Despite being one of the most built-up and dense cities in the world Hong Kong provides some of the best hiking to be found so close to a large urban center. Within half an hour you can be away from the skyscrapers and climbing rolling mountains or walking along pristine coastlines.
Last weekend I took a trip to South Wales to get a bit of fresh air and to explore a part of the UK I’d never been to before. It takes about two hours to reach Cardiff, the capital of Wales, from London by train making it ideal for a short getaway. While travelling around this region by public transport can be a bit limiting I did manage to get out of the cities to somewhere a bit more remote and moreover stunningly beautiful…
In the early afternoon of my second day in Kyoto I visited one of the most impressive shrines in Kyoto; Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) which is characterised by thousands of vermilion torii gates that cover the slopes of the mountain creating long tunnels through which visitors can amble.
Sokcho (속초) is a small city on the north-east coast of South Korea along the 38th Parallel, in close proximity to North Korea. While the city in itself doesn’t have much to attract visitors (think 1970′s grey apartment blocks) the nearby Seoraksan National Park (설악산) is renowned for being one of the most beautiful in the country. I took a trip to see for myself…
As in may parts of the world May 1st is a national holiday in China. I’ve learnt from bitter experience that during holidays in China it’s best to avoid popular locations since you’re more likely to be greeted by hordes of people rather than beautiful views…
During my trip to South Korea I spent four days on the picturesque island of Jeju (제주도) which is a famous holiday destination throughout Asia as it operates a “no visa” policy meaning Chinese can freely visit also. It’s quite a big island with over half a million inhabitants and a culture and language that are distinct from those of mainland Korea. Whilst I spent two of those days in the Lift Asia conference I did manage to squeeze in a little sight seeing. Jeju island was created entirely from volcanic eruptions approximately 2 million years ago and is dominated by Halla-san: an inactive volcano 1,950 metres high and the highest mountain in South Korea. I didn’t have time to climb the main peak but instead I…
One of the highlights on my previous weekend in Hong Kong was taking the Ngong Ping 360 cable car up Lantau Island (from Tung Chung). It nearly didn’t happen due to a thunderstorm which shut things down for about half an hour but on the plus side did shorten the queues considerably! The 5.7km journey takes about 25 minues offering spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and airport (which was built on reclaimed land). It’s a bit pricy, starting at 96 HKD for a standard cabin and 157 HKD for a crystal cabin (one with a glass floor) – even more on “special days”. We choose the latter, primarily because the queue was much shorter and we were on a tight schedule. Don’t look…
Last weekend I joined some colleagues to climb another mountain, this time near the coast in Yantian district and more of a scramble rather than a walk! The path took us around a large reservoir and then up a rocky river bed which provided for a pretty unforgiving obstacle course. Due to the volume of other people on the same route the pace was a bit slow but luckily we had perfect weather; not too hot, not too cold. There were one or two hairy moments, especially at a steep waterfall where an old rope had been provided to climb up, the only problem being that water was still running over the rock face. The sensible ones in our group opted for the detour…
On the first day of the National Day holidays in China I was invited by some of my colleagues to climb Shenzhen’s tallest mountain – Wutong Shan, standing at just under 1000 meters. After travelling nearly 2 hours to the outskirts of the city on a crowded bus our climb began under the canopy of the extremely verdant mountainside. Even though it was a relatively cool day it was still in the high 20′s and tropically humid – not the most comfortable weather for hiking but invigorating nevertheless! Because of the heat and the steepness of the ascent we needed to stop every 20 minutes or so to catch our breath and have a drink. It was a good thing everyone brought lots of…