Rock climbing in Hong Kong: thrill seekers scale city's many dizzy heights
Hong Kong's ideal geology and sheer beauty have got rock climbers hooked on the city's cliffs and crags. Angharad Hampshire meets some of them to hear what makes Hong Kong special for climbing and where to go
It's Saturday morning and the sun shines brightly on Tung Lung Chau, a beautiful island to the south of the Clear Water Bay peninsula. Birds wheel overhead, waves crash onto the shore and the thrum of distant boat engines can be heard from the channel.
Accessible only by kaito ferry services at the week-ends and on public holidays, the island's permanent residents are a couple of families running noodle shacks. Tung Lung Chau is also home to a 300-year-old fort, the largest ancient rock carving in Hong Kong and one of the loveliest campsites in the territory. And it is a haven for rock climbers.
Tung Lung Chau boasts two fantastic cliffs, Technical Wall and Sea Gully, which are reached by scrambling over rocks on the northeast of the island. The sight is extraordinary - 30 or so climbers, roped to the wall or belaying (exerting friction on a rope) from below, enjoying the sun, sky, sea spray and jagged grey rock.
There are very few other cities in the Asia region where, within literally 10 to 20 minutes of stepping out of your home or work, you can be at the foot of a crag
Hong Kong is a remarkably good place in which to climb. At any given moment during the day, it is likely someone, somewhere in this city of seven million people is clinging tightly to a rock face, arms pumped and heart pounding. Some of the best known climbing areas are found, predictably, in the country-park lands of Lantau, Kowloon Peak, Lion Rock, Beacon Hill, Cape Collinson and Shek O. But what makes Hong Kong so interesting is that some of the rock faces are very close to the city centre. If you look carefully beyond the skyscrapers, you may well see a climber on the slabs.
