Hiking Hong Kong Hong Kong Trail Stage 1

Hong Kong Trail starts at The Peak so your best bet is to take the peak tram up here at a cost of HK$22 bucks. As is expected you can get some great shots of the city from up here. This hike is very much family orientated with signage displaying wildlife and fauna found in the surrounding areas. The hike is quite long though, at 7km so keep this in mind especially when hiking on a hot day - take lots of water if you do not hike often.

Hong Kong Trail Stage 1 gets 4 stars for enjoyment and 2 stars for difficulty. Views are exceptional of Central, Sheung Wan and Pok Fu Lam and the trail itself is very lush leading through some beautiful scenery. The trail is quite easy in difficulty as ascent is limited to 80 metres, with a total descent of 200 metres.

On that note, you'll want to purchase water before arriving at the peak because everything is rediculously expensive up here - tourist prices.

Starting from the peak tram terminus turn right and keep to the right and head into Lugard Road where you will see a sign pointing to the beginning of the Hong Kong Trail. Head in the general direction of the white building up ahead.

If you are doing the tourist thing as well as going for a hike it is highly recommended to check out the pollution levels for the day, as often this affects visibility greatly and can result in views like I experienced on this particular day. In fact the view shown below is still pretty good and in fact pollution levels cleared up significantly by the time I got to the end of stage 1.

I thought that this trail would be a little more difficult than it was as it got 2 boots review on the map I was checking out. In fact it is quite easy and it is indeed paved for about half of the distance, making it even easier.

Hong Kong Trail Stage 1 offers a tremendous number of photo opportunities and therefore can extend the amount of time it takes to complete this section should you take snaps along the way.

The beginning of this trail is a very pleasant stroll along a paved section as shown to the right. This path offers much information on the local flowers, trees and animals which reside in the area and in fact, this would probably make for a very good school field trip.

Hong Kong Trail Stage 1 ends at Pok Fu Lam Reservoir Road where you can head down to Pok Fu Lam Road or continue on to Hong Kong Trail Stage 2. Here is a snapshot of Stage 1 and 2 of the trail along with a brief description.

"Starting from Lugard Road at The Peak, the hike includes Stages 1 and 2 of the Hong Kong Trail. It passes along the footpath catchwater trail to Aberdeen Country Park. Lugard Road circles the upper slopes of Victoria Peak, and the walk along its level path allows you to enjoy beautiful views of Victoria Harbour and Kowloon. There are on-site interpretative signs here, part of the Peak Trail - which introduce the history and ecology of The Peak and Pok Fu Lam. Beyond Lugard Road, the trail goes downhill for some distance - and then becomes flat again. In all about 13 kilometres long, this is quite a tiring hike - but visitors can leave midway, going down through Pok Fu Lam valley to the main road."

Along the Hong Kong Trail you will find distance posts as described below. These posts are placed every 500 metres. Since the entire trail (over 8 stages) is 50km long, there is a total of 100 distance posts. In case of an emergency you can quote the nearest distance posts to rescuers.

At the beginning of this trail there are abundant photo opportunities as you can see from my collection here.

To the left is one of the classic distance posts you will see along the way. Take note of the image of the two people hiking. At any signpost along the way where the Hong Kong Trail goes, you will see this logo. Therefore at any time you are unsure of which way to go, or for that matter if you see any signs pointing directions, be sure to check them out to make sure you are headed in the correct direction.

There are several locations along this trail where you may accidentaly head the wrong way as the first section of this trail is the same as some of the countryside trails which can become quite confusing. Pok Fu Lam Tree walk is such a trail which in fact is the first 2.2 km of the Hong Kong Trail Stage 1. Lung Fu Shan Fitness Trail also starts from the end of the Pok Fu Lam Tree Walk, continuing in a different direction, as does Harlech Road Fitness Trail which will take you back to the Peak Lookout (2.4km) if you are not careful.

Hong Kong Trail Stage 1 continues down a gentle slope and winds at times precaiously around the mountains edge.

Bamboo Scaffolding is another great tourist attraction since most scaffolding overseas is metal based.

A decent section of this trail appeard to be under renovation as seen above. These shots were taken on the 18th of February 2009.

The trees that hang over the path are beautiful and make for some fantastic shots. Be sure to bring your camera, batteries and a spare memory card.

Take a sharp right then keep to the left. Follow the logo of the man and woman.

Keep left passing the set of rubbish bins on the right and the park on the left.

These posts are useful to confirm that you are headed in the correct direction.

After Hong Kong Trail Distance Post H006 you will come across Lung Fu Shan Country Park Picnic Area Site Number 2 which at first glance would appear to be a dead end. However if you walk up into the park and straight across, you will find the continuation of the trail once again. This is quite poorly marked in my opinion.

Did I mention, there are no bicycles allowed on this trail - Just when I was thinking this would be a great place to go for a ride.

If you are getting tired at this point there is an opportunity here to go down to Hatton Road. Otherwise take a left and continue along the trail.

The trail continues along a short section of concrete here which is just above the Pok Fu Lam Reservoir. Follow it and head back onto the trail to the left.

Since this trail is well marked out it is really quite self explanatory, especially with the pictures.

From here the trail continues downhill and leads around past the back of the Peak Lookout where you can catch a glimpse or two of The Peak Lookout as well as those houses which must have fantastic views from up there on the mountain.

Go striaght if you wish to continue along the Hong Kong Trail Stage 1. If not, head down towards the reservoir where you can continue down to Pok Fu Lam Road.

A lot of the trees around here are red as seen above.

Well at this point I must warn you that it is the weather again where snakes are out and about as seen in the photo below as I managed to get a shot of this baby snake (not sure of the type as yet) as it got the courage to start heading towards me after it so quickly ran for its life into the scrub. It should be easy enough to identify as the markings are very unique.

There are loads of waterfalls around this area which are all pretty dry at this time of the year. I imagine that when the rain comes out this trail would be even more scenic than it already is.

I had to traverse a section of waterfall to get the picture below. If you decide to do the same take care when walking over these rocks because there are many spiders that build their webs very close to the ground and water in order to catch mosquitoes and the like I presume. These webs are usualy only about 10cm from the ground and therefore very easy to walk right through. It is therefore very easy to get spiders running up your legs.

As I walked along here I could here lots of bees/wasps buzzing around so be careful that you don't run into any. I noticed this old home perched up in the trees.

This park marks the end of Hong Kong Trail Stage 1. Continuing down the road and to the left is Hong Kong Trail Stage 2. Down to the right is a path that will lead down to Pok Fu Lam Road should you wish to end the trail here.