Hiking in Hong Kong with A Camera
If you go to Hong Kong for a short visit, you might not have a chance or appetite for a hike in the hot and humid weather that Hong Kong is notorious for. But Hong Kong has a great deal to offer in the hiking department. In fact, Hong Kong might just have one of the best offerings when it comes to hiking trails. I don’t mean that Hong Kong has the best views from hiking trails or the most challenging mountains, but if you do know where to go and when, you could get some gorgeous views and a decent workout. I mean when it comes to urban integration(I just invented the term,) Hong Kong trails are hard to beat. They are easy to get to, comprised of a good variety of difficulty levels, and mostly well built, marked and maintained. If you get off work at six in Central-the beating heart of Hong Kong- you can get changed, go on a 10km hike from your office, grab dinner and a drink by the sea, and get home by nine, if you hike fast enough. I used to go post-working hiking with my wife and friends all the time, and it’s one of the things I miss the most about Hong Kong.
A little loosely researched history about Hong Kong’s country parks and hiking trails. Murray MacLehose, Hong Kong’s 25th governor under the British rule was a big fan of the great outdoors. He was the one who created country parks in Hong Kong. Over the years, four main hiking trails have been built: Hong Kong Island Trail(50km), Wilson Trail(78km), MacLehose Trail(100km), and Lantau Trail(70km). And there are plenty more smaller trails scattered around. There are many trail running races in Hong Kong. My favourite one is the MoonTrekker, a night race on the Lantau Trail, including the Lantau Peak, second highest mountain in Hong Kong at 938m. If you really love challenges or just really hate yourself, there’s the Four Trail Ultra Challenge, where you hike all four main trails totally 298km in one go. You need your own supply team, and transportation between trails. The finisher cutoff time is 60 hours. I get tired just writing these sentences.
Back to my photos today. The trail for this post is on Lantau Island. I am combining photos from two of my last hikes in Hong Kong, a) because they are in the same area, and can be hiked in one go; b) I shot them on the same film HP5 at ISO1600.
Hike one started from downtown Tung Chung, and followed the cable car trail to the Big Buddha. Then we took the cable car back down. Hike two was a loop near the Big Buddha. It’ll make sense if you know the area, trust me. Not that you have a choice, but you should. Here are some photos.
The first hike was not an easy one. It was mostly uphill, but it wasn’t bad either. Some the cable cars have glass floors, and you can wave at the lazy people looking down from their air conditioned mobile palaces.
The last apartment I lived in in Hong Kong is in one of those buildings closer to the bridge.
I like the pattern of these towers.
I was hiking with a friend’s family who were not used to this level of physical activity. I had to lie to them about the total number of towers we had to hike past. I told them there were four. Oooops! They forgave me on the cable car ride down, so it was all good.
Below the cable car, part of the bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and China’s Zhuhai can be seen snaking into the sea. It was the entrance to the underwater tunnel. The bridge cost tens of billions to build, and upon completion, it was almost immediately shut down due to COVID19 travel restrictions. A spectacular waste of money.
Hiking around Lantau, you see many cows and buffaloes wandering around. Locals told me when people on the island got richer, they abandoned their cows and just let them roam the island. Decades later, they are still here. Once I was hiking by myself when I came upon a giant buffalo standing in the middle of the trail. The encounter gave me new appreciation of vegetarianism.
That’s it for today. Thank you for coming on this long hike with me. Come back soon for a bootleg post of more photos from the hikes.
Really like 'The Tower Ahead' photograph. Nicely done and great context.
'A lone cable car' is my favorite. Makes me feel nostalgic. Beautiful photo! 🚡🌁