The Lantau Peak hike is one of the more popular hikes in Hong Kong, surprisingly not as difficult as some of the hiking in Hong Kong websites makes out, and it can be done in 45-60 minutes at a brisk pace. You can either walk from Tung Chung to Pak Kung Au, (probably an hour), but most people take the bus from Tung Chung to Pak Kung Au. we waited for about 20 minutes, gave up and got a taxi which took about 5-10 minutes. Anyway the start of the Lantau Peak hike is at Pak Kung Au, and is Lantau Trail Section 3. The Lantau Peak hike begins straight away, up stairs and more stairs, and more stairs. There’s a few level areas in between, and it’s basically three steep sections to get to the top of Lantau Peak. It’s tough work, but you’ll reach the top quicker than you think. It’s really good work out and if you catch it on a clear day it’ll be worth it.
We think the views are better are better than Sunset, both on the way up and at the top. When you reach the top, Lantau Peak is 934m from sea level, the second highest peak in Hong Kong after Tai Mo Shan, there’s some nice resting areas and a little house thingy you can shelter in of the wind is blowing and it’s cold. You head down to Ngong Pin 360/Big Buddha, the stairs are steep and you can’t go at any decent pace because if you ass over you’re likely to do yourself some serious harm.
We twisted our ankle on the way down, and instead of doing the sensible thing and getting Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car down from Big Buddha, we thought we’d be Tiger Woods, tough it out and walked all the way down to Tung Chung, underneath the Gondola, which is called the Ngong Ping 360 rescue trail. That was the worst decision we’ve made for a while, limping down the whole way, basically had fucked ligaments for about 90 days afterwards and took the same amount to recover properly. Anyway, once you get to Big Buddha, you can make the decision. When we did Sunset Peak and Lantau Peak back to back, we took the wussy’s way out and got the cable car down. Total time for Lantau Peak from Pak Kung Au to Tung Chung (walking down from Big Buddha was about 3 hours). We stopped for a ham sandwich at the top for 10 minutes.
On the way down we saw a bunch of mainlanders walking up in jeans. Really intelligent since it was 30+ – absolutely no idea poor bastards!
Lantau Peak Hike Level of Difficulty 7.5/10
Lantau Peak Hike Access: Best to do it from Pak Kung Au
Lantau Peak Hike Views: 7.5/10
Don’t get the Ngong Ping cable car up unless you want to spend hours queing up with half of China. Down doesnt seem to be so bad for some reason.
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