Things to see from a Hong Kong tram – 33-cent journey into history for visitors, and residents eager to escape cabin fever amid coronavirus outbreak
- Street art, Hong Kong’s best park, the Noonday Gun, and ‘Instagram Pier’ – hop on a tram, open the windows and see the northern side of Hong Kong Island
- From old-time district Shau Kei Wan in the east to Instagram Pier in the west, you can make a half-day trip out of it
One of the most widespread afflictions in coronavirus-hit Hong Kong today is cabin fever. The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition – “Extreme irritability and restlessness from living in isolation or a confined indoor area for a prolonged time” – sums up how many of us are feeling.
Happily, there is a ready cure: get out and about.
Ideally, this would mean heading for a long hike in areas remote from the city. But not everyone is a hiker, so here is an option for a 13km trip by tram and on foot along the north shore of Hong Kong Island. It’s one any city resident or visitor can take at any time of the year.
As well as being cheap, the tram is an appealing option because the windows can be opened, allowing in relatively fresh air.
Exploring Shau Kei Wan
While it is easy to hop on a tram anywhere along the tram line between Kennedy Town in the west and Shau Kei Wan in the east, our outing starts in the latter neighbourhood, on the promenade by the Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter.
The typhoon shelter, in the shadow of high-rise flats, hosts a handful of fishing boats along with many smaller craft, including sampans that serve as water taxis. An adjoining children's playground is fun, and around 10 minutes’ walk west along the promenade you can turn inland, and through Aldrich Bay Park.
According to the website of the Hong Kong government’s Architectural Services Department, this park was created with a “fishing village” theme, and has won awards for design and architecture. Yet while a wooden fishing boat sits motionless in a shallow pool, there is little similarity to any real fishing village. The “huts” are modern shelters, and the lawns and shrubberies are so manicured the park is almost sterile. You can walk through it towards a tram stop on Shau Kei Wan Road.
Near the tram stop, there are fruit and meat stalls along Shing On Street that serve as an outdoor market for residents of the ageing tenement buildings and shiny new housing blocks nearby.
Victoria Park and the Noonday Gun
Paths wind through the wooded north of the park, and a footbridge gives access to the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. This is similar to, but posher than, the typhoon shelter in Shau Kei Wan, and hosts the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.
Nearby there are steps down to a tunnel beneath Victoria Park Road. Walk through it and head towards Hennessy Road for another tram ride.
Walks in the parks, by fountain and aviaries
Admiralty MTR station may not seem an obvious place to stop during an excursion focused on the outdoors. But walk into the Pacific Place mall and a series of escalators lead up and out, to the entrance to Hong Kong Park.
This is perhaps the best of Hong Kong's city parks. There are shrubs with splendid flowers, and a host of fine trees. Paths circuit a landscaped pool that is home to colourful carp; above this, you can walk a winding path past an artificial waterfall. Higher up is the entrance to a huge, walk-through aviary. Though Hong Kong Park remains open at the time of writing, the aviary is sadly closed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
From here, it is a short walk to the top of the park, with exits to Kennedy Road. Turn right here and you can soon enjoy more landscaped greenery in the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. This is the oldest park in Hong Kong, having fully opened to the public in 1876; its highlights include a grand fountain set amid lawns and flower beds.
It's a fine place to relax, and enjoy views over Central. Aviaries host a wide variety of birds, such as eye-catching scarlet ibises that are native to South America and the Caribbean.
Street art and Instagram Pier
The next stop is a quirky one, by the junction of Western Street and Des Voeux Road in Sai Ying Pun. There is no harbour front, no fine park to roam through. Instead, just to the south, buildings have been decorated with street art as part of Artlane, a redevelopment project by property developer Henderson Land.
The wall paintings include depictions of a girl watering plants, a row of shopfronts, and a modern-art-style portrait of Bruce Lee. A flight of steps is painted in rainbow colours. It takes only a few minutes to walk around and see all the paintings, though you might linger for longer if you are into taking selfies.
The pier itself is no beauty – just a 300-metre long, 30-metre wide expanse of concrete. But its setting is grand, at the western end of Victoria Harbour with expansive views of the city, along with the hills of the New Territories and Lantau to the north and west. Add some scattered stacks of shipping containers and wooden pallets, old lamp posts, and the chance of a splendid sunset when the weather is fine, and there is ample scope for photography.
Even if you do not take photos, the pier is a relatively tranquil place to visit, offering an escape from the hurly-burly of the city streets.
If you want to enjoy more harbour views, an excellent promenade leads eastward to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park, where you can view a statue of the man who helped overthrow China’s last imperial dynasty, and ponder how he would view Hong Kong’s situation today.
Travel tips: tram journeys cost HK$2.60 (33 US cents) for adults; if you are planning several tram rides, it is worth having an Octopus card ready. Sightseeing is best done from the upper deck, especially the seats at the front. To make sure any airborne germs don’t linger, keep the windows by your seat open.
The whole outing might take five hours, including plenty of time for looking around, taking photos and enjoying being outdoors in the city.
