The Cheung Chau Island Hike is not really much of a hike so much as a walk but thought we’d include it here as one you can take your kids on. A lot of websites state Cheung Chau Island is a place to go to get away from the crowds and the city but if you go weekends, this place is busy, very busy. The ferry, (ferry schedule here) which was late, was absolutely packed, as usual the locals don’t cue up, so you’ve just got to barge through if you’re with kids and want a window seat. This is the most people I’ve seen on a ferry ever in Hong Kong. The ride takes about 45 minutes in a fast ferry, we took the 10am, perhaps too late, definitely too late if you don’t want half of Hong Kong on the ferry with you.
Many other websites state that you can ride bikes and should hire a bike on Cheung Chau Island but if you have a 4 year old, that’s not really happening. The 3 wheelers are too big to get up hills and block up the streets when it gets busy, you’ll see hundreds of bikes with little trailers on the back, you would think perfect for kids, but no, in typical Hong Kong style, you can’t do that. What’s even more perplexing is you’re not even allowed to ride with kids on the back of a proper kids bike seat attached to a bike, absolutely ridiculous and just one of many reasons why you should think twice before heading to Cheung Chau Island.
Other sites also harp on about how peaceful it is because there’s no cars, but let me tell you, yes, there are no cars, but in their place are tuk-tuk type vehicles which are crazy loud and race around like madmen, these are much worse than cars both in terms of noise (louder than a motorcycle and louder than any tuk-tuk I’ve come across) and in terms of safety. I asked one bicycle hire lady about what bikes we could ride and got the typical grumpy Hong Kong reply, like how dare I ask a question. So not a good start to our Cheung Chau Island hike!
Anyway, we walked left once we got off the pier, other than the tuk-tuk things racing by, it was quite nice, there’s lots of smaller fish in the sea and if your kids are future marine biologists, they’ll enjoy it. We walked back and across the other side of the town (packed with people), to the beach, walked along that and then headed to the Mini Great Wall.
This is actually quite a good beginners hike for your kids (say 4-6 yrs), little bit of a descent but nothing so steep or long as they’ll start complaining it’s too far. The Mini Great Wall on Cheung Chau Island was a bit shite, it’s more like a bit of a concrete fence that vaguely resembles the great wall if you were high and had a very vivid imagination.
The views are ok, definitely nothing to write home about. From there you can take a few different ways back to the main town, have some lunch, there’s plenty of different food options. There’s other hiking trails on Cheung Chau Island but nothing major so don’t get too excited as Cheung Chau Island is very over-rated in my opinion and definitely NOT the place to go if you want to get away from the crowds like most other websites state.
Perhaps if you go weekdays, which we’ll do sometime down the track, it might be less busy, but even then, if you have younger kids, don’t think you’ll be leisurely cycling around the island in complete tranquility. Some of the locals are definitely not friendly either, so don’t expect you’ll be greeted with an abundance of enthusiasm and smiles.
I can’t really give a single reason why I’d recommend someone to go to Cheung Chau Island, especially also having just been to Peng Chau, which is much quieter, infinitely more peaceful and way, way less people.
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