Shing Mun River

Shing Mun River
Lek Yuen Bridge and housing estates along the river
Basin
River mouth	Tide Cove
Physical characteristics
Length	7 km (4.3 mi)

Shing Mun River or Shing Mun Channel (Chinese: 城門河) is a river in Sha Tin, Hong Kong.

The original Shing Mun River began at Needle Hill, and flowed into the former Tide Cove (Sha Tin Hoi), a shallow bay. In the 1970s, Tide Cove was drained 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. Other rivers that had originally flowed into Tide Cove are now tributaries of Shing Mun River or one of its nullahs.

The Shing Mun River channel runs from the Tai Wai area, through the Sha Tin town centre to the Tolo Harbour. It has three main tributaries, namely Tai Wai Nullah, Fo Tan Nullah and Siu Lek Yuen Nullah. Along the Shing Mun River are high-rise residential, commercial and industrial buildings with numerous village type developments scattered around. Several bridges were built to connect the two sides of the Shing Mun River.

There are several major bridges across the Shing Mun River:

The Shing Mun River was once heavily polluted from the indiscriminate discharges from livestock, industrial, commercial and domestic sources. The total organic pollution load from these discharges amount to a population equivalent of 160,000 in the 1980s. At that time, hardly any living creatures were found in the river.

The water quality of Shing Mun River has improved from bad to good in terms of the Water Quality Index since 1993. Lifeforms including fish and invertebrates have also reappeared in the river. In 2001 bioremediation and dredging works began to further improve the river environment. Levels of odour-causing sulphides and E. coli subsequently dropped sharply. But the water quality is still threatened by the polluted condition of Tolo Harbour, which backflows into the Shing Mun River during high tide, causing contamination.