If you come over the mountains from Tung Chung in good weather, on wheels or on foot, you're given a wide-open view of Lantau's coast, the South China Sea and mysterious islands near and far. But besides the views and outdoor pursuits, you might come to this part of Hong Kong just to eat, for the villages linked by the South Lantau Road are home to some fine restaurants of cosmopolitan character.

Ghost villages dot Hong Kong's New Territories, some so decayed there's not much left, others still with furniture and household goods amid their rotting frames. In some, one or two families cling on or have returned decades after most left for urban areas or abroad, writes Pete Spurrier

One evening near the end of December 1999, I was walking with a group of friends on Taipa Island in Macau. The city’s return to China was hours away and we were deciding what to do before the midnight handover. One of our party spied a Portuguese coat of arms, one of many flying on pennants along the roadside, and quickly climbed onto a fence to claim it as a souvenir – just as two police officers drove past. They saw us, but didn’t stop. Those colonial emblems wouldn’t be there much longer anyway.

Five stops north of Kowloon Tong on the East Rail, Tai Po is an old-fashioned market town with an abundance of street life.