taming the dragon

The Wa Shan Military Road, which runs east–west along a ridge north of our house for about 6km, was built by the British Army during their occupation of the barracks that lie immediately below the south side of the ridge and are now occupied by the PLA. I’ve tried to find out the date of its construction, so far without success, although similar roads have permanent markers at their starts with information as to when and by whom they were built. This road has nothing along its entire length that provides this information.

Despite four days of fairly intense physical activity, including two 80km bike rides, we decided that a walk along this road would be a suitable activity for the fifth day, the Saturday before Chinese New Year. We opted to walk from east to west, mainly because we’d never traversed the ridge in that direction before. In fact, we have never traversed the entire ridge in the opposite direction either, although we did walk most of the road in that direction a couple of years ago when investigating a prominent military badge, an outing that I described in Hidden History #5.

Although I’d located the start of the road at the western end soon after moving into the area in 2008, I wouldn’t have known precisely where the eastern start is located had we not come down to it after checking the military badge. Mind you, I had guessed that it is a steep side road that joins an unnamed road that runs between the villages of Kwan Tei North and Ha Shan Kai Wat, which I started cycling along regularly in 2016 when the ‘frontier closed area’ status of the area northeast of Fanling was rescinded. This is a photo of the start:

Did I mention a lack of evidence of when and by whom the road was constructed? I’ve just noticed what may be a marker stone on the right of the previous photo. Unlike the stone that marks the start of the Robin’s Nest Jeep Track (see photo below), which is so much larger that you couldn’t possibly miss it, this stone is about the same size as a marker stone at the start of another military road a couple of kilometres south of this area. I shall have to check it out.

The road climbs steadily, passing two gates that are probably never closed nowadays:

The last photo was taken looking back the way we’d just come to avoid including people in the shot.

This is a view looking back from the first summit on the ridge:

There has clearly been a hill fire here recently—a common occurrence on Hong Kong’s upland areas. The mountain in the distance, just right of centre, is Hung Fa Leng (‘Red Flower Ridge’, otherwise known as Robin’s Nest, although I decry the use of gweilo toponyms where a local name exists).

And this is the continuation of the road:

The high-rise buildings in the distance in the first photo are in Shenzhen.

This is a view to the south, taken a little further along the road:

The high-rise buildings, which have risen to their present eminence in less than three years, are Queen’s Hill Estate, a much-needed public housing estate, even though it does blight the view from our balcony. The mountain behind is Lung Shan (‘Dragon Mountain’), so named, allegedly, because a dragon was once seen leaping across its slopes (Leaping Dragon)—you can see a photo of the dragon at the bottom of this page if you don’t check out the link. Incidentally, on the subject of gweilo toponyms, this is a really silly one: ‘Cloudy Hill’—every mountain hereabouts that is this high is wreathed in clouds more often than it’s clear!

Continuing:

This is probably the steepest obstacle on the road when travelling from west to east:

Although the road itself is in good condition throughout, it is somewhat overgrown in parts:

This is the next hill (downhill in this direction):

After seeing a few incidental views of Shenzhen thus far, this is a deliberately taken view of this relatively new, burgeoning metropolis from the next summit:

Although I took several more photos on the last section of the road, the remaining images in this compilation were taken the following Saturday, when we decided to follow the road in the opposite direction. I included a photo of the start in The Top Road.

Back in 2015, I decided to try to cycle along this road (Military Madness), starting from the west. I didn’t photograph the first part of the first hill on our recent walk, but this is the second part, separated from the first by a short, more gentle section:

After another more gentle section, the third section of the first hill is both longer and steeper:

When I reached the first summit in 2015, this is what I saw ahead:

I decided to turn back, partly because with 6cm tyres on a mountain bike, I had too much rubber on the road. Had I been riding my bike in the UK, which is a hybrid road bike with narrow tyres, I would probably have attempted to continue. And I would have had to deal with this hill, which is a real beast:

It looks even worse from the bottom:

The nearest group of houses at ground level in the view from the top of the hill is the village of Wa Shan.

So far, I haven’t mentioned that there is nothing at either end of this road to prevent access by motor cars. Because the road is barely wide enough for cars, and in a lot of places it’s almost impossible to step off the road, I regard anyone who decides to drive up this road as both selfish and antisocial (there are a lot of walkers at weekends), so I have no sympathy for whatever happened to this car, which is located at the bottom of the hill in the previous photo:

I can only guess, but my conjecture is that the engine overheated on the hill and burst into flames—the car looks as though it has been consumed by fire.

And there is another uphill section almost immediately:

Had I continued on my bike in 2015, I’d have been in deep trouble if I’d reached the point where the wrecked car is now located. The irony is that it should have been possible to cut across directly from the top of the first hill to the top of the second, so why the engineers who built this road decided to plunge down the hillside and back up again is beyond my ability to explain.

From both a walking and cycling perspective, the next section is much more amenable:

This is a view of a firing range originally built by the British Army but now used, occasionally, by the PLA:

More relatively easy going:

I’ve included the next photo because it shows the construction site that has disrupted our routines in the past year. It’s located directly in front of the left-hand group of high-rise apartment blocks in the distance:

A short distance further on:

The next view, looking south, shows what is now known as San Wai Camp (nearer the camera) and San Wai Barracks (further away) but in British times was known as Gallipoli Lines:

Why the British chose to name one of their army bases in Hong Kong after one of the worst military disasters in their history is yet another mystery.

Finally, this is a view of the descent to ground level towards the end of the road:

The horizontal line that you can see in the distance is Heung Yuen Wai Highway, which emanates directly from China and was built in the past few years. It includes a long tunnel underneath Lung Shan. It is with some regret that I didn’t cycle along it after it was completed but before it was opened—something that I obviously cannot do now, although it currently carries very little traffic because of the present border closure.

The Wa Shan Military Road is discussed on several websites, where it’s often referred to as a second ‘Great Wall of China’. You can see that it’s vaguely reminiscent of that well-known edifice, but the road reminds me of the sinuosity of a Chinese dragon, which is totally unlike the representations of dragons in European heraldry. Hence the title of this post.