The short Ping Shan Heritage Trail doesn’t have the wow factor of Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail's walled villages, but the landscape here is more rural, making for a prettier escape.

At only 1 mile/1.6km in length, it can easily be covered in less than an hour. Yet it covers a wealth of traditional Chinese structures along the way, most relating to the Tang clan, one of the Five Great Clans of the New Territories. They settled in the Ping Shan area 800 years ago.

You’ll learn more about the Tang clan at the Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery, housed in the Old Ping Shan Police Station built in 1899. This visitor’s center introduces local folk culture and customs and displays various relics belonging to the Tang clan, including furniture, a wedding dress, and old photographs.

Other highlights are temples, study halls used by members of the Tang clan wishing to pass the Imperial Civil Service Examination, a three-story pagoda built more than 600 years ago, and the 700-year-old Tang Ancestral Hall. Unfortunately, modern architecture has encroached on what was once an out-of-the-way village, but that’s just the way Hong Kong is.