Victoria Peak Walk - 18 October, 2008, Hong Kong

December4

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong,Victoria Peak,Peak Trail,Peak Tram

Location of Victoria Peak

Pretensions has taken ages, but she’s finally getting around to blogging about her Victoria Peak walk. P had a Saturday morning in Hong Kong before her late afternoon flight to Taiwan. She would really rather have done something more exciting like the Dragonback Trail, but since there wasn’t enough time for that, P decided to take a tram up the Peak and tour the surrounding area of public parks, largely for the scenic view of Hong Kong.

It was a fine morning, ‘tho rather overcast and muggy. P took the Hong Kong MTR (subway) to Central Station and walked up towards the Peak Tram Terminus, passing Central’s selection of super-modern skyscrapers and pedestrian bridges along the way. P always considers Hong Kong’s business district something of an anthill of commerce, but everything was quiet and still at 9am on a Saturday morning.

Once arriving at the Peak Tram terminus, it took P another 30minutes of queuing to actually reach the ticket gates. Once through it was a matter of scrambling for optimum positions near the tram doors.

As you can see from the photo, the peak tram is a funicular railway, and a historical one at that, since its been running since 1888. Obviously it’s been rebuilt many times since then, with the latest facelift happening in 1989 with the addition of computer controls and new two-car trams. According to the literature, 4 million people ride the Peak Tram annually. It hauls passengers up a vertical distance of slightly under 400m and a total distance of 1.4km.

P managed to get a seat near the window and enjoyed a ride with a view as the train chugged its way through a switchback on the way to the upper terminus. It also paused rather alarmingly just after passing the midpoint, but thankfully started moving again just as P was wondering whether to panic!

Exiting from the tram brought P out into an extremely modern classy shopping mall. the Peak Galleria. This was a bit disorienting to P but then it’s quite typical of Hong Kong after all. She managed to find her way out and onto the correct route for the so-called Peak morning walk. This is a circular paved route round the Peak, starting from Lugard/Harlech Road. It is completely flat and very easy to manage but affords some stunning views of Hong Kong. P spotted joggers, walkers, dog-walkers, parents with children, lovers - the people were sometimes as interesting as the scenery! Below find a pictorial log of the rest of P’s 1 1/2 hour walk (about 3.5km at a leisurely amble, followed by a nice lunch in the mall).

	The Peak Morning Walk
Expensive residences on the Peak
	Hong Kong Skyscraper from the Peak
Hong Kong Harbour
Ships in HK Harbour
HK - Skyscraper City
	Cliff View
Moss Hummocks
Flowers
	Waterfall along the Peak Trail
Poodles encountered along the Peak Trail