My Christmas Day - Biking to Ping Che (坪輋)

The last month or two I haven't had a chance to go biking as much as I'd like to (especially now that the weather is cooler, I should be going more, not less). 

Last weekend I rode from Taipo to Fanling and left my bike there. Since I had the day off on Christmas Day I went up to go riding again. 

This time I decided to try a ride I had been thinking about for a while:  Going to the village of Ping Che (坪輋) and then coming back along the border area to Man Kam To.

I've been to this area before,  when I took my infamous 'hills of death' biking adventure last summer...  But the difference is instead of going up the hills, I would try the low road on the way back,  in the space between the hills and the China border.    The plan was to go through to Man Kam To road and return to Sheung Shui station where I'd leave my bike.

Something like that... except none of the maps exactly showed the roads... and then there was that pesky 'closed area' near the border.  Would I be able to even ride over there?  Never one to over prepare,  I just checked google maps' satellite photos to make sure there were roads and buildings along the way, and i just assumed I could figure it out...

After only about 30 minutes of riding I got to Ping Che and then tried to find the road west to head back.   I started seeing high rise towers in the distance and I knew I was getting close to the border, and low and behold there was a checkpoint:

oops!  no entry without a local residency permit.  Which means I can't go this way any further.  I backtracked a bit and found a narrow road that looked like it went somewhere... I double checked google maps via my iphone and decided to try my luck (worst case I just turn around and go back the way I came).

One thing I enjoy about these random rides around the NT that I take is you find out all kinds of random stuff... like where all the junkyards in HK are...  in this case I found out there are tons of flower nurseries up around these parts... oh and a few farms, a go-cart racing track and at least one giant smelly pig farm...  (really smelly).

I stopped to take a pic of one of the less exciting views:

The 'Hills of Death'  trail is on top of that ridge line... its much easier on this side, but the scenery is not as good. 

I got a bit lost and had to make a few u-turns and a few stops to check google maps (thank god for my GPS enabled phone... and HK's ubiquitous 3G coverage!)      I actually got some use out of my mountain bike's suspension and tires... the road deteriorated to a muddy dirt road in a few spots... 

Eventually I made it far enough that there were signs leading to civilization again:

ok, not exactly a high class sign, but it serves its purpose.  

It was a good ride, not very far but because of the hills and dirt roads, it was still a good workout.  Maybe next time I'll try it from the reverse direction. 

Oh, one bonus pic -   On my way out of Fanling I stopped in Luen Wo to buy some Gatorade.  On my way I stopped when I saw an empty building... it is the old closed down Luen Wo Market:

Recognize this building?  For whatever reason I INSTANTLYrecognized where I had seen it before...   it was in the Eason Chan / Miriam Yueng film ' Hooked On You'  ( 每當變幻時 -which I saw on the plane a year or two ago I think... but at the time I didn't realize that Charmaine Fong was in it!). 

Here's the movie poster:

Also someone put a picture of the fake version of the facade used in the movie here.