Golden Hill Country Park or Kam Shan Country Park (), also known in Hong Kong as Monkey Hill (), established on 24 June 1977, is a

country park A country park is a natural area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment. United Kingdom History In the United Kingdom, the term ''country park'' has a special meaning. There are around 250 recognised cou ...

located in the ranges north of

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...

, Hong Kong. It covers an area of . Most of the area is covered by the

Kowloon Group of Reservoirs The Kowloon Group of Reservoirs is located in the Kam Shan Country Park, north of Kowloon, Hong Kong. They include: * Kowloon Reservoir * Kowloon Byewash Reservoir * Kowloon Reception Reservoir (Eption Reservoir) Also located in the Kam Shan ...

. Inside the park, there are jogging trails, barbecue and picnic areas, which are easily accessible from

Tai Po Road Tai Po Road is the second longest road in Hong Kong (after Castle Peak Road). It spans from Sham Shui Po in Kowloon to Tai Po in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Initially, the road was named Frontier Road. Location The road begins at Nathan ...

(Piper's Hill) via waterworks access roads. The park takes its name from the peak, Golden Hill or Kam Shan (), which is the highest feature in the area. Panoramic views can be enjoyed from the slopes of Golden Hill and several places along the western ridge at the park. From these vantage points, the whole length of Smuggler's Ridge,

Tai Mo Shan Tai Mo Shan is the highest peak in Hong Kong, with an elevation of . It is located at approximately the geographical centre of the New Territories. The Tai Mo Shan Country Park covers an area of around Tai Mo Shan. It is located to the n ...

(the highest peak in Hong Kong), Needle Hill,

Sha Tin New Town Sha Tin New Town, or known as Sha Tin-Ma On Shan New Town or Sha Tin Town is one of the satellite towns and new towns of Hong Kong. It is within the Sha Tin District, the New Territories. The New Town covers the neighbourhoods such as Sha Tin, ...

Lion Rock Lion Rock, or less formally Lion Rock Hill, is a mountain in Hong Kong. It is located in Sha Tin District, between Kowloon Tong of Kowloon and Tai Wai of the New Territories, and is high. The peak consists of granite covered sparsely by shr ...

and

Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to: Places Canada * Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood * Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia * Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan * Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec United ...

can be seen. The northern part of Kowloon, the western anchorage of the harbour,

Stonecutters Island Stonecutters Island or Ngong Shuen Chau is a former island in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Following land reclamation, it is now attached to the Kowloon Peninsula. Fauna The island once boasted at least three mating pairs of sulphur-crested co ...

, the housing estates of

Kwai Chung Kwai Chung is an urban area within Tsuen Wan New Town in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Together with Tsing Yi Island, it is part of the Kwai Tsing District District of Hong Kong. It is also part of Tsuen Wan New Town. In 2000, it had a p ...

, the

container port A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

, the industrial parts of Tsing Yi Island and the town of

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a town built on a bay in the western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite of Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market town of Tsuen Wan emerged from the surrounding villages and fl ...

can also be viewed from here. The park is famous for its conservations of macaque monkeys.

Attractions

Geology

An area of granite of the Upper

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

period (formed between 130 million and 160 million years ago), the rocks are well exposed in road cuttings inside the park.

Animals

Kam Shan, or Monkey Hill to most locals, is a famous

macaques The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and (in one instance) Gibraltar. Macaques are principal ...

kingdom in Hong Kong. The macaques are the largest group of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...

s in the park. The most significant

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

occurring here are

rhesus macaque The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies that are split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally ...

(''Macaca mulatta'') and long-tailed macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''). These monkeys are probably descendants of monkeys released by pet owners in the 1920s, whereas wild macaque groups native to Hong Kong have almost disappeared due to habitat destruction and over-hunting. Apart from monkeys, this Country Park is also a shelter of

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. ...

s and many

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

species. There are about 2,100 wild monkeys in Hong Kong, about 1,800 of them in Kam Shan country park. The park also provide habitat for forest animals found in few other parts of Hong Kong. Among these are protected species like the

crested goshawk The crested goshawk (''Accipiter trivirgatus'') is a bird of prey from tropical Asia. It is related to other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards (or buteos) and harriers, and thus placed in the family Accipitridae.Grimmett ''et al.'' (1999) ...

(''Accipiter trivirgatus''). Other birds found in the park include the black-eared kite (''Milvus migrans lineatus''), house swift (''Apus (affinis) nipalensis''), greater coucal (''Centropus s.sinensis''),

common kingfisher The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of ...

(''Alcedo atthis''), rufous-backed shrike (''Lanius schach'') and

common tailorbird The common tailorbird (''Orthotomus sutorius'') is a songbird found across tropical Asia. Popular for its nest made of leaves "sewn" together and immortalized by Rudyard Kipling as ''Darzee'' in his ''Jungle Book'', it is a common resident in urb ...

(''Orthotomus sutorius'').

Flowers

Since the 1950s, exotic flora species have been progressively introduced to Kam Shan Country Park. These exotic species includes Brisbane box (''

Lophostemon confertus ''Lophostemon confertus'' (syn. ''Tristania conferta''), is an evergreen tree native to Australia, though it is cultivated in the United States and elsewhere. Common names include brush box, Queensland box, Brisbane box, pink box, box scrub, and ...

'') and

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as ...

species from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, and the charming paper-bark tree (''

Melaleuca quinquenervia ''Melaleuca quinquenervia'', commonly known as the broad-leaved paperbark, paper bark tea tree, punk tree or niaouli, is a small- to medium-sized tree of the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. It grows as a spreading tree up to tall, with its trunk co ...

''). The Country Park is very rich in flora, with a great diversity of native and exotic species. Melastoma species, rose myrtle (''

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa ''Rhodomyrtus tomentosa'' also known as rose myrtle, is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to southern and southeastern Asia, from India, east to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines, and south to Malaysia a ...

''), acronychia (''

Acronychia pedunculata ''Acronychia pedunculata'' is a large shrub or small tree of the understory, gaps and fringes of low country and lower hill tropical forests of tropical Asia. Description Leaves: elliptic to suboblong, often with tapered base. Twigs more or l ...

''), Hong Kong gordonia ('' Gordonia axillaris''), fragrant litsea ('' Litsea cubeba''), red machilus (''

Machilus thunbergii ''Machilus thunbergii'' (syn. ''Persea thunbergii''), the Japanese bay tree, red machilus, or tabunoki, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the family Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true l ...

''), pop-gun seed ('' Bridelia tomentosa'') and ivy tree ('' Schefflera heptaphylla''), and the ram-rod bamboo ('' Arundinaria hindsii'') are the common varieties in the Country Park.

Monkey killings

According to park wardens, since 2006 about 38 animal traps have been found in the park. An animal rights volunteer group was formed in 2007 when people discovered illegal hunting activities in the park. Dead monkeys wounded with sharp objects have been found in the park since 2007. On 3 March 2009 a dead monkey was found with a loop trap around its leg with body stab wounds. According to rights group, 300 wild monkeys were slaughtered for

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

in May 2009. A man also used a

BB gun A BB gun is a type of air gun designed to shoot metallic spherical projectiles called BBs (not to be confused with similar-looking bearing balls), which are approximately the same size as BB-size lead birdshot used on shotguns ( in diamete ...

to shoot the monkeys and shot one of the volunteers. Police arrived at the scene, Food and health chief York Chow Yat-ngok said he stepped up patrols to clear traps. Kwan Chi-yee, president of the Hong Kong Chinese Herbalists Association, issued a warning against eating monkey meat, saying "their meat can contain unknown

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

es. It's a myth that it's nutritious." Under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, anyone hunting or willingly disturbing wild animals is liable to a fine of and one year in jail.

References