Lantau Trail : Sunset Peak & Lantau Peak

To take advantage of the exceptionally clear weather I booked holiday on Wednesday to go hiking.  I planned to hike sections 1-3 of the Lantau Trail from Mui Wo to Nong Ping over Sunset Peak (869m) and Lantau Peak (934m), the 2nd and 3rd highest mountains in Hong Kong.

Star Ferry at Dawn

The forecast was for very hot, sunny weather so I left home at 6:30am and took the Star Ferry across the harbour to catch the ferry to Mui Wo.

Lin Fa Shan (766m)

It was already hot and sunny when I left Mui Wo at 8:15 with Lin Fa Shan looming above.   I hadn't realized how steep the hills in Lantau are.   Steps almost all the way up, which I initially found hard work in the hot sun.

Lantau Trail steps

The trail rapidly gains altitude and I was soon able to enjoy a nice view back to Hong Kong and Kowloon.   The visibility wasn't as clear as I'd hoped,  but I could just make out the towers of ICC and IFC in the haze.

 East to Hong Kong Island 

The path climbed further west along the south slope of Lin Fa Shan with a nice view of the islands south of Lantau.   At this point I was grateful to come under the clouds that covered the top of Sunset Peak which took the edge off the sun, and with the nice breeze the hiking became very pleasant.

South to Cheng Chau Island

The path crossed north through the saddle between LinFaShan and Sunset Peak, and continued around the north side of Sunset Peak, with nice views of North Lantau, Tung Chung and the Airport.

North to Airport

I climbed further towards the clouds and along a broad ridge towards the summit of Sunset Peak.   This area has about 20 small stone huts which were built in the 1930s as summer retreats for missionaries to China.

Holiday cottages on Sunset Peak
(looking west to peak)

In the days before air-conditioning a good way to escape the heat was to come up to the summit here and enjoy the famous mist.    There was even a communal dining hall and swimming pool.   See this interesting link for some accounts of these huts and the missionaries (gwulo link).

Holiday cottages on Sunset Peak (looking east)

Sunset Peak certainly lived up to its reputation on my visit.  As I approached the peak, the mist closed-in, and I was soon walking through cloud with about 10m visibility.    I couldn't see anything but I could hear very clearly the roar of Macau ferries as they passed south of Lantau a few km away.

Steps down from Sunset Peak

About 200m beyond the summit, the mist cleared and I had a nice view of South Lantau beaches.  I could now see the Macau ferries but they were hardly audible out of the cloud.

Cheung Sha beach from Sunset Peak

I had lunch around 11:30 on a small side-peak with a good view of the beaches and also Lantau Peak.  There was none else about so I briefly took out my shakuhachi and played a very rusty version of 'Kurokami'.

Lantau Peak from W side of Sunset Peak

The next part was hard work.  A steep descent down stone steps to the pass (333m) losing 500m of altitude, the straight back up gaining 600m height in just 2km of unrelenting stone steps, up to to the top of Lantau peak.    It was hot going and I had to stop for a drink every 15min.  I was grateful the cloud cover didn't clear. 

Lantau Peak

It was very happy to get to the top of the peak and enjoy a nice cold drink of coconut water (kept cold by a couple of frozen liter-bottles of water).

Lantau peak panorama (click to enlarge)

I stayed on the peak for about 30min to enjoy the view which was clear in all directions except south.

North from Lantau Peak: Tung Chung and Airport

Lantau Peak is very steep and you really feel high-up.

South from Lantau Peak:  Shek Pik reservoir
 and Keung Shan (459m)

Due to the haze I couldn't see across the Pearl River delta to Macau as I'd hoped.   But Nong Ping seemed almost close enough to touch.

West from Lantau Peak:  Nong Ping and
Macau Bridge under construction

I also had a good view of the Hong Kong - Macau bridge being built along the north side of Lantau Island from the Airport out to an artificial island, where it briefly becomes a tunnel, and out to  other artificial island and the bridge snaking west across the water into the haze.

Descent from Lantau Peak

The path down the west side of the mountain was even steeper than the east side.  But the steps are even and well-maintained, and my knees held up well, so I was soon approaching Nong Ping.

Nong Ping:  Big Buddha and Po Lin monestry

It was now very sunny and very hot,  and I was glad to be near the end of my hike.   My shirt was soaked through with sweat and chafing under my arms.

Tian Tan Big Buddha Statue

Section 3 of the Lantau Trail finishes underneath Lantau Peak at the 'Wisdom Path', where the Heart Sutra is carved on huge tree-trunks.

Lantau Peak from Wisdom Path

Reminiscent of the way sutras used to be written on strips of bamboo.  Super-sized, but not out of scale with bulk of the mountain behind.

Wisdom Path:  "Sharishi, form is not emptiness
and emptiness is not form"

I always enjoy going to Nong Ping although I appreciate why some people find it tacky.  I even like the big plastic Bodhi tree.

And the big buddha looks as serene as ever.

It was now about 3:30pm, so took the cable car down to Tung Chung and headed home for a bath.   I noted that the mist on Sunset Peak had finally burned off in the afternoon sun, and it was completely clear.

Sunset Peak from Cablecar - no mist!

Apparently it is a great place to watch the sunset or sunrise, (mist permitting).   The best way would be to take your time and hire one of the huts.   I wonder if Hannah enjoy that sort of adventure?

Mui Tze Lam to Pyramid Hill

A few months ago we made friends with another part-japanese family in our block who have a son Hannah's age.    Mr A. was also left home-alone over the summer holidays, so I invited him to join me on a hike.

Mr A. 

The weather was forecast to be good for the first weekend in a while.   Mr A was a Hong Kong hiking virgin, so I had to promise to be a gentle.   Just a relaxed stroll over the low pass from Shatin to Sai Kung...    But of course, I intended to quietly test his boundaries.   With a bit of luck I'd have him butt-naked on the summit of Ma On Shan by lunchtime (metaphorically speaking).

Mui Tze Lam

We started at 8am and took a taxi to Mui Tze Lam, a small village near Ma On Shan, about 2km up a valley off the Sha Tin river (elevation 150m).

Ancient highway through Fung Shui
Wood at Mui Tze Lam

Mui Tze Lam is famous for its Fung Shui Woods, the largest and most diverse in HK (link).   The wood was planted and preserved by villagers to protect from bad spirits (from the inauspicious NE direction?), and also presumably to protect from flooding.    On the other hand, the trees on the rest of the hills were stripped for firewood, so the vegetation around HK was historically much less lush than we see today.   See this interesting post (link) for some recollections about village life.

Abandoned stone house

Before the New Territories was developed with modern roads,  Mui Tze Lam was on a main pathway between Shatin and Sai Kung, since it was easier to walk over the pass than around the coast.  (similar to Japan's network of ancient mountain pathways as described in Alan Booth's famous book link).

Abandoned village, Mau Ping San Uk

The ancient trail is paved with stones all the way, and runs up the valley past a series of abandoned villages and remains of fields and stone terraces.

Ancestral Hall,  Mau Ping San Uk

Mui Tze Lam is the only village still inhabited, although the ancestral hall at the otherwise deserted village of Mau Ping San is well maintained.

Stone path and stone terrace

We soon reached the pass at 300m and had a break in a concrete platform in a pleasant clearing.   Some local hikers told us we were sitting on the foundations of the old local school, and that children used to walk up to it every day from the local villages.

Port Shelter from the ridge

I gently suggested to Mr A. that we might go a short distance up the MacLehose trail to get a better  the view.   So we hiked other 1km along the path and up to the plateau at Nong Ping (420m).

Path towards Nong Ping

Nong Ping is a large flat grassy plateau on the top of the ridge with a terrific view east across Sai King and Port Shelter.   It was very pleasant in the morning breeze, and still not yet 30 degrees.

Sai Kung from Nong Ping

Just behind Nong Ping is Pyramid Hill (536m) and I gently suggested that we could head up there for a better view across Shatin.    And after a short but tough scramble up the side-path we were enjoying a terrific 360-degree view.

Mr A on Pyramid Hill

The air was pretty clear so we had good visibility all the way to Shenzhen where Mr A works.

Tai Po and Shenzhen from Pyramid Hill

Panoramas from Pyramid Hill (click to enlarge)

Ma On Shan (702m) looked very inviting from Pyramid Hill, but Mr A would not be seduced any further, so we started our descent back to Nong Ping where a group of Para-gliders had started flying in the steady breeze.

Para-gliding at Nong Ping

Video:  Para-gliding from Nong Ping

We took the direct path from Nong Ping to Sai Kung, down the ridge which involved and 40 min of rock-hopping.   Next time I'll take the longer way,  back to the path tot he pass and then down the old stone path,  which is much more pleasant for old knees.  

By 12:30 we were in a cafe in Sai Kung with a cold beer.   A very nice walk which I'm keen to do again.   Mr A. was quite elated and said was much less painful than he'd expected.    I, on the other hand, remained a little frustrated that I'd still not yet had a proper workout this summer.    So I started planning my next hike, to go all the way across Lantau island.