West Bay) ‘There are more mysteries onthe road fone thought one was going, one’s not al- | Any suspicion thatthe Tolo Harbour | from Sai Kung to Sat O. For a stat, the ‘ways sure whether one ended up some. | feries might be ghost ships visiting de- | road signs do not direct traffic to Sai O: where else, serted villages is allayed by the large- | they point lef, at a roundabout, to Kei “Alice would feel at home on the east of | scale (1:25,000) Countryside Series map. | Ling Ha Hoi, thus sending all traffic into the New Territories peninsula north of | It reveals that there's a bus terminal at | the whole Three Fathoms Cove rather Village in deepest Sal Kung: is it on the map? Sai Kung. facing Kei Ling Ha Hoi Three | Sai O, where the surfaced road from Sai | than to any particular place on land, Fathoms Cove), where acluster ofcoast- | Kung ends — and it's hard to imagine | Explorers will not worry initially — al villages fine the north-eastern foothills | the very down-to-earth KMB running | the winding rural road, ascending from of 702-metre-high Man On Shan (Horse | ghost buses. But wien one studiescither | Sai Kung port shelter, is a scenic delight. Saddle Mountain). A non-Chinese- | theofficial transport guide or KMB route | It winds past old village houses and new speaking visitor could casily imagine | listings, one cannot find Sai ©. three-storey villas, flanked by verdant finding one significant human settie- | "At this point, unless one docs believe | hillsides of natural woodland and fang ‘ment called Shap Sz Heung — for that's | in ghosts, one suspects the Land | shui groves that have run beautifully the irs scheduled portofealion the hop. | Department's map-making Survey Divi | wild, Abandoned paddy fields are rich skip and jumping Tolo Harbour HYF | sion has been run by former Second | rugs of green at this wet time ofthe year, ferry service ‘World War British Home Guards — the | and in one old clearing the raised paths "Yet the supposed port does not ap- | folks who removed signposts, or turned | between the paddies ae charmingly dee- pear on any map: the dotted line indicat- | them round, so that German invaders | orated with purple flowering shrubbery Ing the ferry route merely makes its first | would get lost in 1941 Cows, chaperoned by loyal geese in one hhopdown tothe shoreline of Three Fath- |" ‘The plot thickens when a Hong Kong | place, are natural lawnmowers through- ‘oms Cove, bizarrely tan un-named, un- | explorer further notices that this particu | Out the area. inhabited spot that faces the uninhabited | tar chunk of land, just afew miles north | "Beyond the entry point to Ma On islet of Sam Pui Chau. On the maps, a | ofSai Kungandeast ofShatin, ist with- | Shan Country Park (where Stage 4 ofthe 28‘Maglthose Trail begins), Three Fath- ‘ams Cave: comes into view. Densely ‘wooded hillsides, occasionally rent by sparkling waterfals that look like giant teardrops, frame the dagger-shaped cove's clear waters. Almost clear — the cove’s natural splendour is marred by a pairoftyphoon shelter dykes and the of- shore flotsam of a fish farm. However, apart from film crews shooting costumed epics, Ma On SI forested slopes are unspoiled — splendid cool-season. hiking. country. (There probably are-ghosts under the slopes — in the disused mines where up to 5,000 men laboured in appalling con- ditions to extract Ma On Shans iron ore from 1949 to 1976). Stay on the road if you want to unrav- cl the mysteries of Shap Sz Heung. And avoid further confusion at the rural crossroads where signs point to Tin Liu (noton any of my maps), Seng Tau (alias ‘Tseng Tau on official maps), and Tai ‘Tung (near the cove area's Christian church). Continue, past Kwun Hang (the only village in the area with a major tem ple), and you find the bus terminal. At ‘Nat Chung, not Sai O. W's the end of the surfaced road, for ‘now. And the place where some answers to the puzzles can be worked out. ‘The easiest one is Shap Sz Heung’s apparent “non-existence” — it'san area, fot one place. The Chinese name — “Fourteen Villages” — refers to all the Hakka hamlets that dot the coastal bill: side below Ma On Shan. Ferry services ‘through Tolo Harbour used to be their ‘major link to the rest af Hong Kong, be- {ore the road to Sai Kung was developed; TORE ‘thus the Tai Po connection. Sai OP It’s a hamlet that's a. stone's ‘throw beyond Nai Chung, where the KMB service turns round. The nameless 4exido and ferry jetty points? Uninhabit- ed, because the Coastline is alluvial sand, land the villages have been left high and dry slighty inland. ‘But the road and Shap Sz Heung’ssto- ry doesn't end at Nai Chung, a smal v lage “redeveloped” asa canoe-and-bie cle R&R spotin one part (The other part announces bilingually, “Private. Tour- ists are not allowed”). Within a year, the country road — Sai Sha Road — will be extended around the Shap Sz Heung headland, creating an. all-weather fink with the western side of Ma Om Shan. A new town, planned to howse 200,000 Bonk by 1993, 1s under consruction "There are no plans yet to develop Shap Sz Heung in'a similar way. As the 14 villages mostly face east, towards the beautiful wilderness of Sai Kung West Country Park, they will presumably share in Sai Kung’s growth as a reere- ational and residential area, even if theit villagers may turn towards Ma On Shan and Shatin for work and schooling. Whatever happens, the Tai Po link seems doomed.