The Eight Immortals

Pat Sin Leng Country Park is a mountain ridge which sits in the north eastern part of the New Territories.  It's not as far north as up around Plover Cove, but it's not too far away.  It was once considered to be a far off wilderness, but the last few decades have seen significant development and growth closer to the water in areas like Tai Po and Shatin, so it all now feels much closer to civilisation.

The ridge itself is famous for having eight peaks along the ridge, and so the name translates to the "Eight Immortals".  These legendary beings from Chinese mythology were each represented by one of the peaks along the ridge of Pat Sing Leng.

We started off our hike in one of the small villages in the middle of the New Territories. Every time we come out to places like this, we are reminded of how rural the whole area must have once been.  Even now, it's quite amazing that with the metropolis that is Hong Kong just a short drive away, that such lush greenery and scenes of simple farming life could still exist.

As walked further up through the hills, we were given an even more incredible sight.  It was probably the clearest day I have ever experienced on any hike in Hong Kong.  The visibility was completely unobstructed and we could see clear into China.  It was a strange sight to see, the more rural and green parts of Hong Kong, with the background of the enormous and modern city of Shenzhen.  None of this would have been there only a short twenty years ago.

As we walked further, we found ourselves above the tree line, walking through open landscapes of rock and grass.  It was a beautiful scene.  The air was fresh and the sky was perfectly blue.  Temperatures were low too so the whole experience was perfect for hiking.

We hadn't arrived yet at the actual "Eight Immortals", but the views we were getting were already incredible.  Walking along the top of the ridge, we could see towards the ocean as well as back over towards the middle of the New Territories.

Every section along the walk provides almost completely unobstructed views.  It had taken me a long time to get here and I was glad I had finally made it.  Eamon mentioned that this was still one of the best hikes he had ever done in Hong Kong and he had hiked most, if not all, of Hong Kong's official trails.

Finally we arrived at the actual "Eight Immotals".  Turning around, we could see back along the ridge we had just hiked.  It was impressive to look at.  The high ridge line seemed almost sharp against the sky.

In front of us there were these eight peaks we had to complete to finish our hike.  From a pure distance point of view, it didn't seem to bad at all.  We had completed most of the hike already so this was actually just the final third or so.

Though short, it was a bit harder than I expected.

Given the distance we had already travelled, the next eight and frequent ups and downs put quite a bit of strain on the calves and the glutes.  None of the little ascents and descents were particularly tough, but doing them so quickly one after another turned this into a strange form of interval training.

As always, we were going at a quick pace and so we passed by group after group of people who were taking a more leisurely stroll along the ridge, stopping at each spot for far longer than us to enjoy the views they saw.

Not for us though.  We continued on.  It was certainly worth it as well.  Even though we were truly spent by the end of the hike, it had been everything promised and given some of the best views I have seen in Hong Kong.

Down South

With the coronavirus restrictions back in full force in Hong Kong, we were also back to our weekly hiking.  We discussed our next destination and we all quickly decided to go to Po Toi Island.  This was a place on everyone's list of "must visit" so this seemed like as good as any time for us to all head there.

We all woke up early and gathered down in Stanley.  Po Toi Island is sparsely populated and so there are only a few ferries to and from the island on the weekend.  We weren't the only ones with the idea either and there was a long line to board the boat.  We got our seats and the boat quickly filled up.

Po Toi Island is one of the southern-most islands in Hong Kong.  Of the small islands around Hong Kong, it's probably considered middle sized, with not enough space for it to have been developed, but apparently it was home to more than a thousand people at one point.  Not too many people remain these days other than those there to run the small shops and restaurants catering the visitors like us.

Once we were off the ferry, it was fairly simple to follow the trails straight up.  As always, a group of the guys were on their hunt for "peaks" and so they had already pre-planned some of the key locations that we needed to reach.  It was a bit mechanical at times to be chasing the peaks with these boys, but on the flip side, it did mean that there was always a motivation to go out and explore some of the further out parts of Hong Kong.  On the whole, it was definitely a positive thing.  It also didn't mean that all we did was just run towards peaks and nothing else.  On this hike, as we made our slow ascent up towards the first peak, we made a slight detour off towards "Mo's Mansion".

The crumbling ruins of Mo's Mansion were what was left of what would have once been an impressive and large house.  We walked through what was left of this home.  It was built in the 1930s and survived several decades until Mr Mo apparently fled after a failed kidnapping attempt.  Now, it is slowly returning to nature, with signs everywhere of people exploring the site and possibly camping in it as well.

We kept walking and eventually reached the first peak we needed.  There was nothing particularly special about it and the views from the top were not memorable.  We looked at our map and noticed that there was a large peninsula if we kept walking.  We had time, so we decided to push on for a bit.

This decision to keep going further was a good one.  As we continued over the crest of the hill, the large peninsula came into sight and it was something spectacular.  It was a wind swept and barren piece of land that sat isolated from the rest of the island.  On this area, we could also see dozens of small tents, with what must have been more than a hundred people who had decided that this was the perfect place to do some camping.  We walked closer and we found a set of stairs.  With over 1000 steps leading to the bottom, this rivaled the infamous "Twins", but the scenery was infinitely better (the Twins is easily the most overrated hike in Hong Kong).  This little peninsula was as windswept and isolated as any part of Hong Kong I had been on.  There are many stark and barren parts of Hong Kong that make you feel like you're in another part of the world, but standing on this spot, my friends were generally of the view that this felt like Scotland (I'll trust their word as I've never been).

We turned back after doing a loop and went straight back up the stairs we had descended.  All 1,000 steps without stop.  I thought back to all the times I had done the Twins before and how much more enjoyable this had been.  The wind was strong and there wasn't anything impeding our view.  Everytime I turned around and looked out, all I saw was the enormous sky.  I was an inspiring view.

We looped back towards the fork in the road that we had encountered on the way up to the first peak and headed in the other direction towards the next peak.  Along one of the ridges overlooking the main bay where all the ferries and boats stopped, there were hundreds of little cairns built up by visitors over the years.  It was a little bit surreal to see all of these little structures, but we had no time to stop so we kept moving.

Eventually, we reached the second peak.  There wasn't much of a view at all.  Looking at the map, there was a THIRD peak not too far away that was on a separate list that the guys were considering.  A couple of us laughed and thought that this was more than we wanted to do.  So the group split in two, with some of the boys heading off towards another peak and the rest of us heading back towards the bay and the comfort of the restaurants.

Along the way back, we decided to stop for a longer look at all the little cairns which had been erected.  Walking amongst them gave us an opportunity to make some of our own and to take some photos.  The breeze hadn't slackened and standing exposed on the edge of this ridge, there was an amazing "refreshing" feeling.  You could feel your lungs clearing as you looked out towards the distance and we all happily agreed that skipping the last peak had been a good idea. 

We ended up at one of the restaurants in the bay.  Sitting, eating and drinking, the other boys eventually joined us having run to and from the final peak.  They looked exhausted, having gone through thick bush to get to that last peak.

North West New Territories

The northwestern parts of the New Territories don't seem to get much love from hikers and visitors to Hong Kong generally.  It doesn't have any of the fame of the Eastern or Northern parts of the New Territories which give stunning views into China and to the islands out to the East of Hong Kong.

It doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me that this is the case.  There are some great hikes out in this region and it's actually far easier to get out to this region in comparison to the areas based in the East.  There are good MTR links and the buses in and out of the region benefit from highways that a generally fast flowing.

One major thing that is lacking though are the beaches and boating opportunities that exist out to the East, so that definitely removes some of the glamour appeal.  The waters out here are the heavily trafficked waters of the Pearl River Delta.  A brisk trade of shipping is constantly flowing up and down from Guangzhou and the numerous cities along the way, making the waters murkier and dirtier in comparison to out East.

The weather was overcast and cooler.  It made the hike far easier and with the lack of any shade, I'm not sure if this would have even been possible during the hotter months.  Maybe this was another reason for this area being less popular with the hikers   We were hiking in a big group and we slowly started to split up as the stronger hikers forged ahead.  It was a bit strange to see our group snaking across the long distance of the trail.  With no cover, you could see everyone far ahead and behind.  I felt strangely connected with everyone, even though there were hundreds of metres between each of us.

At different points, we would group back together.  The jack rabbits at the front would slow and wait for the rest of the group.  We were a loose spring that seemed to stretch and snap back from time to time.  All connected, but only barely.

The arid environment and lack of cover made it easy to look out into the distance.  In any other situation, I would feel far more alone during such a hike, but any time I looked forward or back I could see hikers coming to and fro.  None of them were necessarily close, but it made it feel like we were all in the same room or all together at some common event.  Any loneliness was gone.

As we neared the end, we realised we were running out of time and we wouldn't make it to our final challenge of Castle Peak.  Some of the boys were hoping to get this peak ticked off on their list of challenges, but for the rest of us it wasn't worth the time.  We needed to get back to the city.

The convenience of hiking in Hong Kong is such that even with this last moment change in decision, there wasn't too much of an impact.  We just took the next closest turn instead of continuing on the trail and within thirty minutes or so we were all approaching the main roads and civilisation again.

We all took out our phones and started the search for cars to take us back to the city.  The simplicity and ease of it all never ceases to amaze me.