Tai Long Wan hike

When I thought of Hong Kong before visiting here, I thought of food, shopping, crowds. But I never thought of hiking to a pristine beach with perfect curling waves. On November 14, we did this hike and I would like to share some details in the hopes that others might enjoy this as much as we did.

1. Getting there: Take the MTR to Choi Hung station and catch the green roofed minibus 1A to Sai Kung. This is not what we did. We went to Diamond Hill and caught the 92 double-decker. It makes many stops and struggles with the hills. On the way home we were passed by one minibus after another. It bordered on the intolerable!
2. We started late enough that we decided to have an early lunch in Sai Kung. I would strongly endorse Chuen Kee, an aquarium restaurant on the water front that serves excellent and very affordable dim sum.
3. Back to the bus loop, get the 94 to Pak Tam Au. It is at the top of the rise after you leave the sea shore. Walk down the hill 50 meters and you pick up the MacLehose trail going East. It is paved. After about 1 3/4 hours you arrive at Ham Tin beach. The sand is wide, white and clean. The waves were small but breaking with lovely curling tubes. Sadly it was a little too chilly so we didn't go in.
4. Next we continued along the shore to Sai Wan. There we enjoyed the Tofu Flan (10 HKD) with a great view of another nice beach.
5. You go back via Sai Kung Sai Wan road where you catch the 29R white minibus, the last of which leaves at 4:45pm. If you miss it you'll have an extra 6km to walk on the road. The whole hike takes about 4-5 hours.
6. When you get off the minibus in Sai Kung you'll be across the street from the Duke of York, which has a very nice feel, seemingly populated entirely with regulars (mostly middle-aged Englishmen).
7. Enjoy!