starting through the Mid Dog’s Teeth offers some of the most spectacular landscapes in Lantau. Here all the alternative ascent options.
- Beauty/fun: 8/10. Some marks deducted cause it is quite common to have no views here. Lantau Peak, because of its location and height, is a magnet for clouds. If you are unlucky and when going up you get into the them, just continue to Lantau trail and don’t try the cliffs toward South Heaven’s itself. You will miss the views anyhow and dangerous in there.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 6.5/10. The route is well marked with ribbons but as mentioned can get foggy easily. The ascent is steep and even if not technical, can produce vertigo to those prone to suffer it. A couple of treacherous small downhills.
- Map
Garmin for Mid Dog’s Teeth & South Cliff going up through the Skylight rock
Start on South Lantau Road. MTR to Tung Chung or ferry to Mui Wo and buses to Ngong Ping and Tai O direction for public transportation. You will need to stop just before Shek Pik reservoir.
Cross the catchwater and start your way up the hill. The Dog’s Teeth, 狗牙嶺 (Kau Nga Ling) in Cantonese, has 3 main routes: East, Mid, and West. I have hiked up and down the three of them, even raced on 😀
All are pretty but I prefer the Mid route. Don’t miss the start! Exactly here you will see ribbons on your right getting into the vegetation and up.
Soon you will leave the vegetation behind and you will start seeing the reservoir below.
The route is mainly upwards in a clear path.
Arriving at a steep “technical” section.
Not really 😛 But you might need to use your hands and here the vertigo problems can start…
The most difficult part of the Dog’s teeth is this little downhill, called the life line (一線生機).
No more than 5 to 10 steps, but with a huge drop on your right side and with quite some wind frequently. Just before arriving at the connection with the North path.
You can continue “hiking” in the Google maps above on a foggy day. Quite common up there. In this case was bit hazy but OK.
Soon you will see the Big Buddha and the huge bridge connecting with Macau.
If you continue up you will arrive at the Lantau trail. Check on your right and you will see a quite particular rock structure (watch the video below).
The Bird Rock. Which marks your way down towards the cliffs going to South Heaven’s Gate. The same corridor seen from below.
This section is quite more tricky than all the previous path. You will need to use your hands and go down carefully.
Soon you will start to see all the path that you have climbed below.
You will cross several little forest and “rock rivers”.
Getting close to the most picturesque area.
The corridor to the sky.
A bit of easy scrambling.
Wrong way, beautiful pic. Skylight rock (天窗石).
With the crest behind.
If you would like to go to the real South Heaven’s Gate you would need to go down again, retrace your steps and, where in the video we start climbing, continue on the dirt path Eastwards. You will need to descend a bit and scramble up again (easier than previous sections).
It was drizzling though so we went up in the fastest way possible. Soon the path becomes less steep and you will connect with the Lantau Trail. Up you can go to the peak. If going down in some minutes you will see the entrance or exit of South Heaven’s Gate itself
Continue down
to Pak Kung Au, where to take the bus back.
The video with everything you will see and some nice drone footage:
More pictures from Feb18 going up East Dog’s Tooth and exiting through the South Heaven’s Gate itself.
Update 2020: I have added a dedicated post for Dog’s Teeth and all its variants. The map there (easier to download to your phone) which also includes South Phoenix and Heaven’s Gate paths.
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