A Brief To My QTH Location

Fanling is the last two stops on the KCR line before you reach the border with China. The town is more or less continuous and consists of a number of villages joined together by newer housing developments. The walled villages at Fan Leng Wai, about 15 minutes walk from Fanling KCR, is worth visiting. There are also walled villages in the Lung Yuek Tau area to the northeast of Fanling. There are several good hiking areas around Fanling. To the northeast, Sha Tau Kok Road runs up to the border with China on the north side of Starling Inlet (Sha Tau Kok Hoi). On the northern side of the road is Robin's Nest (Hung Fa Leng). Further along the ridge is Ng Tung Shan, the highest mountain in the region, but it is in China, not Hong Kong. If you are exploring on the northern side of the road, take note of the line marked on the Countryside Series by a xxxxxxx symbol. If you are north of this line, you are in the Frontier Closed Area for which you should have a permit that you are unlikely to have. Pat Sin Leng Country Park is to the south of Sha Tau Kok road and you can enter it at Hok Tau Wai and Luk Keng. The 56k minibus will take you as far as Luk Keng where you can also get into Plover Cove Country Park.

The Fanling area has a long history. The Pang clan, who made their home at Fan Leng Wai arrived from Guanxi in the 12th century. A branch of the Tang clan, the largest of the New Territories, settled the Leung Yeuk Tau area. The area was connected to Hong Kong by the construction of the KCR early this century. The history of the area is agricultural, but recent developments have seen most of the farming disappear. Although the old rice fields around Fanling have escaped the conversion to container storage that you find in much of the northwest New Territories, they have been put to a variety of quasi-industrial uses. Nevertheless, you can get a flavor of what life was once like in Long Valley and in some of the villages along Sha Tau Kok road, where market gardening continues. Fanling has been developed as commuter towns, but much of the surrounding area is still sparsely inhabited. The major development has taken place over the border in Shenzhen, which has now has a skyline resembling that of Hong Kong. Oddly, the least developed areas are those directly opposite Shenzhen, which are inaccessible because they are within the Frontier Closed Area.

To get to Fanling, take the KCR to Fanling station. There are some small shops inside the station building and a larger shopping centre next door. Green New Territories taxis and green minibuses both leave from the small bus station on the southbound side of the line.