About a month ago, I volunteered to be an assistant organiser in response to the hiking meetup group that I go hiking with, and my debut as assistant organise was supposedly a hike along the South Country Lantau Trail. But I had missed a turning at a fork not too far from the start of the trail and instead led the group up Sunset Peak (大東山) instead. So what was supposed to have been one of the easiest trails in Lantau became one of the hardest as we scaled Hong Kong’s third highest peak at 869m by accident! This hike was done on 2 May before my bout of costochondritis, else I might not have survived it!


Sunset Peak is along Stage 2 of the Lantau Trail (鳳凰徑).


We started from Nam Shan (南山) where you can get to by bus (Bus No. 1 or 3M) from the bus terminal at Mui Wo (梅窩). Alternatively you can also walk to Nam Shan from Mui Wo. As you can see, it’s a 2-km walk from Mui Wo. To get to Mui Wo, take a ferry from the Central Piers in Hong Kong Island.


You’ll come across a helipad near the start of the trail.


Lovely views on a perfect spring day as we made our ascent. We could see the Macau ferries speeding to and from Macau on the south side of Lantau.


A little stream along the way. I scooped up some water to freshen up as it was getting pretty warm.


Fog and cloud surround us as we get to the top of Sunset Peak and the temperature drops to the low 20s. And what are those weird houses? From what I’ve found out online, these were ‘resorts’ built by British missionaries in the 1930s for them to get away from the hot and humid weather in summer. There are 20 of these ‘resorts’ on Sunset Peak. It was an interesting discovery for us and none of us in the group knew of their existence before that.


We leave the ‘resorts’ behind as we make our way down Sunset Peak.


Lantau Peak (鳳凰山), Hong Kong’s second highest peak at 934m, is shrouded in clouds and looms in the distance. It is along Stage 3 of the Lantau Trail, and no, I did not attempt it that day. Next time! We ended our hike at Pak Kung Au (伯公坳). It is located at the end of Stage 2 and the start of Stage 3 of the Lantau Trail, between Sunset Peak and Lantau Peak. There is a bus stop along the road at Pak Kung Au and most of the buses that pass by will take you back to Tung Chung Town Centre where the MTR station is.
This hike is a lovely and picturesque one but be prepared for a long uphill climb – the views are worth all the hard work though!