Did I mention that there are tons of tunnels in Hong Kong? Some more in the area, narrower and trickier. For those happy with the challenge.
- Beauty/fun: 5.5/10. I prefer the big one NE, but still fun. Above all, if you are happy to go into the narrowest. Extra fun including the Mask Stone.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 7/10. Outdoors the tunnels difficulty would be a 5/10, with some scrambling and a 2 meters vertical rope descent. But you are doing it underground and in pretty narrow passageways! I’m not trying to sound like Mr. Obvious, but without proper gear and care, you might get into serious trouble here. Navigation in these tunnels is relatively simple. Go always right or else to remember your way or check the simple maps in gwulo.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen. I have added also the track of the NE tunnels and further East tunnels, explained after. Red marks for the tunnels I like the most and the usual entrance used, orange for the second-best options. Several other landmarks for your reference.
Focusing on the route we did covering the tunnels on the West of Jardine’s Lookout.
Meet at Marymount Primary School. Steep concrete steps for quite a while. See a British bunker and start to hike on the dirt path. In a little time we arrived at the first tunnel.
Not much to see, a straight short one. Barely good to test the torches.
From there hike up the sandy trail to the original Japanese tunnels. The first ones I checked.
Tight entry, two climbs within the tunnel pushing against the walls, back same way, dirty, dirty. Continue on the path up to HK trail and down to Parkview. Down the road and pass the West Brigade Headquarters. Just behind this structure
the steep path heading to Mount Nicholson.
Midway you should find the entrance to the next tunnel. Check the GPX. A bad panorama to give you an idea. The guys next to the path, ladies almost in the tunnel.
Low entrance
but soon opens up with some cute stairs.
The tunnel just under them takes you to a deep dead end.
So continue in opposite direction. You have a map in gwulo (and a full post about the tunnel) that might help you. On their map, the aforementioned entrance is the upmost Exit. We continued a bit on the tunnel to the Observation Point.
And go back to the vertical entrance to the lower level. How it looks from above, with the two resident bats above her.
Looking up from the point that you need to drop yourself down 2m with the rope attached to the pipe above.
A precarious anchor, as loose and just relying on the length of the pipe and the hole size. Be careful when using it. In our case, we added our own small rope, in case. After the hole connects with steep stairs.
that go down and up connecting with the start (you can check it all without the vertical drop) and the original main entrance.
There is a faint path on its right (looking at the pic above) that connects with the Observation hole and the start. From here we decided to continue up the hill.
To Mount Nicholson television broadcasting structure and down.
Sandy path before arriving at
the rocks
and the now too well-known (due to Instagram + Covid year) Mask Stone.
There was quite a traffic jam in the corridor. We decided to slide down next to the Mask directly, while the regular hikers were looking at us with “those crazy guys” faces.
More sandy path
and onto the road. A few meters to the West we found the path
heading up the hill again for a little while. Turn West and find the small entrance to the first mini tunnel.
It goes down fast
and it’s tight immediately.
A little after it gets a bit higher, but not much.
Short and with another entrance
very close to the initial. Here a pic that might help with the location. Second entrance on the left, the first one is close to the middle of the picture, and the road down on the right.
We went down again and into the last mini tunnel. It is really close to the buildings.
When we approached it had a wooden plank above. Remove it, have some fun looking at the minuscule entry in the concrete, and enter!
A slight struggle for the bigger guys.
A little further there is an even tighter hole to cross (BTW, in the middle of the picture the ROG engraving).
But after, the tunnel gets wider.
Longer and with more features than expected.
There was no second entrance though. Therefore after arriving at this section
with a little bifurcation and an almost completely collapsed passageway, we returned
back to the starting point.
These last two mini tunnels are a good test for even the mildest claustrophobia. Definitely, I wouldn’t bring a group bigger than 4-5 people there.
In my initial plan, we were going to Mount Cameron too where there is another small tunnel/pillbox. But finally, we decided to finish the day. Some pics by darealmikeb of what we didn’t see.
The outer part is way more obvious.
But once in
the tunnel is very short and with no much to see.
On the way and around, you could see also some more Japanese digging. As mentioned before check gwulo’s Japanese tunnels map for more info.
If you are in a rush and you only have one day to visit tunnels my preferred route now would be (everything on the map): Tai Koo MTR station, head up through the stoves to Tunnel #3 of the NE post, from there to #4 and above all #5. Connect with 1B, down to 2B, up to Mount Nicholson and check the Mask stone downhill, one or both mini tunnels and finish taking the bus from Wong Nai Chung road’s stop.
July 1, 2022 at 10:48 pm
You guys are crazy