River Trekking is a form of hiking or outdoor adventure activity, particularly popular in Hong Kong, and, in some ways, similar to canyoning or canyoneering. River trekking is a combination of trekking and climbing and sometimes swimming along the river. It involves particular techniques like rock climbing, climbing on wet surface, understanding the geographical features of river and valleys, knotting, dealing with sudden bad weather and find out possible exits from the river. Two hikers in the Mount Hood National Forest Eagle_Creek hiking Hiking is a form of walking, undertaken with the specific purpose of exploring and enjoying the scenery. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Look up adventure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Mystery Canyon, Zion National Park Canyoning (also known as canyoneering) is travelling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and/or swimming. ... Canyoning (known in the U.S. as canyoneering) is a sport popular in several countries. ... Climbers on Valkyrie at the Roaches. ... The requested page title was invalid, empty, an incorrectly linked inter-language or inter-wiki title, or contained illegal characters. ...

River Trekking in Hong Kong

River trekking has developed in Hong Kong since mid-20th century. Currently, there are numerous hiking groups organize regular trekking activities in Hong Kong. However, river trekking is a bit underground. There are no formal schools, formal coaches, formal sites, official recognition or qualifications on river trekking, even though it involves particular skills and certain level of risks. In Hong Kong, any natural rivers can be found in the country side, there would be the possible sites for river trekking.

Attractions and Popularity

River trekking is especially popular in Hong Kong because it is totally a surprise that in this highly developed region are preserved a number of excellent geographical features in its rivers in the countryside. Through river trekking, it is possible to access numerous waterfalls, large ponds, pot holes, other special geographical features as well as special species of animals and plants. Also, it is a very cheap activity in comparison with other challenging outdoor activities like rock climbing, rowling and wind-surfing. No training courses are needed because there is no one in Hong Kong who would provide training for river trekking. However, river trekking has long been one of the most popular outdoor activities in Hong Kong, even though most of the river trekking routes or sites are indicated as "danger" or "no entry" by the government. There is a trend that more and more foreigners and even tourists are taking part in this activity. Tower Fall in Yellowstone National Park A waterfall is usually a geological formation resulting from water, often in the form of a stream, flowing over an erosion-resistant rock formation that forms a sudden break in elevation. ... Climbers on Valkyrie at the Roaches. ... Joanne Rowling OBE (born July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire), commonly known as J.K. Rowling (pronunciation: roll-ing; her former students used to joke with her name calling her the Rolling Stone), is a British fiction writer. ... Windsurfing in Essex, England Windsurfing (also called boardsailing) is a sport involving travel over water on a small 2-4. ...

The Nine Big Rivers

The Nine Big Rivers (九大石澗) are the nine rivers that are most popular among river trekkers in Hong Kong. The Nine Big Rivers include:

• Tai Shing River (大城石澗),located in Tsuen Wan
• Wan Chung River (橫涌石澗), located in Tai Po
• Ng Tung River (梧桐石澗), located in Tai Po
• Wong Lung River (黃龍石澗), located on Lantau Island near Tung Chung
• Sheng Luk River (雙鹿石澗), located in Sai Kung
• Man Cheng Po (萬丈布), located in the west of Lantau Island
• Lotus River (蓮花石澗), located in Tai Lam Country Park
• Ngon Sam River (昂深石澗), located on Lantau Island near Great Buddha
• Ping Nam River (屏南石澗), located close to the border between Hong Kong and mainland China

Tsuen Wan (Chinese: 荃灣, formerly also Tsun Wan) is a bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong, opposite to Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. ... Junction of Kwong Fuk Road and Kwong Fuk Street, Tai Po For the district in Hong Kong, see Tai Po District. ... Lantau Island, Hong Kong , Lantau Island (based on the local old name of Lantau Peak 爛頭 Làntóu, Ragged Head; 大嶼山/大屿山 pinyin: Dàyǔ shān, Cantonese: Tai yue shan, Big Island Mountain), also Lantao, is the largest island in Hong Kong, located at the mouth of the Pearl River. ... Location of Tung Chung in relation to the rest of Lantau Island Tung Chung is a growing township situated on the north-western coast of Lantau Island in Hong Kong, China. ... The position of Sai Kung District within the Hong Kong S.A.R. Sai Kung (西貢; pinyin: Xi1gong4; Cantonese: sai1 gung3) is the second-largest of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. ... Tai Lam Country Park is located in the Yuen Long District at the west of New Territories of Hong Kong. ...

Rating of Difficuties

As river trekking have certain level of risks, experienced river trekkers or hiking groups have developed rating systems about difficuties on different rivers in Hong Kong for River Trekking. The ratings usually are various from 1 to 5 stars, even though a few rivers can be more than 5 stars because of their extreme difficulties. Such ratings are largely subjective, depends largely on river trekker's own experience. Therefore, different people or hiking groups would give different number of stars on the same river. According to Hong Kong Adverntruer, an English Website about hiking and river trekking in Hong Kong, difficult scale of different rivers as:

• 1 star: can be handled by normal healthy persons
• 2 stars: not too easy
• 3 stars: fairly difficult
• 4 stars: difficult, absolutely not for beginners
• 5 stars: very difficult, very demanding in term of strength and skill

Risk and Danger

River trekking has certain level of risk. There are occasional accidents in river trekking in Hong Kong, including falls from steep cliffs or waterfalls, drownings, exhaustion, or getting lost. Risks that should be prepared for include the following:

First, sudden changes in weather, like rainstorms, can cause rapid rises in water levels and speed in the river. Also, the number of viable paths and climbing areas inside the river valley would be reduced suddenly in a very short period. Besides this, bad or misty weather would also cause low visibility. Low visibilty may come in to quickly for trekkers to adapt to. Therefore, a torch (flashlight, preferably a head-mounted one, is a must for river trekking. A burning torch, discarded on the road in the wake of the Lewes Bonfire Night celebrations. ... Green flashlight Flashlight is the NATO designation for the Yakovlev Yak-25 Soviet military jet. ...

Second, steep cliffs inside river valleys require a certain level of rock climbing skills. However, because of the moisturing environment inside the river valley, some rock surfaces can be very wet and some rocks can be very loose depsite appearing solid. To deal with such wet climbing conditions, a pair of professional river-trekking boots are strongly advised.

Damage to Stream Systems Caused by River Trekking

Due to the increasing popularity of river trekking, the activity has resulted in some damage to certain streams in Hong Kong. The most noticeable kinds of damage are:

• Rubbish left by river trekking groups
• Use of aerosol spraypaints to mark route directions on rocks and trees
• Discarded climbing equipment and unnecessary bolting
• Damage to trees and other flora when used as leverage by trekkers
• Graffiti written in paint, ink and correction fluid

Such damage is, unfortunately, quite common in Hong Kong and goes against the philosophy of leave no trace, which most outdoor adventure sports adhere to. Leave No Trace is an ecological principle of leaving an environment of habitation in such a condition as to render it impossible for future observers to discern the previous presence of the practitioners of the Leave No Trace methodology. ...

See also

• Canyoning
• Hiking
• Geography of Hong Kong
• Country parks and conservation in Hong Kong
• Ecology of Hong Kong

Mystery Canyon, Zion National Park Canyoning (also known as canyoneering) is travelling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and/or swimming. ... Two hikers in the Mount Hood National Forest Eagle_Creek hiking Hiking is a form of walking, undertaken with the specific purpose of exploring and enjoying the scenery. ... The name Hong Kong, literally meaning fragrant harbour, is derived from the area around present-day Aberdeen and Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island, where fragrant trees were once abundant and exported. ... Although Hong Kong is regarded as one of the worlds great cities, out of the total 1,092 km² of land, about three-quarters is countryside. ... The ecology of Hong Kong is mostly affected by the results of climatic changes. ...

External links

• HK adventurer, an English website about hiking in Hong Kong includes many river trekking routes
• http://www.hkadventurer.com

• HK Waterfall, an English website about waterfalls and river trekking in Hong Kong
• http://hkwaterfall.net/

• 越野雄心, a river trekking website (in Chinese) http://hk.geocities.com/outdoorriver/river.htm