Places and Trails across Hong Kong
Utilise urban parks equitably, mitigate Hong Kong’s climate hazards now
Hong Kong will face more intense heat, flood, storm surges and biodiversity depletion under climate change. Healing Parks, an advocacy group, says that urban parks can help to mitigate these hazards – but current park design guidelines fail to consider climate resilience. If the government remains inactive, it would harm…
Wang Chau, Basalt Island and Bluff Island
The Ung Kong group of islands is a cluster of three islands – Wang Chau, Basalt Island and Bluff Island, lying off the southeast tip of the Sai Kung Peninsula. They’re made of the same tuff that occurs from the southeastern peninsula to the Ninepin Group, and developed in the…
Activities in Hong Kong outdoors
Taking Hong Kong landscape photos come rain or shine
Even if you don’t travel outside Hong Kong, your photos don’t have to be much the same, week after week, day after day after day. Shooting from the same spot, it’s possible to take highly contrasting photos, such as by heading out at different times of day, and…
Cycling From Tai Po Market to Tai Mei Tuk on Rented Bikes
Hong Kong hardly abounds with routes for relaxing cycling, but there is a fine one in the New Territories, from Tai Po Market to Tai Mei Tuk.
Telford Gardens, a private housing estate in Kowloon Bay, East Kowloon, has become an unlikely hotspot for migratory birds, notably for seeing some normally secretive wetland species such as Locustella warblers and rails. Unless you arrived here when there are birders/photographers, you might glance around and just dismiss…
I had a whatsapp message from Nick Florent this afternoon, a bird on the beach, on Cheung Chau; there was a photo too – a red-footed booby! This seabird is rare in Hong Kong, and even then seen pretty much only over waters well south of Hong Kong…
Weather including tropical cyclones
Rare November Tropical Cyclones Including Typhoons in Hong Kong
As I write on 13 November 2024, Tropical Cyclone Toraji is set to pass over Hong Kong, with a T8 signal warning of gales, and radar indicating intense rains to come. It’s highly unusual to have a tropical cyclone affect Hong Kong in November, and I’ve had a…
Typhoons and Rainstorms Past Help Hong Kong Forecasts Today
Wetter, Wilder Weather Events Loom with Warming World You may find yourself on a Hong Kong beach, on a roasting hot day when the sun feels extra searing, the air cloying and superheated. Though there’s not a breath of wind, and the sea appears calm, surf builds along…
Given the Hong Kong government espouses a policy of “conservation in the south” of Lantau[1], and at the beginning of April 2025 a body called the Sustainable Lantau Office invited expressions of interest for “South Lantau Eco-recreation Corridor”[2], you might expect this project fully embraces the principles of…
The Sustainable Lantau Office (SLO) was established by Hong Kong’s Civil Engineering and Development Department; given its origins perhaps hardly surprising that it has failed to achieve much regarding sustainability, but perhaps must keep hoping. I’ve had quite some correspondence with the SLO over the years; even made…
While slopes in Hong Kong may receive intensive management – especially given the history of severe landslides during rainstorms – there has in recent decades been something of a shift from purely concreting them, to cultivating and allowing more greenery. See, for instance: The Government has committed to…
