"The banks of this 7km-long Shing Mun River (城門河) running from Tai Wai (大圍) through downtown Sha Tin (沙田) to end in Tolo Harbour (吐露港) are pleasant for a stroll or jog in the morning or evening when it's cool. You'll see egrets (白鷺) roosting or catching fish in the quieter sections. The government uses African carp (非洲鯉魚), a fish with high toxicity tolerance, to monitor the level of water pollution. The river is a major racing venue during the Dragonboat Festival (端午節). The original Shing Mun River began at Needle Hill (針山), and flowed into the former Tide Cove (潮水灣) (Sha Tin Hoi) (沙田海), a shallow bay. In the 1970s, Tide Cove was reclaimed and turned to Sha Tin New Town. The river was extended through a 7 km long, 200 m wide artificial channel in the middle of the area to flow into Tolo Harbour.
The upper reaches of Shing Mun River were originally Shing Mun Gorge (城門峽谷). Before the construction of Shing Mun Reservoir (城門水塘), natural mountain waters and streams from Kam Shan (金山), Ma Chi Keng (孖指徑) and Needle Hill (針山) flowed into the gorge along the mountain, converged into a river, and flowed to the alluvial mud near the river mouth, and then flowed into Sha Tin Sea. The estuary of the former Shing Mun River was approximately near today's Tai Wai (大圍). In the early years, Shatin Bay was also known as Tidewater Bay. It was a narrow bay shaped like a trumpet, connecting to Tolo Harbour. When the tide rose, sea water would flow into Shatin Bay. Tai Wai used to be a low-lying muddy area at the mouth of the Shing Mun River, which was often flooded due to heavy rain or tides.
The Hong Kong Government built the Upper Shing Mun Reservoir (上城門水塘) in 1937. The reservoir has a number of water diversion channels that bring water from Tai Mo Shan (大帽山), Needle Hill and Lead Mine Au (鉛礦坳) to the reservoir. Whenever the Shing Mun Reservoir overflows, the water in the reservoir will be discharged into the Shing Mun River and then flow out to Shatin Sea. As Hong Kong's population has increased significantly since the late 1940s, water resources have become extremely scarce. In order to accommodate the huge Plover Cove freshwater reservoir (船灣淡水湖工程) project, the Hong Kong government built the Lower Shing Mun Reservoir (下城門水塘) in the 1960s. In addition to regulating the flow of water to the Sha Tin Water Treatment Works, when the Upper Shing Mun Reservoir overflows, the overflowing water can be transferred to the Lower Shing Mun Reservoir through the Shing Mun Gap for collection, thus reducing the waste of fresh water that used to flow into Sha Tin Sea through the Shing Mun River. After the construction of the Lower Shing Mun Reservoir, the natural river channel of Shing Mun River was not only greatly shortened, but the flow also further decreased and has almost disappeared. In the early years, the end of Shing Mun River was near the present-day Lion Bridge (獅子橋), and the river mouth was Shatin Sea surrounded by mountains on both sides. At that time, the area east of the British section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (九廣鐵路英段) was already the coast, and Fo Tan (火炭) and Siu Lek Yuen (小瀝源) were small coastal villages, while Yuen Chau Kok (圓洲角) was a small island in the middle of the sea of Shatin. Later, due to multiple reclamation projects, most of Shatin Shing was filled up, leaving only a waterway extending to the Tai Shui Hang (大水坑), forming the current nearly straight Shing Mun River artificial river. Since the construction of the Lower Shing Mun Reservoir, the Shing Mun River in Tai Wai has been almost dry due to a lack of fresh water flowing into the Shing Mun River. As for the river from Sha Tin to Tai Shui Hang, the water in this part of the river is not fresh water, but sea water like the Sha Tin Sea in the past, because of the influx of seawater from Tolo Harbour."

Doug Ho

"No one should be surprised of the many species of birds that can be spotted along the Shing Mun River."

R Leung

"Good for strolling, jogging and cycling.."

Tika Rawuri