A river runs through Sha Tin

One of the most famous paintings in China is Along the River During Qingming Festival, a five-metre-long, thousand-year-old scroll that details a bustling scene around an elegantly curved stone bridge. It sometimes seems like Hong Kong has its very own, real-life version of the painting.

Walk along the Shing Mun River and you’ll come across cyclists, joggers, musicians, fishermen, elderly people practicing tai chi and rowers passing by in the tranquil waters. There’s even a picturesque arched bridge, the Lek Yuen Bridge, where neighbours bump into each other and couples stroll hand in hand.

This is the watery spine of Sha Tin District, running seven kilometres from Tai Wai to Ma On Shan, beyond which is the azure expanse of Tolo Harbour. And while there are shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and nine different MTR stations just a short walk from the river’s promenades, spending time along the river feels like escaping the city without leaving it.

Interior designer Keith Chan has spent nearly his entire life near the river. “I learned how to ride a bike near the river when I was five,” he says. “When I started to date girls, we cycled along the river. And when I was getting fat after 30 years old, I cycled after work.”

It wasn’t always possible to row on the Shing Mun River. Until the 1970s, it was just a shallow stream that flowed from Needle Hill to a shallow bay known as Tide Cove in English and Sha Tin Hoi in Cantonese. Faced with a growing population, the Hong Kong government decided to fill in Tide Cove in order to create the Sha Tin New Town. Depending on your perspective, the cove was either reduced to a long, straight channel, or the Shing Mun River was extended even further out to sea.

There weren’t many controls on pollution in those days, so as Sha Tin developed, the river became notorious for its vile odour and murky water. Rowers were afraid of falling ill from water splashing up into the boats. Luckily, sewerage works over the course of the 1990s dealt with the problem.

You can now spend a pleasant afternoon hopping between all the green spaces along the river. In Sha Tin Central Park, you’ll find a waterfall, gardens, an amphitheatre often used for community performances and a riverside plaza popular with street musicians. Yuen Chau Kok Park is built around a hill that offers a modest hike for those pressed for time or intimidated by the mountains. Penfold Park features a huge lawn in the middle of the Jockey Club’s Sha Tin Racecourse, which hosted equestrian events during the 2008 Olympics.

If you keep heading along the river to where it spills into Tolo Harbour, a broad promenade on the eastern shore will take you all the way to To Tau Wan Village, a low-key destination where you can barbecue on the beach and watch the sun set over the Shing Mun River in the distance.