Victoria Harbour Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

Vic­to­ria Har­bour Hong Kong from Vic­to­ria Peak

When you pic­ture Hong Kong this view is per­haps the most com­mon. It’s cer­tain­ly the most acces­si­ble view from any of the moun­tains sur­round­ing the city, as you can take a tram or bus to the top and walk along the path sur­round­ing “The Peak” (What the locals call “Vic­to­ria Peak” on Hong Kong Island) for some pret­ty spec­tac­u­lar views of the city, although hik­ing to Vic­to­ria Peak is my favorite way to get there.

View of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

View of Hong Kong from Vic­to­ria Peak

You can take a bus or tram up here but if you have an hour or two to spare I’d rec­om­mend walk­ing. You pass through some inter­est­ing neigh­bor­hoods, get pro­gres­sive­ly bet­ter views of the city as you ascend and get to see the tram going up and down as well as read some of its his­to­ry along the way. Addi­tion­al­ly at times you will feel like you’re walk­ing through the jun­gle, a sharp con­trast to the city views.

Hazy view of Hong Kong from The Peak

Hazy view of Hong Kong from The Peak

It’s not very fre­quent­ly trav­eled, so on the week­end when you have a 1 hour wait for the tram in an end­less line of peo­ple, well, take a walk and enjoy!

The Walk:

The path to Vic­to­ria Peak starts just past where the Peak Tram departs from. So if you are think­ing about tak­ing the tram only to dis­cov­er the line is too long, well it’s an easy start to the trail.

Labeled as “The Peak Tram“on Google maps near St. John’s Cathe­dral (in Cen­tral — Hong Kong Island). It’s a 10–15 minute walk from the Cen­tral MTR to here.

Google Map - Central to The Peak Tram

Google Map — Cen­tral to The Peak Tram

Click here for more infor­ma­tion on the tram and to book tickets.

Once you reach the tram sta­tion con­tin­ue uphill into the park­ing lot. You will see the WWF building.

Start of Tramway Path. Left of the WWF Building

Start of Tramway Path. Left of the WWF Building

On the left side of the build­ing is a path “Tramway Path” on google maps.

The first por­tion of the path fol­lows the tracks fair­ly close­ly giv­ing you some good views of the tram.

The path is fair­ly clear/well-marked, except a few places where it cross­es a busy street. Just cross the street and you’ll find the path con­tin­ues on the oth­er side.

I did­n’t real­ize this until I start­ed walk­ing the path but there are land­ings or tram stops all along the way. If it isn’t a busy day you can actu­al­ly go here and request a tram stop by press­ing the but­ton. There are also inter­est­ing dis­plays with the his­to­ry of the tram at these small stops. Great places to take pic­tures of the tram.

The trail is also marked as the “Cen­tral Green Trail” and once you pass May Road it’s also called “Chatham Path” on google maps.

Above May road it’s a beau­ti­ful green forest­ed sec­tion where in some places it’s hard to believe that you are in HK. There are also a few views of the sky­line and har­bour includ­ing the first views of the Two IFC build­ing where the Chi­na por­tion of  The Dark Knight was shot.

Turn right at Barker Road

Turn right at Bark­er Road

This sec­tion of the trail ends at Bark­er Road. Turn right fol­low­ing the road past the Vic­to­ria House. Keep on the main road, do not turn left up “Hos­pi­tal Path”.

Walk past the Victoria House

Walk past the Vic­to­ria House

There are more city views along Bark­er Road.

The road nar­rows and goes under the tram tracks at the end. Don’t con­tin­ue under the arch. Instead take Find­lay Path, going up on the left hand side.

Con­tin­ue up the path, stay­ing to the right. In about 5 min­utes you’ll come out on the top where you’ll see lot’s of peo­ple, the mall and the upper ter­mi­nus for the peak tram.

Map of Victoria Peak Trails

Map of Vic­to­ria Peak Trails. Down­load to zoom into high-res­o­lu­tion version.

 

Victoria Peak keep to the right

Vic­to­ria Peak keep to the right

To get to the views con­tin­ue straight past the mall, onto the path going off to the right. This path cir­cles the peak. Walk 5 min­utes or so for the first views. Keep walk­ing fur­ther along the trail for more views.

 

ICC Building at night

ICC Build­ing at night, from The Peak

I think the best time is as the sun goes down. If you have time you can see it dur­ing the day and in the evening.