Hong Kong 2025 Day 4: Hike to Victoria Peak (香港.太平山顶)
- Rick
- Aug 8
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 18
Day 3 | Part 1: Ferry to Macau Taipa & Coloane (澳门一日游.上)
Day 3 | Part 2: Historic Centre of Macau & Return via HZMB (澳门一日游.下)
8th August 2025, Friday | ☀️
We started the day a little late as it had been a long day in Macau the day before. Our main objective for this day was to hike to Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island but we needed breakfast before that. We opted to take a direct bus to Central Market, travel uphill on the Central Mid-Levels Escalator again to a popular cafe — if taking MTR, we would need to change trains at Admiralty / Central Station and then walked over from Hong Kong Station to Central Market, which was not straightforward.
We left The Cityview and came to the bus-stop near Yau Ma Tei Station Exit A1 — where we had alighted twice from Cityflyer Airport Service A21 on Day 1 and Day 3. Most bus-stops in Hong Kong, especially those in the busy areas, were not sheltered and could span up to hundred metres with multiple bus-stop signposts — each signpost was designated for buses from the same bus company. The lanes to queue for respective buses were also clearly marked on the floor.
9:13am, Citybus Service 104 came and we boarded. The sector fare was a fixed HK$12.20 — it would not be worth the money to take fixed-fare buses for short distances. After travelling through the underwater Cross-Harbour Tunnel (香港海底隧道) below Victoria Harbour (维多利亚港), we came to Central and dropped off at the Central Market (中环街市). At 9:45am, most of the shops / stalls in Central Market were still closed or preparing to open.
Unlike on Day 2, where the Central Mid-Levels Escalators (中环至半山自动扶梯) was travelling uphill when we were using it, they were travelling downhill this time. A notice besides each escalator indicated that they would travel downhill from 6am to 10am, and taking about 20 minutes to change direction between 10am to 10:20am — manually. Anyway, we had to walk up the steps.
9:55am, we came to Lan Fong Yuen (兰芳园), a popular cafe along Gage Street (结志街) and right beside the Escalators. The cafe was famed for its Pantyhose Milk Tea (丝袜奶茶). We managed to get a table to one corner of the nearly-full cafe and ordered two breakfast sets. I had Chicken Wing + Spiced Pork Cubes + Fried Egg Dry Instant Noodle (心多多捞丁, HK$70/set) with their signature milk tea and my sister had Laksa Chicken Wings with Rice Vermicelli (喇沙鸡中翅米粉, HK$63/set) with their secret-recipe yuen yeung (秘制鸳鸯).
We did not realised we had ordered two chicken wings dishes until the food was served — brains usually would not work well before breakfast.
It was 10:40am after exiting from Lan Fong Yuen and the Escalator had changed to up-going direction. We began the hike to Victoria Peak by taking the Escalator all the way to the highest point, passing through columns of tall residential buildings. Unlike in Singapore where all water pipes of residential flats were hidden from view, they were exposed in Hong Kong. The unsightly network of pipes and dull paintworks made the buildings looked "gloomy". The residential blocks were also so close to one another that one could see into other units with bare eyes.
I had been wondering why the Escalator was named as "Central Mid-Levels Escalator" and got my answer when we reached the upper end, where a pink-blue signpost identified the area as "Mid-Levels" (半山) — we were in Mid-Levels District (半山区), a residential district.
Following the direction to Peak Tram (山顶缆车), we walked along Conduit Road (干德道), then followed Hornsey Road (香雪道) all the way to Old Peak Road (旧山顶道). It was mostly uphill walking, some inclines were pretty steep. There was a pavilion along Old Peak Road where we took a short break. Then, we continued the hike on Old Peak Road to The Peak. (See map below for the hiking trail.)
The tiring 2.2Km hike ended when we reached Peak Tram Barker Road Station (山顶缆车白加道站), taking nearly 1.5 hours. We waited for a funicular tram to arrive and leave the station, took some photos of the moving tram, and use Findlay Path (芬梨径) to The Peak (山顶) — but it was not the highest point on Victoria Peak (太平山山顶).
Victoria Peak was about 552 metres above sea level and the highest peak on Hong Kong Island. The hill offered great views of the cityscapes around Victoria Harbour and also the smaller islands to the south. The Peak Tower that many tourists visited was located at Victoria Gap at an altitude of 396 metres. Sky Terrace 428 on top of the tower offered panoramic views of the city from 428 metres above sea level.
The Peak Tower, Peak Galleria and The Peak Tram Upper Terminus, on the ground level of The Peak Tower, were situated in an area that was called "The Peak" but not really at the peak — it was confusing. Anyway, the iconic structure of The Peak Tower was the most prominent landmark on The Peak.
Other than the observation decks on The Peak Tower and Peak Galleria, there were shops and restaurants in both buildings. But, the air-conditioning was our primary objective after hiking under the hot sun. We walked into Peak Galleria, window-shopped and to cool down at the same time. The observation deck above the shopping mall offered free viewing of the cityscape below whereas Sky Terrace 428 required an entry ticket — we had been to the terrace on previous trips so we skipped it this time.
An hour later, we had cool down sufficiently to have lunch. We decided on Mak’s Noodle (麦奀云吞面世家), which was famous for its wanton noodle and Michelin-recommended as well. We ordered their Signature Wanton Noodle (世家云吞面) and Beef Brisket & Tendon Noodle (牛腩牛筋面). When the dishes came, we shared the ingredients and created our own beef brisket + tendon + wanton noodle, which was not on the menu.
After a short walk around The Peak Galleria, mainly to digest some of the food before dessert, we went to PHI Coffee & Pancake. The cafe had a series of soufflé with different flavours. We chose a Pistachio Soufflé and Tiramisu Coffee to share. The cafe was a great find!
Before leaving The Peak, we did some shopping. I bought some pastries with special flavours from Natural is Best (自然派) — a box of mini tangerine peel pastries (陈皮酥) and a box of mini avocado pastries (牛油果酥, 8pcs) with a mix of soft white peach paste or salted egg yolk embedded in the avocado filling. They had nice natural flavours indeed.
It was time to descend from Victoria Peak. Seeing a long queue of people holding umbrellas under the scorching afternoon sun outside the Peak Tram Station, we opted for buses instead. The Peak Bus Terminus was located in the basement (Level LG) of The Peak Galleria. Two public bus services were available: Green Minibus (GMB) Express Service 1 (HK$11.80 per person) was an express service to Hong Kong MTR Station, whereas Citybus Service 15 (HK$13 per adult, half for children) would ply a longer route, served more stops and ending at Central Ferry — nearly the same destination as GMB Service 1, just different end-points.
Citybus Service 15 were double-deck buses and its queue was long and extending out of the bus terminus into the sun. GMB Service 1 were minibuses and could ferry 19 person per bus, standing was not allowed. We were closer to the bus bay for Service 1 and lucky to join a short queue for the next service. Less than 10 minutes’ wait, we were seated and heading towards Hong Kong Station (香港站) and alighted outside Central MTR Station (中环站).
We cut through Central Market, exited to Queen's Road Central (皇后大道中), walked passed The Center (中环中心), with a height of 350-metre (80 storeys), took a photo, and continued to Shiu Shing Hong Limited (兆成行), a well-known wholesale-cum-retail shop selling pure essential oils, fragrances, cosmetics, ingredients for cosmetic, etc, along Jervois Street (苏杭街). The shop had been around for more than 50 years. Interestingly, there were also bottles of scent labelled with names of shopping malls, hotels, Hong Kong Airport, etc, said to be the scents used in those establishments.
As the time was already 4:10pm, no sampling of the products was allowed (shop policy) probably due to expected larger crowd after 4pm. There were quite a number of people inside the small shop and a queue outside it, taking turns to go in to browse the shelves. However, for those who came with what they wanted in mind, they could just specify the items to buy at the counter fronting the shop instead of waiting to go in. My sister bought a couple of essential oils without stepping in.
Once done, we walked to Sheung Wan MTR Station (上环站) and took trains, with a change at Central Station (中环站), to Yau Ma Tei (油麻地).
Exiting from Yau Ma Tei MTR Station Exit A2, my sister had cravings for curry fishballs (咖喱鱼蛋), so she bought the popular Hong Kong snack (6 pieces for HK$13) from Tung Tat (通达食店) near the exit — the eatery usually had a queue outside it to buy takeaway foodstuffs, such as curry fishballs, beef offals, cart noodles, etc. I tried one fishball, it was firm and pretty dense with rich, sweet-spicy flavours from the thick curry gravy. It was very different from my imagination of "curry fishball" based on Nanyang styles.
Back in the room, I took a cold shower and got ready my worn clothes for washing — when the weather was hot, there would be more change of clothings to get out of sweaty sets. We went out for dinner at 7pm.
I wanted to go for roasted goose and roasted pigeon, two of Hong Kong’s delicacies, so my sister suggested Sum Hung Cuisine (深鴻私房菜) in Mong Kok where she had tried it once some 2 years back. It took less than 10 minutes to walk there. The restaurant was located on Floor 2 (level 3) of Rejoice Court and accessible via a lift. We were fortunate to get a table for two as the restaurant was quite full.
It was an opportunity to try two delicacies at one go so we ordered a lower quarter of Roasted Goose (荔枝柴熏烧鹅, 下庄: HK$178, 上庄: HK$148) — it was sold out and had to change to upper quarter but cheaper by HK$30 — and a Roasted Pigeon (荔枝柴熏乳鸽, HK$58). We ordered two bowls of rice, forgetting that we usually would not eat a lot of rice at night and also because a quarter of roasted goose was quite big and meaty.
Despite the big portion of meat and rice, we still managed to finish all. A small piece of osmanthus water chestnut cake (桂花糕) per person was served as free dessert after the utensils were cleared — if it was any bigger in size, we would probably request to have just one piece to share.
It was nearly 9pm after dinner. I still needed to find a self-service launderette to have my laundry washed. The nearest launderette that could be located on Google Maps was in Yau Ma Tei, near Hing Kee Restaurant (兴记菜馆) where we had claypot rice 2 nights before — unknown to me, there was a self-service launderette not far from Sum Hung Cuisine but it was not added to Google Maps.
It took us just 10 minutes to walk to C+ Laundry along Temple Street. Unlike the warm environment of fanned launderettes in Malaysia, C+ Laundry was air-conditioned and rather cooling in the warm night, but it was a small shop with few machines. I used my Octopus card to pay for the 25-minute washing (HK$18) and 35-minute drying (HK$28), and depleted my card’s stored value into negative range. As the small shop was a little cram, my sister return to the hotel first and I stayed in the air-conditioned shop till my laundry was done, not willing to step outside and work out a sweat.
10:30pm, done with the washing and drying, I headed straight back to the hotel. I had no more worries about what to wear for the remaining 3 days.
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