Lion Rock
Lion Rock is a Hong Kong classic! The views from the rock (which actually looks like a lion when viewed from afar) span across Kowloon, the harbor, and Hong Kong island. The tricky part about hiking in Hong Kong is finding the perfect window to do it. The summer is excruciatingly hot and in the winter the pollution gets so bad that most views are completely obscured. We went up to Lion Rock in December and the visibility was awful. It was still a gorgeous and moderate hike!
The hike is easy to get to, we took the MTR to Wong Tai Sin and opted to take a cab to the trail head. Telling the driver Lion Rock was sufficient to get us to where we wanted to go! We got up to one point and thought we had reached the top, but don’t be fooled!! Keep moving upwards until there’s a ton of bare rock and 360 views.
Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls
This was one of my favourite hikes in Hong Kong. It was a bit difficult to get to (we took the MTR and something like two buses) but so worth the trek. The trail starts out in the countryside of Hong Kong and a path takes you through farms and an adorable village. I lost my phone while on exchange and I’m kicking myself for not backing up my photos. The views were amazing but I have very little proof of it.
Once getting past the village and farmland, you enter the jungle which is amazingly lush and secluded. There was a gorgeous arch and monastery on the path towards the waterfalls.
There were a few different waterfalls in the area. We went to the largest one where it took a bit of rock climbing to get to the base of the falls and a large pool deep enough for swimming.
Kowloon Peak
This hike is more commonly (and inappropriately) referred to as Suicide Cliff because of a precarious rock on the trail with a very steep drop. Seemed a bit dangerous to me. I opted to bypass the popular cliff and make my to the top of the peak for an equally amazing view.
The hike was easily reached from the MTR and one bus. We walked into a neighborhood and found the trail head and started a pretty steep climb up. The trail wasn’t very long, but there was a lot of elevation gain. Things also got a bit dicey after we made it above the tree line and we were making our way up a very steep and bare mountain face. We spotted the cliff easily thanks to all the people around but didn’t stay for very long.
We caught the sunset from the peak and could see both sides of the mountains. We were truly #blessed with an amazing sunset. The only downside was hiking back down in the dark.
Kam Shan Country Park
The main draw of Kam Shan Country Park is the monkeys. And there are a lot of them. Macaques everywhere. There is also no hiking required to see them. The second we got off the bus we saw some climbing over a bridge. We got to the path leading into the park and there were dozens hanging around waiting to be fed. I watched a local walk over to a group of monkeys and dump a giant bag of oranges out for them. Easy living for the monkeys.
I, for one, did not like being in close proximity to the monkeys. I avoided eye contact and kept as much distance as possible. My friend was having a blast filming and photographing them. It was all fun and games until he got a little too close to one and it got aggressive. It growled and chased him a bit, and I’ll be honest I moved the opposite direction and offered absolutely no assistance. So anyways, I don’t have any actual photos of the monkeys because I value my life.
Ironically, once we got onto a trail and into the jungle there were no monkeys. We had a nice hike around and headed up to a viewpoint where my friend took his drone out for a bit. On our way back to the bus stop we had to be sneaky again getting past the monkeys.
