Suicide cliff seems to be one of the most searched routes here, so in this post I’ll show all the routes I have tried up there.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): from 3 to 8/10 = from “easy” to “suicidal” way. In any case, be careful in the “photo spot”. The cliff’s name says it all: a wrong step and you can have a fatal accident (there have been several already).
- Beauty/fun: 5-7.5/10. Spectacular views and a fun hike with tons of variants.
- Map with the main alternative routes
Also, another one which shows you tons of different paths around. Highly recommended to download applications that allow you to see this topographic maps offline.
See full screen and the Garmin track for easy (green), mid easy (blue), mid hard (purple), the way I don’t like (brown), stream (orange) & hard (red) routes.
Green track (difficulty 3): The easiest version (I repeat that you should check this link to understand the grading if new here) would be to go up to Kowloon Peak and from there down to Suicide Cliff and back the same way. A concrete road up to these stairs (you could even take a taxi up to here).
The stairs go up consistently to Kowloon Peak. Steep but clear. Last steps with Saikung below.
Go up next to the Helicopter landing place and down to Suicide Cliff. There you go some drone footage with what you will see.
The descent is not especially difficult, just couple of steps where you might need to use your hands, with a clear stony path down till the photo shooting place. You don’t need to climb down the last section shown in the video, no worries, it’s easier than that 😛
If you are not an experienced hiker you might want to check these step by step (picture by picture) instructions of all the previous route.
If you try to continue your way down, it gets trickier, with a sandy slippery surface. It is easier to hike it going up. Which would be the second easiest path that I would suggest.
Blue track (difficulty 4): The track shows all the way up from Choi Hung MTR station, but you could avoid the initial road section with some more public transportation/taxi. The real starting point, in this case, would be around here.
Beginning of Fei Ngo Sha road. The path is steep consistently. Initially within the woods. There is only one fork that you will cross. In Chinese, you will read “rugged” (崎岖) in the right/up direction (yellow line on the map).
Go left for the easier option. You will see ropes just some meters later for a not especially difficult section, but that can help weaker hikers.
Soon you will pass the tree and bush line and the views of the city unfold.
Up till Suicide Cliff itself.
Later on, continue the path to Kowloon Peak.
With the helicopter landing place and all of us seeing the drone fly.
From here on you will have different options. Mentioned stairs down to MacLehose trail. Or continue, violet line, to Middle Hill (summer green).
In this case, the blue track will take you down through the bushes towards Jat’s incline. Here pretending that it is super dense (winter brown).
But in reality, the path is most of the year well-trodden and quite clear. Several rocks from where to continue taking pics of the city below.
It is steep in some sections, but the surface is not slippery.
Once in Jat’s Incline you can go down the road or in our case we continued the “civilized” path through Hammer Hill.
And back to the MTR station.
Yellow track (difficulty 4.5): Same as the previous but going through the “Skyline Crag”. Nice rock formations, but significantly steeper.
You will need to scramble a bit and find your way (marked with a few small ribbons) back to the previous path, to see Suicide Cliff unfolding in front of you, exactly in the connection with the next path.
Purple track (difficulty 5.5): If you want to add a bit more of adventure and be able to see Suicide Cliff and all the walls from below, this is the option. The starting point, in this case, would be in Jat’s incline, here.
Start going up and soon you will find a dry stream and quite some ribbons around. This part can be misleading. There are ribbons going in different directions. Use the GPS app (exactly here) or compass. You will need to continue East direction up sandy surface path.
Soon you will pass the bush line and you will see the walls next to which you will be hiking.
Several interesting rocks where to take pics.
Beware of a couple of forks. Brown and grey (not interesting) on the map. Continue on purple. The path has some areas that are narrow or…
… require climbing.
And significant bushes in several points. But overall is not very difficult. As soon as you pass the bush line you will be seeing Kowloon Peak’s walls from below. Several (climbing) bolted routes, for those with harness, etc. You can also see the hikers up there posing for their pics, with a bit of zoom.
Beware of falling rocks. I have never seen any falling, but after the typhoon (Sep 2018) several trees in the area fell and some structures are looser above.
If you continue the ribbon marked path you will arrive at the blue track.
The opencyclemap track will guide you through a trickier section, marked up in red. Pic from above.
It does not add any additional views or else. So completely optional.
UPDATE 11OCT18: A reader mentioned that after the typhoon this purple track is more difficult to navigate, so beware. UPDATE 3NOV18: Checked that the route is OK, just the mentioned fallen trees and bit looser terrain.
Orange track (difficulty 6): You can continue the “dry” stream up. This is not shown in the GPS but there are set ribbons too. Soon you will see that it is not so dry actually and that even some local neighbors engineered their water catching system.
The route seems not much used, with less ribbons and completely rotten ropes…
The upper you go the more water you will see.
The stream connects with the path that I have marked in brown. I don’t especially like this section. Sandy/slippery even when completely dry and with a couple of spots that could get dangerous for a big group of hikers there. My suggestion would be to go Eastwards and connect with the purple track again.
Red track (difficulty 8): this path was explained in the previous post.
Purple and red are my favorites. If going up blue adding a bit more difficulty/beauty through yellow. Enjoy whichever route you take!
November 6, 2018 at 3:47 am
Awesome post! How long do you think it would take to do both Suicide Cliff and Lions Rock, going up one side and down the other side of the park? Thanks!
November 6, 2018 at 8:56 am
Very difficult to say. The main reason why I do not include times in the web is that each person/group will hike at different speeds and just changing a bit the weather even the same group would do it significantly slower. The easiest more direct route should be approx 12km and 550m of total elevation gain. I have run it in 90min, I guess “average” hiker in a dry non hot day would need around 4 to 5 hours. Let us know if you do!
November 6, 2018 at 1:57 am
Thank you very much for the guesstimate! I completely understand. We’re just trying to get a rough idea since this will be a relatively short visit. We want to do everything, but need to be realistic. Thank you for all the great info.
February 24, 2019 at 6:41 am
We ended up doing just the Suicide Cliff portion, then down the stairs to Fei Ngo Shan Road. Three of us went (one non-hiker) and it took us about 3.5 hours from the bus stop back to the bus again. I gave you a shout-out in my blog write-up on it. Your directions and maps were invaluable!
November 7, 2018 at 9:23 pm
Hello, Do you have a step by step guide for the Blue track? How many hours going up in that blue track? Is it very steepy going up? Thank you
November 8, 2018 at 11:53 am
Hi. For time needed, if it feels too steep, etc what I already said in the previous comment: it will greatly depend on your fitness level, shoes, etc. I have seen people (few crazy trail runners like me 😛 ) jogging it up, others dragging themselves in, I guess, 5x the time. If you click on the Garmin track information above you can see elevations, distances and times anyhow. That exactly done with a group of quite fit guys, but in just hiking mode and tons of picture and recording time.
No step by step guide that I am aware of. If you think you needed though, I would strongly suggest you to use the easy track. Several inexperienced hikers have get lost, even if I do not know how, there.
March 17, 2019 at 1:34 am
Hey, be very careful about posting this sort of guide… We followed the ribbons today and ended up on the white ribbon path by mistake which was extremely extremely dangerous. It was a near-death experience. In some stretches, slipping meant falling down the cliff.
March 17, 2019 at 8:07 pm
Hi Nicolas.
Always happy to improve. What route did you try? There are dozen of ribboned paths up there, like in most areas in Hong Kong out of the main paths. Did you download the recommended maps? Have you read all the recommendations here?
As I have written several times in the article and referenced link
And then exactly how we rate routes, which in general is way lower than usual hiking webs, because there are quite some people that want and are able to go beyond standard hiking routes. We scramble up waterfalls, next to cliffs, we coasteer and do other things that most hikers would not think are safe to do. Actually, I do advice most hikers to avoid this kind of activities until they have built a solid background and fitness, increasing difficulty step by step. Several of the most difficult routes you can do in Hong Kong without ropes would be a 20/10 or 10 stars in the regular hiking webs’ grading, which makes no much sense.
I have seen tons of people up around the area completely lost, even some uploading incorrect or dangerously misleading directions on internet, and this post just wanted to show more possibilities. Not all, because any day a new hiking group can decide to go up there and set a new “path” with their ribbons. And, yes, sometimes those ribbons can take you to unnecessarily perilous routes.
Safe fun all of you out there!