If you live in Hong Kong and know a few local people here, you will sooner or later find yourself expecting similar answers to some questions. “What are your plans for coming weekend?” or “How will you celebrate Easter?” or “What do you like to do in your free time?”. As long as the person you’re asking is able to walk, but no matter what age really, you might expect to get an answer “Go hiking” to at least one.
There are some mountains in Hong Kong. Not a Mount Everest high ones though, but some are rather high and require few hours of hiking up. The highest peak is said to be Tai Mo Shan at 957 meters. However hike up this mountain is the easiest possible, as the road is concrete and you can even take a taxi up.
And that’s the most important thing about “hiking” in Hong Kong – it’s not necessarily what you imagine when you hear the word. Hiking in Hong Kong varies in level of difficulty and type of terrain, but no matter how it looks, it will be called hiking still. So you can take a walk on almost flat concrete road, but be “in the mountains”, so it counts as hiking.
People in Hong Kong love hiking, and starting from early age up to… until they can walk by themselves, they would find time to go hiking often. Public holidays, apart from actual Chinese holidays, are not especially celebrated. Christmas or Easter is not big of a deal, so why not spend the day off going hiking, right? That being said, do try to avoid the most popular hiking spots during off days or public holidays, as there might be quite a lot of people there already.
Of course, I really do recommend going hiking in Hong Kong, especially before the weather get hellishly hot and humid! Find a nice hiking trail from which you WILL NOT see view on Hong Kong skyscrapers, unless that’s really your thing. My personal opinion is that hiking should let you run away from the city and not get a better view of it.
While hiking is the most favourite thing of local people to do, Hong Kong expats have one for themselves too and it’s boat parties. As the weather is still not very hot, you might see some more initiatives among your expat colleagues to organise boat parties soon! And for our “mixed-race” company, boat party is an annual event that everyone is looking forward to and although still kept in HK style (curry fish balls are a must) it’s the most fun event in the whole year!
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