Lantau Peak 934m/ 3064′, Sze Tse Tau Shan 493m/ 1617′, Muk Yue Shan 479m/ 1571′ and Nei Lak Shan 751m/ 2463′
International– Hong Kong
Total Time: 4:30
Distance: 10.6 km/ 6.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 1220 meters/ 4000′
Crux: Class 1
Trailhead: Ngong Ping, about $20 taxi from the airport or $25 roundtrip chairlift ticket. No park entrance fees.
On my way to a 5 and a half week trip to Nepal, I was lucky enough to have a 12 hour layover in Hong Kong. The airport is just off Lantau Island, the largest island of Hong Kong. Nearly half the island is country park land, with a center piece of Lantau Peak, the highest point on the island and second highest peak in the city. At just under 1000 meters, it is one of the most popular hikes in Hong Kong, with the trail starting about halfway up the mountain at the village of Ngong Ping, which can be reached by road or chairlift. After getting through customs, changing over money, catching a cab and driving the 30-40 minutes from the airport to Ngong Ping Village, it was already after 9 AM. There were a number of summits surrounding Ngong Ping and Lantau Peak, and my loose plan after briefly glancing at a map was to string together as many as possible in a long traverse, tagging as many as 8 on my way towards the airport to catch a 7 PM flight. My first planned summit Sze Tse Tau Shan was tucked away behind a giant Buddha statue. The village was empty with the chairlift not yet open for the day, and I followed a road towards the youth hostel along the base of the Buddha.
Hiking through forest, I reached a saddle between the enormous statue and the summit, and was pleasantly surprised to find a flagged use trail leading into the forest, presumably maintained by a local hiking group. I had been expecting a bit of bushwacking, but instead found a fairly easy to follow use trail that brought me to the wind scoured summit.
The view to the east gave an interesting view of the backside of Buddha, with Lantau Peak to the southeast and the smaller Nei Lak Shan to the northeast. The large Shek Pek reservoir was to the west, with the ocean stretching in the distance beyond. Lantau Peak was partially in clouds making it look rather intimidating, and I was already mentally scaling back my ambitions, realizing a traverse over to Sunset Peak would jeopardize my flight plans.
I headed back the way I came, and continued down the road towards my next objective- Muk Yue Shan. It was difficult to tell which of the forested bumps was the summit, but my map showed it was near a junction labeled “The Wisdom Trail.” The road passed some dilapidated buildings before reaching the junction for the Wisdom Trail, a short loop around large wooden pillars with Chinese characters, arranged in the shape of an infinity symbol.
I started up the steps towards the summit, and found another flagged use trail at the apex, bringing me to a large boulder just below the summit. I tagged the high point in the woods before heading back to enjoy the views from the boulder, with Lantau Peak directly above.
It looked as if the clouds might break and I hurried off the summit, trying to catch a window of cloudless weather at the top. A trail map at the junction said it was only 4.5 km up and over Lantau to a trailhead on the far side, much shorter than I had expected. But the short distance was due to the steepness of the climb, with steep stone steps cut into the mountain, no time wasted with switchbacks.
Unfortunately, the trail entered a small valley, and I lost the ocean wind that had been keeping me cool. I was definitely starting to feel the 4 hours of sleep I had on my fifteen hour flight, not to mention hiking with my carry on containing a laptop and far more than I would ever hope to carry on a day hike. The still humid air did not break until I reached a junction on the summit ridgeline, once again treated to a cool breeze.
This was the first time I spotted people all day, with a few other hikers near the summit not far above. After a short break allowed me to cool down, I headed up the final steps to the high point, completely lost in clouds. There was one other hiker at the summit, a young Russian girl with a Polaroid camera. She offered to take a polaroid of me if I took one of her, although the clouds never cleared for the views we were hoping for.
I waited a bit at the highpoint hoping for a cloud break that never came, then headed back down the trail the way I came. Although it was still early, I hadn’t appreciated the deep gap between Sunset Peak and Lantau Peak, and thought a more enjoyable day would be to tag Nei Lak Shan as my fourth and final summit before exploring Ngong Ping and taking the chairlift down. The stone steps felt ever so slightly slick from the humid clouds as I carefully descended, reaching the saddle between Lantau and Nei Lak Shan in about 30 minutes. The trail map at the saddle showed an unmarked use trail steeply cutting up towards the summit. The legality of using the use trail was unclear, but I found the unmarked junction and started up, quickly on an exposed grassy ridge with no one in sight. I took a break at a weather antennae halfway up, and was surprised to find a group of about 15 hikers coming down, many shocked that I would be hiking such a dangerous class 1 peak alone! I passed a few other groups as I finished my ascent, allaying my fears of the legality of my route. Although an antennae farm blocked some views, there was a great look down into Ngong Ping Village to the west and down into the airport towards the north.
The map had shown a use trail dropping almost directly into the village from the summit, and I found the flagged route just to the southwest, quickly dropping back into the village in only about 20 minutes, winding up directly at the monastery. With the chairlift now open, the village was packed with tourists taking selfies in front of the monastery and with the giant Buddha statue. I walked around the village to take my own photos, particularly of the Buddha which had been gated closed earlier.
Heading north I found the chairlift down and paid about $20 USD for a one way ticket back to the base of the mountain. A slight mist started as I took the 20 minute chairlift ride, and I was happy that I had cut my ambitious plan a bit short.
The chairlift let out at a mall, and I looked for a late 3 PM lunch, finding a Korean BBQ place before heading to the airport to catch my flight into Kathmandu for the main part of my adventure.