The Backyard

It has been my third hike since the my last punishing climb to the highest mountain in Lantau Island. I intentionally picked these routes on Lantau Island. I wished to remind myself that I’ll return for the challenge.

I never bother to know about the island until recently. Now, I could at least confidently point out some of the attraction sites on a map.

Lantau is the largest island in Hong Kong. It’s one of the rarest location where not a lot of urbanization can be found, especially on the south and west ends. It’s mountainous and so it was designated for the country parks and conservation zones. There’s limited access to the public with only public transportation allowed (buses and taxis). A special permit is needed for the in order to drive on the closed roads which connects most attractions of the island. Only a quota of 25 would be given on each day and applicants can only apply once a month. No wonder the air feels so much fresher here!

Our famed Tai O Village in Lantau (famed as the Hong Kong version of Venice) is popular for most Hong Kongese to visit on the weekends. To me in many ways, It’s similar to most other Outlying Islands, shops, eateries, settings, etc. It gets crowded due to the limited transportation connecting back to the city and its remote geographical location (west end of Lantau). Queues are painsickening from Tung Chung after 11am and 5pm on the way back. Good thing is It’s totally avoidable if you research a little more.

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Just when you thought this much-protected island is so sacred out of our precious land or we like relating it as our ‘backyard’. Our Government has in fact rolled out a long-term proposal to develop Lantau as an outdoor activity hub. To most of our wiser minds, we quickly decoded the outdoor activity hub as a smoke screen. Obviously they intentionally leave out the housing plans (which our government is desperately needing flat lands) at this stage yet due to the opposing voice.

It’s fair to say the face of Lantau will in stages evolve into something else. There will be more land reclamation, concrete buildings, open traffic in the coming days. There’re two questions we must ask are – ‘Are we ordinary citizens wanting all these changes?’ , ‘Is the greater good only for the large corporates, real estate developers, the wealthy elites?’