Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [85]
If you’re hiking the length or the first several stages of the Lantau Trail (Click here) to Ngong Ping, you’ll cross the peak. If you want to just climb up from Ngong Ping, the easiest and most comfortable way to make the climb is to spend the night at the Hongkong Bank Foundation SG Davis Hostel (Click here), get up at the crack of dawn and pick up the signposted trail at the hostel that runs southeast to the peak. Many climbers get up earlier to reach the summit for sunrise; take a torch and wear an extra layer of clothes, as it can get pretty chilly at the top in the early hours, even in summer.
Another signposted trail leading east from the hostel will take you along the northern slopes of Lantau Peak to Po Lam Monastery at Tei Tong Tsai and then south through a valley leading to Tung Chung, from where you can catch the MTR back to Kowloon or Hong Kong or bus 3M to Mui Wo. This charming walk – if you ignore the airport to the north – also takes you past Lo Hon Monastery as well as Tung Chung Fort and Tung Chung Battery ( Click here).
LUNG TSAI NG GARDEN Map
1 from Mui Wo, 11 from Tung Chung, 21 from Ngong Ping
This magical garden southwest of Ngong Ping, with a lotus pond crossed by a rickety zigzag bridge, was built by a wealthy merchant in the 1930s in a small valley near where the village of Lung Tsai once stood. The site is rather derelict, but atmospheric nonetheless, and the gardens are in excellent condition. You can get here via a water catchment path and trail from the Tai O Rd, a continuation of South Lantau Rd just west of Keung Shan. Alight from the bus after the Kwun Yam temple on Tai O Rd, which is about 2km past the turn-off for the Tian Tan Buddha. You’ll see a country park sign and the start of the water catchment.
TAI O Map
1 from Mui Wo, 11 from Tung Chung, 21 from Ngong Ping
A century ago this mostly Tanka village on the west coast of Lantau was an important trading and fishing port, exporting salt and fish to China. Today Tai O is in decline, except perhaps as a tourist destination offering an intriguing glimpse of the life of a traditional fishing village.
A few of the saltpans still exist, but most have been filled in to build high-rise housing. Older people still make their living from duck farming, fishing, making the village’s celebrated shrimp paste and processing salt fish, which you’ll see (and smell) everywhere. It remains a popular place for locals to buy seafood – both fresh and dried.
As recently as the 1980s Tai O also traded in IIs (illegal immigrants) brought from China under cover of darkness by ‘snakeheads’ (smugglers in human cargo) in long narrow boats, sending back contraband such as refrigerators, radios and TVs to the mainland.
Tai O is built partly on Lantau and partly on a tiny island about 15m from the shore. Until the mid-1990s the only way to cross was via a rope-tow ferry pulled by elderly Hakka women. That and the large number of sampans in the small harbour earned Tai O the nickname ‘the Venice of Hong Kong’. Though the narrow iron Tai Chung footbridge now spans the canal, the rope-tow ferry is resurrected on some weekends and holidays: drop $1 in the box as you disembark. There are also brief river boat tours ( 9629 4581, 9645 6652; per 15/25min $10/20) departing from the footbridge.
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TRANSPORT – LANTAU
Airport Express Takes you to Airport station at Chek Lap Kok.
Bus Mui Wo: Served by bus 1 from Tai O (from the bus terminus at the end of Tai O Rd), bus 2 from Ngong Ping and bus 3M from Tung Chung (main bus terminus by the MTR station).
Ngong Ping: Other than the cable car, the best way to get here is on bus 2 from Mui Wo (opposite the ferry pier) or bus 23 from Tung Chung (main bus terminus by the MTR station).
Tai O: Reached on bus 1 from Mui Wo (opposite the ferry pier), bus 11 from Tung Chung (main