Hong Kong offers a ton of great hiking. The terrain is very steep and covered with thick forests wherever it isn’t covered in huge metropolis, and there is a lot of land reserved for parks. We had two days of hiking, one on Hong Kong island itself, above the city, and another on Lamma, one of the outlying islands. There is a lot of space in the New Territories and Lantau Island, as well, and from what we saw the paths are very well maintained and marked.
We hiked up from Quarry Bay into the hills just behind downtown Hong Kong, above a reservoir and past several great views of the city and the surrounding topography. Hong Kong seems always to be a little grey and foggy, but I think the air may be smoggy a lot of the time, as well. We never did make it up to “the peak,” the touristy mountaintop right behind the central business district, but I am not sure that there was a truly clear day while we were there, anyway, and I think the views we got on this hike were just as good.
On another day, we took a ferry to Lamma Island, south of Hong Kong, and hiked around the northern half of the island. The only car-road on Lamma goes from the power plant across the island and is called simply “power plant road.” We walked on it for an hour or so, and it was clear that it was rarely if ever used for car traffic. The rest of the residents of the island walk on footpaths, or use bicycles. It was a different world than the city, and yet they were only a 25 minute ferry ride from Central in Hong Kong.
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