Wednesday was a day where I didn’t have to teach so I woke up early finished my morning chores and cooking for the boys and Lamiya and I headed out to hike up supposedly a sharp peak of Hong Kong; Needle Hill and ended up hiking up the 647 meter Grassy Hill ( Maclehose section 7). However, Needle Hill is a mouse compared to the monstrous Sharp Peak.
Difficulty: 6/10 sloped and loads of steps but doable at a glacial pace too.
Duration: 4 hours 30 minutes with stops for photos.
How to get there: I took the MTR from Central to Tsuen Wan (TWL red line) and exited at B1. I met Lamiya there. We walked towards Shiu Wo road to the green minibus stop for the number 82 bus. The fare was only HKD 5.30 and it dropped us at the Shing Mun country park.
Once we reached we turned right towards Shing Mun Main dam.
We took a short break at the public toilets, got to greet some monkeys and continued on the track.
We clicked some photos at the dam. The water was a beautiful greenish blue and the weather was balmy; ideal for a long hike.
Bauhinias in bloom 
We walked on the path till we reached the end of the bridge of the main dam, turned right and climbed up a flight of steps.
We saw the Maclehose Trail Section Seven board. That was the path up to Needle Hill.
So a bit about Needle Hill: ‘Needle Hill or Cham Shan is a mountain in New Territories, Hong Kong. It has an altitude of 532 m. This is a part of a popular hiking route including Grassy Hill and Tai Mo Shan. The mountain got its name due to the resemblance of a needle by its peak.’
And the climb started with a bang, steps and steps and more steps.
The path was beautiful and muddy. Green and serene.
But there were steps every step of the way 😁.
Lion’s Rock 
We continued up the path, clicked photos of the dam below and also of us.
As we approached the top of the hill, the views got better and better. We could see the entire Shing Mun Reservoir down below. It looked magnificent.
Finally we reached the top and to be honest it was a dampener. We expected a tough hike. It wasn’t!
We continued downhill. It was a concrete walk. Lamiya got the idea to do Grassy hill too. So we decided to do that.
We continued up the slope. Though concrete the path was pretty with a lot of foliage along the way.
We came to an intersection where one path led to Sha Tin Town and one continued towards Lead Mine Pass. We continued straight as that was the path to Grassy Hill too.
Toilet 
I was hungry so decided to gorge on lovely Okra Flat bread snack made by Lamiya. Delicious 🤤! We continued uphill but the hill was not in sight.
And up we went. We saw some cattle and a woman hovering around a calf. The poor guy/gal!!
We enjoyed this new detour where we chilled and clicked photos.
We got back down and headed towards Grassy hill. We got to see a lizard camouflaged. Ooooo it was interesting. Lami found it creepy. She was about to sit on that ledge . Luckily she didn’t, she would have squashed poor lizzie.
We were getting close to the top.
And we were there!! Grassy hill; 647 meters high. Grassy Hill is the fourteenth highest mountain in Hong Kong. Peaked at 647 m, it is situated between Tsuen Wan and Tai Po and near the Lead Mine Pass. The Stage 7 of MacLehose Trail runs near its peak.
We found the trigonometric station and climbed up to enjoy the view of Tai Mo Shan in the distance.
We decided to stop and have lunch. Paneer bhurji burgers ( scrambled cottage cheese cooked in spices) , Strawberries and Red Bull 😅.
It was lovely. We enjoyed our lunch with a view over the various hills and Tai mo Shan.
Post lunch we walked down Lead Mine Pass which was a pretty path too.
We reached Tai Po and continued right and on the path. That was another 6 kilometres more. 😅
We came to a toilet, sitting area, sleeping dogs and continued towards Tai Po.
We passed by the Tai Po Nature Study centre, Tai Po Nature Trail and continued walking down Tai Po road.
We finally reached the end of the trail. We crossed the road towards the bus stop.
There were quite a few buses to choose from. We took the 72 to Sha Tin MTR. Stopped at the mall there for some coffee and took the train back to our respective destinations.
The End 😁
This was a great hike but only if you club Grassy hill with Needle hill. It doesn’t make sense travelling to Tsuen Wan only for this hill. It would be even more challenging to do Tai Mo Shan with these two hills.
However, we enjoyed this hike. It was a picturesque, pretty hike if I may say so. This hike is dog friendly and you could take kids too as I did see quite a few young uns’ on the trail. However please note the path is steep.
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Happy Hiking and stay safe!