Top 10 Hiking Trails in Hong Kong

The first stage of the 100-kilometre MacLehose Trail is the gentlest walk on this list, and it passes some of the strangest scenery in Hong Kong. From the country park entrance at Pak Tam Chung, beyond which private cars are not allowed, the route follows paved roads along the southern shore of High Island Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Hong Kong by capacity. The reservoir was built in the 1970s by damming the Kwun Mun Channel, the strip of sea that used to separate High Island from the Sai Kung Peninsula. It was a response to the water shortages of the late 1960s. The result is a huge inland lake ringed by green hills, and the road crosses both of its dams. The West Dam looks across to the golf course on Kau Sai Chau. The East Dam is the highlight: the cliffs beside it are made of tightly packed hexagonal volcanic rock columns, part of the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark and recognised as internationally rare. The road runs right past them, so no scrambling is needed to see them close up. After the East Dam a set of steps drops to Long Ke Wan, a small, sheltered bay of pale sand and clear water between steep headlands. It is one of the loveliest beaches in the territory, and it is where Stage 1 ends and the much harder Stage 2 begins. The catch is logistics. Long Ke has no bus, so most walkers either return along the road or continue north over the hills. Taxis can drive the reservoir road, which is how many people shorten the day. Because the whole stage is paved and graded, it is also a good choice for families, a first long walk, or a calm late-afternoon outing when the hills turn golden over the water.

Devil's Peak is a 222-metre hill standing directly over Lei Yue Mun, the narrow strait at the eastern entrance to Victoria Harbour. It is the shortest hike on this list and packs in the most history. After Britain leased the New Territories in 1898, the military chose the hill to guard the harbour approaches. In 1914–15 it built two batteries here: Gough Battery on the upper slope, with a 6-inch gun, and Pottinger Battery lower down, with two 9.2-inch guns. A walled redoubt on the summit protected the headquarters of the Eastern Fire Command. The guns were moved to Stanley and Cape D'Aguilar in 1936. In December 1941, after British forces withdrew to Hong Kong Island, the Japanese army used the hill as an artillery position to shell the island's north shore. Almost everything is still there, overgrown and unrestored. The walk from Yau Tong climbs past a hillside cemetery onto steps and dirt paths, reaching Gough Battery first: gun emplacements, a brick-vaulted underground magazine and two unusual circular pillboxes built from concrete pipes to British commercial designs. Inside one, which is open to the sky, someone has set up plum-blossom posts for kung fu balance training. A trench runs up past a ruined machine-gun post to the summit redoubt, where a loopholed concrete wall with projecting bastions still rings the top of the hill. The views are the other reward. You look straight down on the fishing-village rooftops of Lei Yue Mun, across the strait to the old quarry cliffs of Hong Kong Island, and north over the towers of Tseung Kwan O. It works well as a late-afternoon walk that ends with dinner in Lei Yue Mun village. Bring water, as there is none on the hill, and leave time to wander the batteries rather than just ticking off the summit.

Most Hong Kong hikes are about ridgelines and sea views. Ng Tung Chai is about water. The trail climbs the shaded northern flank of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong's highest mountain, following a stream that drops over a staircase of waterfalls. At the top is the Main Fall, around 35 metres high and the tallest waterfall in Hong Kong. The walk starts in Ng Tung Chai village on Lam Kam Road and passes Man Tak Yuen, a small hillside temple, before the path slips into dense subtropical forest and begins to climb beside the water. The falls come in sequence. Bottom Fall, a modest drop about 20 minutes in, is followed by the Middle Fall, then the Main Fall pouring over a mossy rock face into a plunge pool. Above it is Scatter Fall, where the stream fans out thinly across a wide slab. A fainter side path leads to a further fall and is noticeably harder, so leave it to experienced hikers. Underfoot the trail alternates between concrete steps, packed earth, bamboo groves and bare rock beside the stream. Most of it is under canopy, which makes it one of the more bearable hikes on a warm day, though humidity in the ravine is high. From the upper falls you can keep climbing to the Tai Mo Shan road and loop back, turning a half-day into a full one. Timing matters more here than on any other trail on this list. After a dry spell the falls shrink to trickles. After heavy rain the stream becomes dangerous. Aim for a clear day shortly after rain, bring grippy shoes, and take a torch if you set off late: the forest gets dark early under the trees.

Wilson Trail Stage 2 packs two climbs, a string of war relics and some of the island's best skyline-from-the-forest views into a half-day. Most people walk it from north to south, starting at Tai Koo MTR and finishing at Wong Nai Chung Gap, where some of the fiercest fighting of the Battle of Hong Kong took place in December 1941. From Greig Road the path enters the Quarry Bay Tree Walk and climbs Mount Parker's northern slopes. Here you pass two large cement field stoves, built after Japan captured Guangzhou in 1938 as part of Hong Kong's preparations for siege. They were never used, and are the only relics of their kind in Hong Kong. Beyond a small Kwun Yam shrine the trail follows Sir Cecil's Ride, an old bridle path the Japanese used to approach the hillside, crosses Mount Parker Road, and then turns uphill in earnest. The first big climb is Siu Ma Shan, 424 metres, up a relentless staircase. The second is Jardine's Lookout, 433 metres, marked by a trigonometric point. The trading house Jardine Matheson once posted lookouts here to spot its mail ships arriving from India and London in the mid-1800s. From the ridge you look back over Tai Tam's reservoirs towards Stanley and the southern islands. A short detour leads to neighbouring Mount Butler, 436 metres, if you want one more summit. The descent to Wong Nai Chung Gap ends near a granite memorial to Company Sergeant-Major John Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. He threw himself on a grenade to save his men and was the only soldier in the Battle of Hong Kong awarded the Victoria Cross. Crowds are much thinner than on Dragon's Back, and buses leave from the Gap for Central.

On a map this looks like a gentle half-day: under five kilometres between two bus stops. In practice it is one of the hardest short hikes in Hong Kong, and local hikers know it by its step count. Wilson Trail Section 1 crosses Violet Hill and then The Twins, a pair of steep summits nicknamed the Terrible Twins, on a near-continuous staircase from Wong Nai Chung Gap to Stanley Gap Road. The climb starts beside Hong Kong Parkview and turns quickly from tarmac to steps. Violet Hill's slopes are among the least developed on the island, covered in scrub and grass rather than buildings, and the rare Hong Kong iris grows along parts of the upper trail. With so little tree cover the views are open all the way: south over the Tai Tam reservoirs and bay, north back to Wong Nai Chung Gap and the towers of Happy Valley. A trig point marks the summit at about 433 metres. Then comes the real work. The path drops to a saddle near Tze Kong Bridge and climbs straight up The Twins, 363 and 386 metres, with barely any level ground between them. Most people find this stretch harder than Violet Hill despite the lower heights, because the steps are steeper and the rest points fewer. The payoff is a wide view of the Stanley peninsula, Middle Island and Tai Tam Bay, and a short, airy stretch near the Ma Kong Shan view compass where the ridge narrows above Stanley. The descent to Stanley Gap Road is gentler, and Stanley's waterfront is a short bus ride away. Go early in the cool season, take more water than you think you need, and take poles if your knees object to stairs.

Seen from Tolo Harbour, Ma On Shan is unmistakable: two humps separated by a dip, the saddle-shaped silhouette that gives the mountain its name, which means 'saddle mountain'. At 702 metres it is not the highest peak in Hong Kong, but its summit route is regularly named among the territory's hardest day hikes, and the reason is terrain rather than height. The walk begins innocently on the Ma On Shan Family Walk, a manicured path inside the country park. Past it the surface degrades to dirt through scrub, then to a steep, loose-rock climb up Tiu Shau Ngam. Next come the Hunch Backs, a row of rocky false summits around 677 metres that need hands as well as feet. It is scrambling rather than climbing, but it is relentless. The last approach to the top runs along one of Hong Kong's most photographed ridgelines: a narrow spine of bare rock with the green hills of the Sai Kung peninsula dropping away on one side and Tolo Harbour and the towers of Ma On Shan town on the other. The upper mountain is open grass and shrub on volcanic soil, a sharp contrast with the forested lower slopes. On the south-west flank lie the remains of the Ma On Shan iron mine, worked from 1906 until 1976. After the summit most hikers drop onto MacLehose Trail Section 4 and cross the Ngong Ping plateau, a broad, gentle grassy tableland once used for grazing, before a long staircase down into Sai Kung and a seafood dinner on the waterfront. Take at least two litres of water, start early to beat both the heat and the afternoon cloud that often hides the summit, and save this one for dry days. Mobile signal is patchy near the top.

If this list ranked on scenery alone, this stage would be near the top. Tai Long Wan, meaning Big Wave Bay (not to be confused with the one at the end of Dragon's Back), is a string of wide, white-sand beaches backed by green mountains. MacLehose Trail Section 2 is the trail that walks the whole length of it. It sits at number ten because of the effort involved: no transport at the start, a long, exposed day, and a stiff climb straight away. The stage begins at Long Ke Wan, where Stage 1 ends, and immediately climbs Sai Wan Shan, 314 metres, with no tree cover at all. From the top the view opens north over Tai Long Wan's beaches and the dark pyramid of Sharp Peak behind them. The trail drops to Sai Wan, a small beach with a campsite and natural rock pools, then follows the coast over short headlands to Ham Tin, the social hub of the bay. Ham Tin has a couple of family-run stores selling drinks and noodles and a boardwalk over the wetland behind the sand. From Ham Tin the trail turns inland through the Chek Keng valley, past old Hakka village sites and terraced fields long since reclaimed by forest, before a final sustained climb to the road at Pak Tam Au. There are toilets there and minibuses back to Sai Kung. Many hikers make it a two-day trip, camping at Sai Wan or Ham Tin. Others take the calm-weather kaito from Sai Kung to shorten the approach. However you do it, start early and bring swimwear: the sea here is the best reward on any Hong Kong trail.