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Escape walking

Hong Kong has amazing trekkings to escape the crowded city, the pollution or the noisy street during one day. Hong Kong is synonym of city but this is not true! Only 30% of Hong Kong is built with buildings. The others 70% are only vegetation. You have different choices: beaches, tropical forests, waterfalls, and islands.

What are my suggestions?

• Tai Long Wan Beach

My favorite place is Tai Long Wan Beach. It’s situated in the New Territories in Sai Kung district. This is easy to get there. You can take a minibus to Sai Kung and after get a cab to Pak Tam Hau. The way starts at this place. Walk during less than 2 hours; enjoy the landscapes and when you arrive to the beach, there are restaurants to have lunch there. After lunch do not stay to this beach. Go on the left along the restaurants and take the little way to “climb on” the little coast. 5 to 10min later, this is Tai Long Wan Beach. White sand, blue turquoise and hot (during summer) sea, not many people; everything is there to get fresh air and enjoy your day.

 

• Ng Tung Chai Waterfall

 

At this place, you can enjoy a series of three waterfalls in a tropical forest. The trek is quite difficult as you go up during a long time and rock steps are a little bit high.
How to get there? Take the MTR until Tai Po Market Station, and then take the bus 64K. On Lam Kam Road at Ng Tung Chai village get off the bus and start the trekking. Before being in the forest you have to go through a little village. My piece of advice is to go there around 3 days after rainfalls to be sure to see amazing waterfalls.

On each island of HK there are treks but it will be too long to describe all. You can find a lot of trekking information on internet or special books in bookstores.

Cultural discovery

• Temple and Garden

In the middle of the buildings, Hong Kong offers a good taste of Chinese culture. There are a lot of temples to visit around Hong Kong. One of them “Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple” in Wong Tai Sin is one of my favorite. It makes you feel the Chinese culture. You can see a lot of Chinese praying, or making offering, it smells good thanks to the incense and you can see a lot of typical figurines. This temple is surround by a quiet and beautiful garden.

• Fishing village

Cheung Chau Island, a great fishing village.
You have to take the ferry to go to Cheung Chau, take it at Central ferry pier.
From your arrival, you will be deep in a fishing atmosphere. What I mean is that there are hundreds of typical fishing boats in Cheung Chau’s harbor. Now it’s time to eat very good seafood for a cheap price. This is incredible! Also when you are walking on the streets, many fish tanks are there and some weird fishes draw attention …
After a seafood lunch and visit the little city, go to discover one of the oldest temples in Hong Kong “Pak Tai Temple”, built in 1783. Pak Tai is a Taoist God which is also named the “Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven. Continue your way, and walk to the point of view. It’s really beautiful.

Historical discovery

• Museum of History

The best way to learn about the history of Hong Kong is to go to the Musuem of History of Hong Kong in Tsim Sha Tsui. In addition to being well built and beautiful, this museum is very interesting. Every relevant event is related in an easy and understanding way.

Just an advice, don’t take some much time to the first parts of the museum. From the part 4 about the first inhabitants in Hong Kong, you will learn about the culture and life in Hong Kong. Part 4 is about the third tribes: “The boat dwellers”, “Punti” and “Hakka”, then the Opium Wars when China ceded Hong Kong to Britain and the growth of Hong Kong afterwards. You could see Hong Kong under the Japanese occupation during the World War II, a hard 4 years period for them. And finally, the final part is about the modernization of Hong Kong.

Surrounding countries

Hong Kong is a great place to visit Asia. By 2 or 3 hours, you can go to Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand, and of course to China as well.
It permits to discover others cultures.

• Shenzhen: 50min from HK

Go to Shenzhen (SZ) is really simple and cheap. Take the MTR (the HK’s subway) to go as far as Lok Ma Chau or Lo Wo at the border of Hong Kong. It will take 50min. Of course before going to China, don’t forget to get a Visa. Time to get it: 4 days. Amazing service compare to France (more than 1 month to get one)! Don’t you think?
Romain Corteze has already written about SZ in his first article: click here, so I will not develop this part.

• Philippines: 2h-flight from HK

My first surprise when I arrived in Manila was that everyone I spoke to spoke English. I didn’t expect that because in Hong Kong, where English is an official language, sometimes it’s hard to find someone speaks English, especially the taxi drivers or the waiters.
Go back to Philippines. I went to Boracay Island which is a beautiful Island. Go there is a little bit expense because there is no direct flight to Boracay. And as it’s a touristic island, accommodations are not as cheap as we could think.
A piece of advice? Don’t go there at the beginning of October! A typhoon was passed the day when I arrived and I had very cloudy, windy and rainy weather, so lucky ! Otherwise, you can do a lot of sea sports and it was a very good trip. I had one very sunny day, the day I had to leave…inevitably but it was very beautiful and I recommend going there.

• Thailand: 3h-flight from HK

Thailand is a magical country. Nice, smiling and welcoming people! Beautiful landscapes!
The only thing I could say is “the unstressed country”. This is a country where you cannot be stressed. They live on day at a time! I think this serenity comes from their religion: Buddhism.

Well, Hong Kong is a big economic platform but also a great touristic platform.

Thanks for reading my article

Clothilde Lenglard

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