Various short outings including a climbing crag, a bit of scrambling, a gully, WW2 tunnels, bamboo forests, nice views of the city & more.

See full screen & the Garmin track (crag version with Summer) & on my own checking the gully.

A decade ago I moved to Kowloon side. Beacon Hill was the closest hill nearby. Good for a short run back & forth from home. Little by little I started checking the various paths around. That way I found the gully, the climbing crag, and others. Nothing especially remarkable, but once people seem interested, here is all I found and how it looks these days. HK is continually changing with constructions and hikers creating new paths. So recently I spent a few days checking quite some of the paths around again. There are even more. In the last decade, I have seen them appearing all around, with groups opening lines throughout the bush, setting ropes, ribbons, etc. Most completely unnecessary (no added fun, most sandy slippery within the jungle) and creating further erosion 🤷‍♂️
The crag area

The most convenient public transportation that I’m aware of is the various bus stops around Beacon Heights. From there (violet line) start walking on the road and stairs up next to Mont Verra.

On the right side of the Beacon Hill High Level Fresh Water Service Reservoir

find the dirt path going up to the crag. Video with footage of the various days. I’ll mark down the timing of each clip matching the route explained. The very first clip with the wild boars and after Summer going up next to the aforementioned reservoir.

Very clear with signs and a few ropes. The crag is very well known among the climbing community and can be packed on good weather weekends. Dedicated post in the hongkongclimbing.com. I’ll be using the names there (map).

From the Main Crag up you have different options. The one I like the most continuing on the violet line. Go towards the Upper Left Craglet and find an easy scrambling with tons of plastic ribbons (7m30sec in the video). Several options there. The best is to head right as soon as possible towards the top of the Main Crag. Just above “Jasmine”, I think it is called, bolted rightmost wall in the Craglet. Walk on the rocks for very little and you will find a very clear path heading upwards. The light blue line also connects with the top of the Main Crag and doesn’t require any scrambling. I prefer the first one. A little higher, you might see ribbons going down connecting with the crag and others. I have tried a few and they can get messy. I have marked one path of Openstreetmap with ⛔️ I couldn’t find it. In any case, continue on the violet path up and you will eventually arrive at a slab. Marked on the map with the 🔼. Easy to scramble on. With several, non necessary, ropes around. Nice views of the city below. A bit higher an old marking stone and the road.

Very few meters apart you have the black path (8:42) under the electric cabling. Very clear and easily (compared with the next two on the East) doable downhill. Obviously, the easiest ways down are the MacLehose trail itself and the service road that goes up to the Beacon Hill Radar Station (畢à架山雷達站).

After showing Summer the crag we went through the Brown line. Initially within the forest, then more open with easy scrambles (0min50sec), small bamboo sections, and several rocky platforms with nice views of the city below. Not exactly this one, but similar.

In between the violet and the brown, you have the red, which I like less. After giving up in the dense jungle (10:49) ⛔️ I went back down to the Main Crag and from there headed NE direction till what looks like a dry creek (11:03). You can scramble it on the left (one ribbon there) or easily hike on its right. The route up is relatively obscure, but I was able to find my way easily. Lose rocks, within the tree line up till the road.

Pink is doable downhill. The upper part connects with the MacLeshose just under the Radar Station, turn left (7:11) and you will see an old gate and stairs. You can easily go down back to the Main Crag area. Pass it and the path connects with the road. I guess some climbers use this exit, to avoid the downhill violet path with all the gear after a long day climbing.

Dark Blue (8:59 start of Day 4) offers a nice bamboo section at the bottom. There is a kinda parallel path a bit more to the East. But it is less hiked, less open, and with nothing more. After the fork with pink, the path improves. I like that section towards Railway Pass (9:19). After it (9:39) is not bad either. Quite shaded year long. Connecting back with the road.

Brown. Another path to go up to the Radar Station area, this time from the North. The first half is a bit of bush walk and a tiny scramble at the end. The second section (12:33) hike within the bamboos. In the drone picture

the “path” you have hiked on. Impossible to see within the woods 😅
Beacon Hill gully (畢架沖溝) area

Post Covid the eroded geological structures under Castle Peak became more well-known (what I used to call the HK Badlands). One or two years later I started seeing people showing pics of the “secret” gully next to Kowloon city *️⃣. Here for example in “sexy adventurous” way 😅

You can see that there are now ropes and it is clearly frequently hiked. The approach is not the nicest these days with tons of constructions on Lung Cheung road. If I’d need to choose one option (green line), I’d take MTR to Kowloon Tong. Head to Beacon Hill road and find a little path next to a water channeling structure here (2:41).

It will bring you to Lung Cheung Road (highway). Pass to the opposite side using the bridge. Continue East until you arrive at the bottom of the hill with the gully (3:26). Around here

Clear path up to the gully (3:57).

You can check it from a bit lower (4:00), but I haven’t seen any path yet going to the bottom. Long rope required to rappel down with mostly 💩y rock. So not worthwhile.

To connect with MacLehose continue heading up. Within the forest first (4:18), a bit of scrambling later (4:30). Tons of ropes and others set these days.

The green line after Railway Pass (5:18) is relatively easy to hike downhill. It looks like part of the British construction a century ago. The brown line is OKla too. I have included more comments on the map itself. On the lines and in several of the forks. Finally, the yellow line is not worthwhile hiking. It was messy already a few years ago. Now it is even more with half of the slopes with constructions. Engineers checking the rock quality and others of the tunnels under Lion Rock.
Military remains

Recently the Government cleared and marked several old structures. British pillbox, blockhouse (part of the defensive line that predated the Gin Drinkers Line)

The tunnel directly in the MacLehose trail (X on the map) used to be fence closed,

but it is open now(4:50). It is a small one. Just L-shaped with a dead end. There is a bigger one further West, under MacLehose (🏰). Entry just within the bamboo (6:30) on the bottom of a stairs section.

It is longer and higher. U-shaped with two entries.

The several times mentioned Railway Pass

has a big Direction slab on the floor. Located at the entrance/exit of the “No. 2” section of the Drinkers Line. It points to the battalion headquarters, several pillboxes and others. Finally the government set a chain around it. People used to walk on it and even mark it… That + water has eroded it significantly.

My recommendation for a longer outing. Start green. Check the gully. Once on MacLehose check the bigger tunnel. Go down through pink to the crag. Go up violet, next to the Craglet and passing the slab. Down whichever route you prefer. Either road + Maclehose + road. Or black and road.