THE STORY GOES that in China there was once a 90-year-old farmer, Yu Kung, who wanted to bring down two mountains that were blocking his path. He chipped away for years until, moved by the man's determination, the gods ordered two strong spirits to do the work for him. And so was born the saying 'Yu Kung Yee Shan', or the foolish man who removed mountains.
More recently in Hong Kong, a similar legend has been growing in the hills behind Kennedy Town. But 71-year-old Chan Siun-kuen has a different obsession - he wants to bring two mountains back together.
The veteran hiker and semi-retired electrician happened upon an old map that showed a track directly linking Lung Fu Shan and Mount Davis and set out to see if it still existed. Most of the people he told of his plan thought it impossible.
'People and other hikers said I was silly wanting to do this,' says Chan. 'They said that it would be impossible for me to find the track alone.'
He proved them wrong. After months in the deep undergrowth, he found the track linking the two mountains, and another two tracks besides. Two years of clearing has now resulted in the paths being reopened as public hiking trails to a slice of Hong Kong history.
The tracks were built by the British to link Mount Davis Path to gun positions covering the western harbour in 1912, says war historian Rob Weir. Army buildings dotted the routes, including the two-storey Port War Signal Station, which is reached via a deep, concrete-sided trench, as well as battery observation posts and underground magazines.
