You want to try the very traditional Dim Sum restaurants in Hong Kong? Here’s the place that you definitely should not miss out.
Chuen Lung is a small settlement at the mountainside of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest mountain (957 meter). It has two traditional restaurants, where you have to help yourself cleaning the cups and bowls, setting the table and ordering and bringing the food and dim sum you want from the kitchen. They are probably the only restaurants in Hong Kong still operating this way.
The restaurants’ vegetable dishes are particularly good as the vegetables come from the fields in Chuen Lung. Their bean curd pudding dishes are also famous.
You can sit outdoor in the restaurants, enjoying the sun and the countryside air. That is one reason people like going to Chuen Lung for Yum Cha. But some people may not like it as they may find the restaurants a bit dirty. But I personally like the experience. Going to their kitchen and ordering the food you want are just awesome. Even more awesome is that you can Yum Cha in the countryside.
After Yum Cha, you can walk up the mountain to the top of Tai Mo Shan for an amazing bird’s eye view of the city. Or you cross the second restaurant (called Duan Kei) and follow a path passing by the fields, leading to a track along a long drainage channel. Follow the sign pointing to Shing Mun Reservoir and Lung Mun Country Trail. After about 1.5-2 hours of walk, you will come to the Shing Mun Management Centre, where you can take mini bus No.82 to Tsuen Wan, or continue walking to the Reservoir.
How to get to Chuen Lung:
Take mini bus No 80 (less than HK$5) at Chuen Long Street, near the Tsuen Wan MTR station. The final stop of the bus is Chuen Long. Where the mini bus stops, you will see the first restaurant (Choi Long, meaning colorful dragon) right away.
6 replies on “Yum Cha in the countryside”
How interesting!
I am in HK visiting friends, I’m from California. My first night in town we met for dinner at Yum Cha in Central, very modern dim sum, and very good. Yesterday they took me to Cheun Lung for dim sum, after we climbed the mountain.
So I guess I’ve been fortunate to experience both city and country yum cha!
Regards,
Jim
Hi,
How do i board bus 80 from Tsuen Wan MTR?
Eric
Hi Anna
No, I am not interested in research on blog material, though I do research in a field as far away from yours as possible, I daresay. Like you, I globetrot, and am moved by simple scenes like your Marbella street corner (for me, it is the Pont des Arts looking at Ile de Cite; Stanley promenade having wine at dusk; the upper peak tram building’s coffee shop’s outdoor patio, in the rain watching the tram comes up beneath your feet; the bridges of Madison county). I do think there is a lot of common ground for fruitful discussions. Ho ma?
Hi Anna —
Like you, I’ve recently been to yum cha in Chuen Lung and wrote about the experience on my blog. And I’ve also hiked the Lung Mun Country Trail. *But* unlike you, I can’t do both in a single outing as usually after a dim sum lunch/brunch, all I want to do is go back to have a nap! :D
Hi Peter
Thank you for your interest in my blog. are u thinking to conduct research on blog material? what field are u in?
I write this blog with a clear audience in mind, ie those not knowing much about HK, or those travelling to HK. I see my blog as a bridge, but I don’t usually write as much as I want.
I don’t know, but If I am a hongkonger living abroad, I would feel sad coming back to HK and seeing all the changes the city has. Maybe because I live here.
Hi Anna
I like reading your blog, and it is the only one I bookmark & follow. Being a HK-er living abroad I visit HK often, and appreciate the changing character of HK. As an academic ideas for blog material interest me, and it might be fun and productive to discuss this further. Would you initiate dialog please? Thanks.