Five places hikers can get away from it all on Hong Kong Island’s wild side

To explore the wilder side of Hong Kong, you needn’t travel to the far-flung New Territories. Instead, you can experience its rural wonders by simply leaving the north shore of Hong Kong Island and heading south, up and over the hills.

I set myself the following challenge: suppose you had just one day, from around dawn to almost sunset, where might you go for a rewarding and varied journey? Here’s a tour, taking in five places in a single day, now that the weather is ripe for hiking.

Shek O

Early on a clear morning, from a vantage atop Tai Tau Chau – an islet by Shek O – you can fully appreciate Hong Kong’s superb location on the south China coast. To the east, the rising sun casts a golden glow, silhouetting the tip of Tung Lung Chau. South lies craggy Waglan Island, which you mostly hear of in weather reports when typhoons approach.

Viewed from here, the coast of Hong Kong Island is backed by steep green hillsides; a lighthouse is just visible at Cape D’Aguilar, the southeastern headland, beyond which are Beaufort Island, Po Toi and the Dangan Islands. The only high-rises in view seem far off, in Tseung Kwan O. With its hotchpotch of mostly two- and three-storey buildings, Shek O looks almost like a Mediterranean village.

Take a path down, then a footbridge to the Shek O headland that’s topped by a cluster of expensive-looking buildings behind walls and sturdy gates.