Sing Uk Tsuen to Long Ping with beautiful water hyacinth 盛屋村(鳳眼藍)至朗屏

I joined a few Facebook groups for baking and hiking. Once, I was attracted to the beautiful water hyacinth 鳳眼藍 (Eichhornia crassipes) typical at Shing Uk Tsuen 盛屋村. It is a village in Yuen Long 元朗 and is connected with mini-bus (mininus no. 74 from Fuk Hong Street). After getting off at the last minibus stop, descend further to fishing ponds and admire purple blue beds of water hyacinth. It's amazingly beautiful!

我在Facebook參加了烘焙和行山的群組，有一次我在一個行山的群組看見別人的分享。嘩！在元朗的盛屋村有很美麗的鳳眼藍，滿眼都是繽紛燦爛的一串串紫花，非常奪目。去元朗的盛屋村很簡單，只要在福康街乘搭74號小巴便可以了。在小巴總站下車後往池塘的方向向下走，就可以看到滿遍的鳳眼藍花海，驚艷動人，實在是太太太漂亮了！

A hiking path starts / finishes at Kai Shan 髻山, near Shing Uk Tsuen.  This hill is only 121m high. The hike is short, about 1.5 hours, but offers fantastic views of fishing ponds, the Wetland and so on.

盛屋村附近有一個髻山，只是高121米，由那裏開始可以有一個短程的行山，只需1.5小時便可以到達朗屏邨，途中有令人迷醉的漁塘、濕地等美景。

After the appreciation of the water hyacinth and the surrounding, go back to the main street and walk up a bit to reach blocks of villa. You will see a street leading up to private residences. Behind is a path leading up to Kai Shan 髻山.

在欣賞完鳳眼藍和周邊的美景之後，可以返回大街再往上走，見到一些別墅，在那裏你會見到一條小路到達私人屋苑，後邊就有一條小徑直達髻山。

Walk up the cement and continue the path to walk up continuously. At the beginning, you will see graves here and there.   大步跨過石屎的小斜坡，然後繼續沿小徑前行，稍後你會見到有一些墳墓。

Continue the ascending and look back after a short while, you will see numerous fishing ponds at Nan Sang Wai, making up gorgeous paintings.

繼續向上走一會兒，然後回頭，你會見到眼前南生圍一個又一個的魚塘，這些砌成了一幅又一幅美麗的圖畫。

At time of researching the hiking details about Kai Shan, most of the posts and web pages described the hiking trail from Long Ping Estate. Only one or two of them wrote on starting from Sing Uk Tsuen. I picked the latter and felt lucky of my choice as some parts of the path are very steep. The climbing up is a bit of effort but manageable. The climb down is much more difficult. Be aware of the sandy paths and loosen tiny stones all the way!

大部份的網頁在談及髻山的遠足時都介紹由朗屏村起步，只有一兩個網頁提議由盛屋村起步，我選了後者而且感覺很幸運，因為有一些路經是很陡峭的，向上行的確是有一點吃力，但是向下行的風險比較高，當你行走時，記住要小心沙和散石。

After passing through a few peaks and resting places, you will see blocks of the Long Ping Estate 朗屏邨. Descend to the street level and turn right. You will be back to the civilisation. Feel free to try different local food, look around. You can either take buses, light rail at the big main street or take MTR to leave Yuen Long.

在越過幾個山頭和休息的地方之後，你就會見到朗屏邨，在那裏徐徐落下便可到達平路，接着向右行，你便返回文明了。附近有很多不同的美食，也可以四周看看。你可以在大馬路乘搭巴士、輕鐵或者地鐵離開元朗。