Lugard Road Circuit & High West, Victoria Peak

Lugard Road is the easiest way to see why Hong Kong is famous. It is a narrow contour path, built between 1913 and 1921, that wraps around the upper slopes of Victoria Peak about 400 metres above the harbour. In places the hillside was too steep to cut into, so the path is carried out over the drop on concrete piers. From the eastern half you look straight down over Central, Victoria Harbour and the Kowloon skyline, framed by old banyan and fig trees whose roots grip the retaining walls. Most visitors walk it as the Peak Circle Walk: out along Lugard Road, round on Harlech Road and back to the Peak Tower, about 3.5 kilometres of paved, almost level walking. It is also the first stretch of Hong Kong Trail Section 1, which peels off west at the Hatton Road junction and descends 7 kilometres through forest to Pok Fu Lam Reservoir, a good extension if you want a longer day. The reason to go beyond the loop is High West. From the junction where Lugard, Harlech and Hatton Roads meet, a steep flight of concrete steps climbs to the 494-metre summit in Lung Fu Shan Country Park. The effort is short but real, and the view turns the other way from Lugard Road's: west over the outlying islands and, on a clear day, Sunset Peak on Lantau. Doing both gives you the harbour panorama and a proper hilltop in one outing, and it is rare to get both on Hong Kong Island. Nearby, Lung Fu Shan Country Park also holds the Pinewood Battery Heritage Trail, a 0.4-kilometre loop through a coastal gun position built in 1905. No food or water is sold on the loop or the spur, so buy supplies at the Peak Tower first. Weekends get crowded near the Peak Tower, but the crowds thin quickly once you reach the Harlech Road side.