Tiny coasteering route with Coastal Defense museum start and a bit more of historical sites around. Perfect for a short one but for the water quality.
- Beauty/fun: 4/10 a few nice rock formations, WW2 pillboxes; but with too much trash and poor water quality.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 4/10 in coasteering wet mode. You could do it completely dry and easier cheating on the parallel path. No waves but from the myriad of boats passing nearby.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track.
I hadn’t even realized that there was a tiny non concrete shoreline that I had missing in Hong Kong Island. Perfect test for my recovering ankle.
Shau Kei Wan Station exit D1 or B2 and walk to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. We spent approx 1 hour, but if you like history you could easily be there for a couple of hours or more checking every corner and explanation. Indoor and outdoor things to see.
Go down to the torpedo station and time to get on the coastline itself.
Almost immediately you will need to decide if to do this in wet or dry mode. For the former go under the pillbox above and into the sea. If dry keep on top. Several precarious ladders and ropes set to “help” you. Post in Chinese with tons of pictures in opposite direction & completely dry option for your reference.
Up and down the boulders with the vegetation close by. Another pillbox and
a slab section
with concrete steps, ropes and others set by fishermen that have built even their own spacious huts there.
The very last section has nice colored rocks but ends up on a fence… Ehhh… So the fastest way out is approx 200m swim and exit through the promenade. Alexa was not keen, so we went back the same way
to the slab and there you can see the old drainpipe coming from
the abandoned old barracks.
There is a clear path next to the drainpipe. It gets you through a fence to the road out.
We needed to jump through some stairs to come out here. But relatively easy considering that we had been coasteering before. Continue walking to the main Chai Wan road from where to take a bus or walk back down to Shau Kei Wan again.
If you are not keen on swimming you could do the dry option in our same direction and also add the Japanese tunnels in that very same hill to have a more complete historical outing.
September 20, 2023 at 10:36 pm
Where you the “Coasteering start” marker in your map and where your female hiking partner climbs over a fence, there is a pictogram indicating that it is not allowed to exit the compounds of the museum that way. The security guard in that area watched us and did not want to leave that way. He kept saying “no” and used his phone to call his superiors or so. We had to return to the main road and start the coast hike on the other end. : (
I’m guessing there was no such guard when you were there? Or did you ignore him?-)
September 21, 2023 at 4:26 pm
There was no guard. But I do not know what would be our reaction if he were 😄 The coastline is free to be hiking on. I do not think they could do anything if you would be purely coasteering + swim exit. Going through the Old barracks is the only part that it is not exactly legal…