The Mount High West Hong Kong Hike is more like a walk up a concrete path, at least to get the start of Mount High West Hong Kong, then a brief 10 minutes up to Mount High West. Mount High West is not really that well known but if you catch on an increasingly rare sunny day in Hong Kong, the views are pretty good. The route we’re going to mention is a good workout, today we walked it, so it took a very leisurely 3 hours, but it can be done in 2 hours. Starting at bel-Air in Cyberport, head to Wah Fu Road Shek Pai Wan bus stop, that’s where Pokfulam Road turns into Shek Pai Wan. There’s some stairs, climb them and you’ll reach Hong Kong Trail section 2, the stairs will give you a good workout, nothing like the Twins, but it’s 15 minutes of climbing straight up, turn right and head towards Peel Rise, you get some okay views of Aberdeen, not much to see in Aberdeen, but if it’s your first time you might find it relatively interesting. You’ll meet up with Peel rise, head up to the Peak, then keep going to Victoria Peak. There’s some good views but since we haven’t seen the sun in Hong Kong for about 4 months, good luck getting it on a nice clear day.
When at the top of Victoria Peak, head down what’s called Harlech Road Fitness Trail. Don’t let the name fall you, it’s stairs and not much to see. You’ll reach the intersection of Lugard Road and Harlech Road, take treacherous trail, which is hidden away in the corner. This is the beginning of the short climb to Mount High West Hong Kong Hike. Look back on the way up, there’s some rare views of Hong Kong, and some good views overlooking Pokfulam Reservoir and Cyberport. There’s a big concrete dick (marker) at the top, views all around. Now from here we usually head down Treacherous Trail, this is a very narrow and we must admit a tiny bit treacherous trail downwards that leads to the bottom of Hong Kong Trail section 1. There used to be a sign there saying something along the lines of “Closed, proceed at your own risk”. It’s now gone. We’ve been down there before on our first hike up to Mount High West Hong Kong, and it’s just a bit overgrown, you can’t see where your foot lands for much of the way down, but if you’re careful should be no worries. Today, after about 20 days of straight rain, we assed over going down some stairs and seem to be attacked by many bugs and creepy crawlies, which we’re not fond of. We started on our way down Treacherous Trail, towards Pokfulam, but got about 2o meters down and came across 2 massive spiders webs across the trail and promptly (like we’ve never run so fast) made our way back up and came back down the way we went up. From there we took Hong Kong Trail section 1 across to Pokfulam Reservoir, down to Pokfulam Road and home.
Never before have we seen so many creepy crawlies, bugs, big ass ants, massive spiders, bees attack us, as today. Probably because of all the rain, but we spent half the time freaking out something was gonna crawl up us. If the weather is fine, which it doesnt look like it’s going to be anytime soon in this shithole of a City, it’s a much more enjoyable workout and Mount High West Hong Kong is usually much quieter because the tourists and even a lot of locals don’t know about it. Most cats just head to the Peak and run around there.
Our Garmin ran out of battery, but as usual, you can email us for the MapMyHike route. Again, today we were on a bit of a go-slow, didn’t run at all, and this, combined with the creepy-crawly factor, made us took ages.
Send us any questions or comments you have about the Mount High West Hong Kong Hike via email or ask us on twitter.
