Lion Rock Peak

I had been wanting to do a night hike in Hong Kong for quite a while and the increasingly hot Spring days gave me the perfect reason to go for a lovely bit of exploring during the cooler hours. After going through a few other blogs and searches looking for the ideal hike I finally struck gold. The Lion Rock hike is short, steep and not too difficult for somebody at my fitness level and so I made the decision to do this on a Saturday night straight after work. I invited my sister along, who in turn invited a friend of hers and we all got our torches ready and set off.

We set off from Tsuen Wan MTR Station and after a few stops we switched lines at Prince Edward MTR Station onto the green Kwun Tong Line. After another four stops we disembarked at Wong Tai Sin MTR station. After gathering some supplies (water, no beer this time), we took a taxi to the Temple Hill Fat Jong Temple located on Shatin Pass Road, which cost around HKD40. Then, after getting slightly lost (which made my sister rather annoyed), we finally found the beginning of the trail just before the public water works department area. This was about 300m from the temple and is part of the Maclehose Trail (section 5).

Now I will say that if you are not a fan of stairs then this is not the trail for you as there are stairs from the start of the trail right up to the peak. This hike is also very steep with only very short stretches of flat track going up to provide any sort of relief for the legs. The trail going up to the peak is mostly engulfed on both sides by trees and bush which does not provide for many views of the surrounding area but there were one or two stops on the way up which provided nice city views, albeit with electricity pylons in the way.

The trail was very steep at times but I managed just fine, as did my sister’s friend. However, I do believe that for most of the walk up my sister wanted to do awful things to me. Now I will also say that at the beginning of this post I said that I wanted to do a walk in the “cooler hours”. This was wrong, very wrong. I do not think I have ever sweated as much as I did on this hike. It was HOT, around 25 degrees and about as humid as it gets, which meant lots of drinks breaks along the way up. This actually made me even more glad to have done this at night as I am fairly sure it would have been unbearable during the day.

The walk up was about just under two kilometers but with around about 500m to go, the stairs got even more steep than they had been up until that point which really put some strain on the legs. The air, however was definitely cooling down at this altitude which made things far easier.

Then, after about fifteen minutes on this steep section we made it to Lion Rock Peak.

The words I use will not do justice to how stunning the view is from this peak but I will say that, despite the smog and humidity rising from the densely populated city, it was absolutely mesmerizing. The city stretched like a sea of golden light for what seemed like an eternity. Everywhere I looked I saw golden light, bright lights, flashes of lights and silhouettes. I stared, mouth agape, at the sight before me. The view stretched from Kowloon to Tsim Sha Tsui and then to Central and Causeway Bay. I felt like Simba and Mufasa sitting and looking over their pride lands at all that lay before them. This was a sight and view that I will never, ever forget and will cherish forever.

What made it all the more special was to be able to do it with my sister. She’s been through a tough year mentally and I know how tough she finds it to lift a mere finger some days. I always try and push her in order to get the best out of her because I know that she has so much to give to the world and to everybody around her. She is so full of life and when at her best there is nobody who lives in the moment quite like she does. I have so much love for her and will always be there for her, even if that means making her climb up the steepest flights of stairs ever and being hated for it.

After spending close to an hour at the peak (495m), we made our way down the trail towards the Lion Rock Park entrance on Lion Rock Road, just off Chuk Yuen Road. We made a left turn at the reunification pavilion which took us all the way down to the road after which we took a taxi to Lok Fu Station and headed home. This was an amazing trip which I would definitely recommend. Coming from South Africa it was so lovely to be able to do a trail like this at night and feel completely safe at all times which just made the overall experience so much better. I would highly recommend doing this trail at night. The entire walk was approximately five kilometres with a moving time of 1h45, we started at 19:30 and finished at 22:30. Definitely a must during the Summer Months.