Hiking on Mount Parker

And now for a completely different view of Hong Kong....

I think most people think of Hong Kong Island as a crowded collection of modern skyscrapers, linked together by shopping malls and housing estates. I sure thought it was like that, anyway, and certainly most of the photos in tourist guides show this. But the urban areas are mostly located along the northern coast of the island, which is level; the mountains in the central area are mostly uninhabited. What's great about this central area is that the local government has done a great job of turning it into parkland, criss-crossed by hiking trails.

One of the things that sold us on our location in Quarry Bay is that it's just a short walk away from Mount Parker Road, which leads up to various hiking trails. A few weeks ago, Andy and I started taking advantage of the cool weather to explore this different, and unexpected, side of Hong Kong.

Before moving here, I really had no idea that you could find this kind of natural scenery. On weekdays, it's very peaceful; the only sound is the occasional transistor radio, carried by virtually every elderly person out for a walk.

Higher up on the mountain are these pretty flowering trees:

Still higher are pine trees like this:

You can get some great views at several places near the top. This is looking eastward, with the Island East office towers in the foreground:

And this is looking a little to the west. The long brown strip in the middle of the harbor is the old Kai Tak airport, which was closed in 1998. The government has grand plans to develop this old runway into residential areas, hotels, and cruise ship piers.

Coming down the mountain, we ended up running straight into this housing estate, which was a bit of an abrupt end to our walk:

If the light quality in these photos looks inconsistent, it's because they were taken on different days in January, on several different walks. Looking at them again today, I am amazed at how clear the views are. Since then, the heat and humidity here have definitely increased, which means that hazy views have returned to the city.

If you want to know more about hiking in Hong Kong, take a look at this article from the New York Times. The article is a bit old (2003), but I think it's still a good summary. And this article describes hiking up in the New Territories.