There are many hiking trails all over Hong Kong thanks to the abundance of national parks and mountains around the city. We decided to go for a slightly more advanced route, known as Suicide Peak!
We used this Blog Post to find the trail we wanted to Hike – it was really useful. It also documents a number of other hikes if you fancy doing a bit more walking whilst in Hong Kong.
The trail is 10km long and described as moderate difficulty. I inferred, that as a fit and healthy person, that this would be an attainable hike.
Whilst I can confirm this as I managed to complete the hike successfully, there are parts that I would consider more climbing than hiking! I was also assured it would be only 2/3 hours long, and actually found it to be around 5/6 hours long!
We started out at City One MTR Station and walked up into the mountains via Siu Lek Yuen Road.
As you leave the main road, the road turns into more of a lane and gets quite windy. The apartment blocks give way to smaller, cool-looking houses.
As you go round a bend, on the left hand side of the lane you will see a small ramp with a green handrail. That will take you onto the trail up the mountain.
We used the map provided on the mentioned blog post and had no trouble finding our way!
The trail consists of many, fairly steep steps but they are relatively well maintained.
We bumped into many elderly Hong Kongers getting their daily exercise!
You will find there are multiple paths available which could become confusing. Again, the map did a very good job of helping us find our way and it is not too difficult.
Despite this part of the trail being quite an irrelevant addition, I’m so glad we did it! (We could have reached Suicide Peak without coming this way at all! You could if you wanted just go directly to Kowloon Viewing point and skip this first bit.)
There were lots of little gems to discover, my favourite being a small mountain stream home to many salamanders! We spent a good half an hour observing these fascinating little creatures!
All the while, you will need to head to the Gillwell Campsite. Once there, the mountain tree-lined path becomes a concrete road. However, this is where the views begin to get more spectacular. This is a road that leads up to the Kowloon Viewing Point and provides wonderful views of Marina Cove and the islands to the east of Hong Kong.
The Kowloon Viewing Point was absolutely amazing! A fantastic alternative to The Peak but obviously far less busy. If you want, you could get a taxi the whole way there as it is right next to a road.
However, our next mission was to get to Suicide Peak. Already a few hours into the hike, I assumed the next section would be a relatively flat walk. Sadly, I was sorely mistaken.
The hard part was yet to come!
Before you even begin this section you will see a sign warning you not to walk that way as there is risk of falling and death! Whilst there is some danger given the sheer drops on either side if you walk with a bit of common sense there is no reason you will fall.
There are several peaks on the way to Suicide Peak. One of which is an unobstructed 360 degree view of the City and surrounded areas. Truly breath taking and probably a view I preferred over actual Suicide Peak itself.
Once you get to the Kowloon Peak Television and Radio Transmission Stations, you’re nearly there! We had fun taking pictures on the helipad and concrete steps leading down to the peak.
That’s when things begin to get a bit tricky! The final stint down to the rock is quite literally a climb! It is a little dangerous and not for the faint hearted. I enjoy a climb so despite the heights I enjoyed the descent but it certainly wasn’t easy!
Suicide Peak was pretty spectacular! Even if the sheer drop was enough to make my heart stop anytime someone went near it.
To get down there are a variety of options. I opted to climb back to the TV station and take the first right. This trail is pretty much all steps and surrounded by trees. It’s very safe and I thought much preferable to the more direct climb down from Suicide Peak, which is much steeper and rockier.
It did leave me with jelly legs after our day long hike experience though, so it took my a while to get down due to all the rest stops!
What do you think?
Let me know in the comments section!
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Love reading about your travels…. just so jealous that I didn’t do a lot of this when I was in HK all those years ago! Looking fwd to the next blog! Nikki