Christmas Eve 2024 saw Lillian and I back in Hong Kong to visit her family and celebrate her father’s 80th birthday. It is often a challenge to fit in outdoor activities around pre-arranged lunches and dinners, but the thing I love about Hong Kong is that it is relatively quick to get into the countryside, even when you are living right in the middle of Kowloon like we were. This was our 8th visit to Hong Kong since I started writing this blog. What follows is more photos and information on walks, runs and bike rides in the territory.
Christmas morning dawned with us both still feeling jetlagged so we went for a run around the King George the Fifth (KGV) cross country running loop. This was Lillian’s secondary school and, not for the first time, the video I posted on Strava of us climbing the steps section of the circuit elicited PTSD-related comments from her old classmates. Being in the middle of a big city, the steps are the most cross country like part of course. They hurt and anyone who has run up them every week is never going to forget them.
There is also a 300m running track and a reasonably steep hill close to Lillian’s parents’ apartment. Both were good for intervals to keep some speed in our legs after longer plodding runs. They also helped to burn off calories. We were eating out a lot and, tasty as Cantonese food is, I didn’t realise until Lillian pointed it out how oily it is. Even the healthy stuff like vegetables.
Hong Kong Trail
On Boxing Day, I joined a friend Sam – one of Lillian’s brother’s classmates from KGV, now living in the UK – for a run along the first four stages of the Hong Kong Trail. This is so accessible. It starts from The Peak, which I reached with a 15 minute bus ride from Admiralty MTR station.
I was early so I had a coffee at % Arabica which was to become my favourite HK coffee chain.
As posted in Outdoor Hong Kong (Part 6) the first one or two stages of the Hong Kong Trail are really worth doing as they have spectacular views over the high-rise office and tower blocks of Central (pictured below) and Aberdeen.
Stages 3 and 4 wend their way through forest – at times it’s hard to believe that one is within a few kilometres of a metropolis – and are mainly on flat trails contouring around the hillside. This makes them ideal for running.
We finished at Wong Nai Chung Gap which is one of the two points where there is a road over the hills from the north to south side of Hong Kong Island. The only place where one can buy food and drink is a petrol station where we treated ourselves to some red bean popsicles (红豆冰棍). The picture below shows me, Adrian, Michelle and Sam.
At that point we had run 23km but were only half way along the Hong Kong Trail. Michelle and Adrian continued, and managed to completed it as planned. Sam and I called time and I caught the bus to Stanley – on the south side of Hong Kong Island – to meet Lillian for lunch.
The two of us then walked back to Wong Nai Chung Gap over the Twins and Violet Hill. Although only 6km in length the route had 700m of vertical ascent in it so it was an excellent workout for the legs. The walk (Stage 1 of the Wilson Trail), started with a punch as you climb a steep path and concrete steps above Stanley (pictured below).
After a sweaty climb to the top of Violet Hill – it’s hot in the sun in Hong Kong even in the winter – the path descends to the Parkview apartment complex.
From there was a short walk back to the petrol station and more red bean popsicles.
Lion Rock by Unicorn Ridge
A couple of days later, Lillian and I had a free morning and decided to tackle one of the favourite local hikes, Lion Rock. It was only a c.80 HKD taxi ride to the start of our chosen climb up Lion Rock, Unicorn Ridge. Although there is a clear path up the ridge is not one of the official trails and is protected by some fearful sounding warning signs. We’ve covered it in the first of the Outdoor Hong Kong series. On this morning it was very windy on the ridge. So much so that we had second thoughts about continuing.
The trail starts from just above a temple on Shatin Pass Road (沙田坳道).
A concrete path peters out and you have to be guided by your intuition to find the path on the ridge. This time we traversed a bit too far around the ridge and ended up in some huts in the forest.
We made our way back to the ridge where we found the path marked with pink arrows like the one shown below.
Once on the ridge proper there are some cool views of Kowloon. The mountain with the aerial is Kowloon Peak, and you can see the runway of the old airport at Kai Tak, which is only now being redeveloped (it closed in 1998).
Strangely, once on the top of Lion Rock the wind died down and we were able to enjoy our Oreos in relative calm.
Lion Rock is so spectacular that I never tire of climbing to the top and taking photos.
After Lion Rock we continued along Maclehose Trail (Stage 5) over Beacon Hill. At the Tai Po Road it was a 10 minute bus ride back to Mong Kok (Kowloon). So convenient!
One thing that we noticed was an absence of monkeys. Over the last few decades these have spread from Monkey Hill (on the other ride of Tai Po Road) past Beacon Hill to Lion Rock. The explanation probably lies in this cage that we passed near Beacon Hill. It says it’s for a contraception trial, but I am not sure I believe that and fear that most of the monkeys have gone to monkey-heaven.
Lantau Mountain Biking
In the last couple of trips that we’ve make to Hong Kong, I’ve rented a mountain bike from the Friendly Bicycle shop in Mui Wo (Silvermine Bay). Lillian was just 40km short of riding 12,000km in 2024 so I persuaded her to join me this time. It was easy to arrange the rental the day before with a WhatsApp to the bike shop and they supplied us with Merida full suspension enduro bikes. These were of good quality for rental bikes. However, for what we ended up doing we were definitely over-biked and, given that they weighed about 15kg each, over-burdened.
After picking up our bikes, we took them for a test ride through Mui Wo.
Mui Wo still has a laid-back vibe which is a refreshing contrast to Hong Kong Island.
Whilst there is decent mountain-biking on Lantau most of it is quite technical. That only left us one option, which was the easiest of Lantau’s three official mountain-biking trails.
I describe this in this post. Whilst it is classified as a mountain-biking trail it follows a catchment channel and one could ride along it on a road-bike. However, being about 100m above the coast it offers good views and there are no cars or buses.
Unfortunately to get there required us to ride over the pass leaving Mui Wo which is a tough climb on our heavy bikes.
We celebrated with a pineapple bun (菠蘿包), one of the snacks that we’d bought in the Village Bakery in Mui Wo.
From there we continued along the coast road. HK roads are very narrow with no hard shoulder so I found this sections of the ride slightly nerve-wracking. However, there are not that many cars on Lantau and no-one close-passed us. That being said, I was still relieved when we ascended the old road to Tung Chung (now closed to traffic) and reached the catchment channel. That was cause for more celebration so we ate the remainder of our haul from the Village Bakery.
We turned at the end of the catchment channel and retraced our steps.
In the direction of our return ride, the catchment channel gets smaller with each passing kilometre until it is eventually nothing more than a small concreted ditch where the official mountain-bike trail ended.
From there the only way onward was to follow a walking path. By coincidence it was almost the same ride as the one I had taken Lillian on 30 years previously! Back then we both had borrowed equally heavy mountain bikes. I guess that shows that the riding alternatives, and our decision making, have not changed much. The route involved carry the bikes down steep rocky steps to Pui O. This time I carried Lillian’s bike down. I can’t remember, but I hope I did the same on that early date. I guess I must have done or she would have dumped me!
Our last stop before the climb back over to Mui Wo was a diversion through Pui O which still has some rural charm, with water buffalo grazing in the fields.
We finished by swooping back down the road into Mui Wo. Our ride was 42km in total. Lillian had needed to ride another 40km to reach her 2024 Strava target. Job done.
The following day we travelled to Zhongshan in China for a family day trip and then Lillian and I went to Xiamen for two nights. You can read about that trip and some handy tips for travelling in China here.
Lantau Peak – Sunset Peak – Discovery Bay Link-up
When we returned to Hong Kong we only had one full day remaining. Lillian wanted to spend it with her family so I had the opportunity for a final epic walk/trail run. I returned to Lantau and started from the far point of Lillian and my bike ride. A small path climbs a spectacular ridge up to the summit of Lantau Peak from the south. From there I followed the main Lantau Trail over neighbouring Sunset Peak to Mui Wo and then the path from Mui Wo to Discovery Bay.
You can see both Lillian and my cycling route and my trail run on this Strava heatmap.
The views from the initial ridge were stunning, although it was as windy as it had been on Unicorn Ridge a few days earlier. I became a little bit carried away with taking photos but hopefully you’ll see why when you look at them.
The path follows the skyline of the ridge on the right hand side of the highest peak in the photo below, which is Lantau Peak. This picture was taken at the dam of the Shek Pip Reservoir where the bus from Tung Chung dropped me off.
There is a good path that starts at a bridge over the same catchment channel that Lillian and I had ridden beside a few days previously. The path up the ridge branches off about 1km up it. This is clearly marked by a Danger sign.
Once on the ridge there are lots of sub-peaks with some steep ups and downs. This photo is taken on the first peaklet.
There were even sections where you had to use your hands.
This photo shows the bottom section of the ridge and my starting point at the dam. The complex of white buildings below the dam is the Sha Tsui Detention Centre.
There are a few more rocky sections on the ridge. Sunset Peak, which I was to head to after reaching the summit of Lantau Peak, is in the background in the photo below.
The next photos shows the ridge stretching into the distance behind me. The howling wind gave my hair nice blow dry.
I found a spot out of the wind to eat my lunch of a Pret mince pie (I’ve missed those in New Zealand) and a mini sausage bun (a Hong Kong classic from a bakery in Kowloon).
I joined the main path up Lantau Peak a few hundred metres below the summit and followed it to the top. In the background of the photo below you can see the expressway entering one of the tunnels on its way to Macau and Zhuhai. This road opened in 2018 and covers the 55 kilometres across the Pearl River Delta via a series of impressive bridges and tunnels.
I followed the Lantau Trail and just over an hour later I was on the summit of Sunset Peak. From there my next stop was Mui Wo which is out of sight behind the mountains in the foreground.
As mentioned above, Lantau still has a rural feel too it. This picture was taken in Mui Wo looking back towards one of Sunset Peak’s smaller neighbours. However, I noticed that a couple of high rise apartment blocks had sprouted nearer the centre of Mui Wo so it may not be long until it starts looking like the rest of Hong Kong.
I replenished my supplies and energy at our favourite Village Bakery before taking the path to Discovery Bay. It started with a very sweaty climb over a hill before descending to a Trappist Monastery.
The monastery is nestled in a tranquil forest above the ocean.
From the monastery the path follows the coast. It passes through a few small villages as it approaches Discovery Bay. These were less bustling than when I was last there, but were inhabited with the smallholdings still being farmed.
When I reached Discovery Bay I still had a mince pie from the Village Bakery left in my bag and I treated myself to a Hong Kong classic post-run beverage, a can of Carlsberg. The route was 25km in distance with 1900m of vertical ascent. Elapsed time was 6 hours with around 5 hours moving time.
And with that it was time to raise a toast to Hong Kong’s national parks. On this trip we never had the chance to do any walks in the New Territories beyond Kowloon or in the beautiful Sai Kung Country Park. So many possibilities. Until next time…
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