Hong Kong Lion's Rock Shortcut Hike

My friends and I aren’t the fittest people in the world – far far far from it, so if anyone would be keen to shorten a hike, it would be us. With some judicious searching by my friend, she managed to shorten our 7km hike into a 3km hike instead. Hallelujah!

Honestly, between Dragon’s Back (the other HK hike I’ve been to) vs Lion’s Rock, I far preferred Lion’s Rock for a couple of reasons:

Hike was shorter (taking into account the shortcut)
It felt more like a hike, because it got my heart beating since the steps were quite steep. In contrast, Dragon’s Back kind of felt like a chill urban stroll (although this was nice too!)
Lion’s Rock is shaded 80% of the way – thank goodness. I loved this! So despite hiking under the summer sun, it wasn’t SO bad
Beautiful views! Lion’s Rock provides unparalleled views – where you can see mountains, skies, and buildings – a beautiful melding of both man and nature

So without further ado, let’s get started and I’ll let you in on a little cheat to this hike 😉

Where is the Lion Rock hike starting point?

Well, for the shortcut, we started at Lion Rock Park. There are multiple ways to get here, ranging from the bus, the MTR and even a taxi. As for us, we chose to take an MTR to the nearest station (Wong Tai Sin), then we just took a taxi from there to Lion Rock Park. You can choose to walk from the station to the Lion Rock Park, but it’s uphill and hot, so if you do, you can consider that a part of the hike too!

How long does the Lion Rock hike take?

Well, since we did the shortcut, we started our hike at 9AM and ended at 11:30AM. Not bad right? 2.5 hours, and that’s with A LOT of pitstops to rest and to take photos. So for people more fit, it would probably take just 1.5 hours. This shortcut is particularly great if you want to catch the sunset and you’re short on time!

Also, keep in mind that this hike isn’t as scenic versus if you did the whole 7km, since this shortcut entails you starting from the END of the hike, reaching the Lion Rock, then going back down the same way

What can I expect from the Lion Rock hike?

Expect lots of steps – 50% of these steps are actually cemented, and while a bit steep, is quite doable.

We also saw A LOT of monkeys while going up. They were super cute and active, and seemed to be shadowing us. On the way down, we didn’t see a single one. So, I guess seeing them isn’t always guaranteed.

30 minutes from the start of the hike, you’ll reach a natural resting spot, where you can see beautiful views and just chill a bit with sufficient shade. The only annoying thing here is there’s A LOT of garbage lying around… People should not litter huhu

15 minutes later, you’ll get to another viewing spot, with even better views given the huge rock you can use to frame your photos.

Finally, after 15 minutes, you’ll have reached the pavilion. There were higad here though, and honestly the views weren’t great, so we didn’t linger too much and moved on quickly from this spot.

After the pavilion, the paved steps disappear and you start climbing real STEEP rocks. Still, the prospect of reaching the peak invigorates us (also the promise that we’re just 30 minutes from the peak), and so it wasn’t so bad.