Climbing Big Hills.

I took a few hours off from shopping in Hong Kong to take a hike up the hill behind my parents’ village of Chau Tau. Here is the view of the village from the highest point that I managed to walk up to.

It was a little hairy on my walk up to the top of the bigger hill. At some points I almost gave up thinking it would be quite tricky to walk back down. However I figured I would regret it if I didn’t try to make it up to the top of the hill. There was a narrow path up to the top but it was quite steep at points and if I stopped to look down then it would make my knees shake a little.

I did push onwards and upwards and was rewarded with a great view of the surrounding area. The views were a little obscured with the smog in the air. You can clearly see the amount of pollution in the photos.

This is a shot of the big city of Shenzen just on the other side of the hill. It used to be a small town before China took over Hong Kong. Since then it’s been ever growing and growing. Also in the photo you can clearly see markings in the hills. These are actually barbed wire fences put there to stop people from China from getting into Hong Kong. The borders are still closed between China and Hong Kong to people without the proper passes. This scene always reminds me of Steve McQueen trying to escape in the film The Great Escape.

Walking back down the hill wasn’t as bad as I expected. There were a couple of points where I slipped but I didn’t slip very far and managed to catch the slide after a foot or two.

Finally here’s a shot of my grandparents old house in the village. You can see how small and old the house is. No one lives in the house anymore as my grandparents have passed away and I suspect it’s only kept for sentimental reasons.

The paths in the village are very narrow in places with only a meter between the fronts of the houses. I guess even out here in the countryside of Hong Kong space was a premium and they had to build houses close together.