10 Places You Didn’t Know About in Hong Kong - #10 Amah Rock

Taking snaps of rock formations might sound about as interesting as cleaning the lint out from your tumble dryer, but Hong Kong does boast some jaw dropping natural rock shapes. The most famous is Amah Rock, a 15m high formation that looks like a woman bearing a child.

Known as Mong Fu Shek in Chinese, which translates as the somewhat unromantic “rock gazing out for husband”, legend has it that the stone is that of a wife who scrambled through the forest and up the hills of Sha Tin each day trying to watch for the return of her Fisherman husband, not knowing he had drowned at sea. To reward the wife’s loyalty, the Goddess of the Sea struck the women in stone allowing her spirit to join her husbands and leaving her statue to watch over the bay’s fishermen. It’s also Hong Kong’s only entry for the New Seven Wonders of the World competition and while it’s hardly a match for Mount Everest or Wadi Rum, also listed in the competition, it is an impressive sight.

The rock is well placed along a number of hiking trails and offers breathtaking views over both Sha Tin and the South China Sea. Amah Rock is in Lion Rock Country Park, another famous rock formation, and the Park management has some suggestions on hikes and transport to see both the rock and the region.