Hong Pak – a walk with a nice surprise at the end

One weekend Tom and I wanted to go on a fairly short, easy walk so we looked on our Enjoy Hiking app and found the Hong Pak country trail. It’s rated as 1/4 (meaning Easy) is a level walk and is 3.3km long. However, the app also very briefly mentions that you have to walk uphill for 30 minutes to get to the start of the walk!

To get to the start of the trail, exit the Quarry Bay MTR station at the main exit, turn right and walk along the road for about 5 minutes until you come to a road (Mount Parker Road). Turn right up the road and keep following it up for about 30 minutes. The road is semi-pedestrianised and if you kept going you would eventually join the Hong Kong trail. You pass a BBQ area and the entrance to Quarry Bay Tree Walk on your way up.

When you see this sign, turn left…

…and then immediately right. The trail is signposted to Kornhill, which is the estate you reach at the end of the walk. Follow the trail round. You walk around a pretty level contour around a large valley leading down to Tai Koo. It is mostly forested but every now and again it opens out to lovely views looking back over Quarry Bay and Tai Koo and looking round to the surrounding hills and the other side of the valley.

As you get to about 3/4 of the way round (after about 45 minutes), you start walking past forks in the path. Take the left fork each time. At the third fork however, you might want to walk for about 30 seconds down the right fork because you come out on top of a large rock with a great view over Tai Koo and the harbour. Definitely made the whole walk worthwhile for me! I’ve done it twice now and both times I’ve stayed there for about 20 minutes just taking in the view.

After you’re done with the view, retrace your steps to the fork and take the other path. Shortly after this you should start descending. Again, at each fork take the left fork until you come to a fairly open area which is the other end of the Tree Walk.

This time take the right fork which will take you to Kornhill. Just keep walking down the path. You will walk along the storm drain for a while and will come out into the housing estate. Keep walking down the road (Greig Road) until you get to the main road (King’s Road). Then turn right and after about 5 minutes you should reach an entrance to Tai Koo MTR station.

This is a really pleasant walk, but the view at the end is definitely the highlight! We keep thinking we’ll take a picnic up but then we remember how much you have to walk upwards to get to the viewpoint so we haven’t done it yet!

Thanks for reading!

Rachel