First off, I am going to start by writing that this hike is, by far, one of the best hikes I have ever enjoyed. It was completely different than any other terrain I had experienced in the past. When traveling to Hong Kong, I had no intention of hiking there since it is known as a big conglomerate city. I only had packed sneakers and had no hiking equipment with me. With that said, I did not need to buy any special hiking equipment for this trail or hiking boots. My sneakers worked out completely fine.
While I was studying abroad, many of the locals I met suggested to me to go hiking to the hidden beach of Big Wave Bay. It is located on the coastline, outside of the city, and only accessible by bus. I did not want to trouble my friends or myself by planning such a trip, but after having another friend suggested it, we all agreed it probably would be fun and a great experience.
The overall hike should have been about a three-mile trek one-way, but we accidentally got lost along the trail and missed the first turning point for Big Wave Bay. That meant this hike ended up being about ten miles for us one-way.
To begin with the story, we had to get to the trail start. That required a lot of planning, which you guessed it, we did not do. Our plan the morning of was to grab two 4-person Ubers and eat the cost and get there. The group consisted of five of us, so this is why we needed the two Ubers (at the time, Hong Kong did not have the Uber XL option). When this failed, we hopped onto the bus. I questioned the bus route we were on to my friend, who insisted we were on the correct bus when we started heading the wrong direction. I usually am the one to plan activities and transportation in the group, but I suggested this time I did not because it was not my idea to go for the hike. I regretted this because we had to get off and exchange buses two more times before we reached the metro that would take us to the last bus up to the start of the trail. It ended up being way more complicated for us because we were flying by the seat of our pants, so be smart and plan ahead of time.
By the time we got to the trail, it was late morning. The sun was high in the sky, and the heat was beating down. I was thankful my mom engraved the thought of applying sunscreen regularly when I was a child. There was no way I would survive the day without it. I can get heat exhaustion due to being susceptible to overheat regularly, so I was super nervous about how hot it was. I have brought a ton of water and food to sustain me for a while, but I knew I would need to refill somewhere at some point.
The start of the trail was a staircase. It was all uphill, with man-made stone steps in the mountain. It started out being under a canopy of trees, which I was grateful for after the stuffy bus rides. We hiked up these stairs for maybe 30 minutes. My legs were burning and covered in sweat. We got to a plateau area of the trail before it declined for a bit. Shortly thereafter, we reached the clearing of the trees, and we realized we were on the peaks of a bunch of connecting mountains. I could tell we wouldn't have shade from the sun for the rest of the hike. We were exposed to the heat and sun up at the top. I suggested everyone steal some sunscreen from me, or they would have regretted it. We all applied a layer of sun protection and then took a moment to revel in the spectacular view in front of us.
The view was like no other I had seen before. I was accustomed to the Vermont rolling hills and mountains here and there. This view was all coastline and cliffs. The blue water below us was enticing as we were hot and covered in sweat. We were all excited to reach the beach and take a swim. We were all in our swimsuits as well, because we did not know if there would be any place to change or not. We noticed some paragliders jumping off cliffs and catch the chute in the wind. We watched as they slowly descended to the ground below us and flew through the air. The atmosphere was relaxing and calming, which helped me ignore the heat.
For the next hour, we were hiking peak to peak of the mountain range. The path was maybe 6ft wide and then just straight down because it was a cliff on both sides. We just kept walking straight following the trail. We did not have any maps or cell service, and we were following the signs only. That is what got us into trouble. We must have missed a sign to Big Wave Bay because, after two hours of walking straight and no end in sight, I knew something was wrong. After about five miles, we saw a sign pointing to Big Wave Bay. It was pointing down the mountain and then back the way we came. We had hope that maybe the hike was longer than we thought, but that we would be in the ocean soon. That was not the case.
As we finally were starting to make our way down the trail, the tree canopy and shade came back. It was refreshing in the shade, and it was such a relief after the afternoon sun. That allowed everyone to regain some motivational strength even though we were all exhausted. We thought the trees meant we were close to the bottom, but we were misguided. That was only the beginning unbeknownst to us. We had to walk about three miles back to the beach on a different trail since we missed the correct turnoff and kept walking
We hiked for another hour in the woods. There was no indication of the beach, and one of my friends and I were starting to get afraid that we had gotten ourselves lost. As the trail went from dirt to concrete, we were confused. We were told by others this trail led to a beach. That is when the rest of the group started to question if we took a wrong turn somewhere and exited through a different path and became irritable. We then saw a little park with a gazebo and water fountain, and I thought this would be an excellent place for everyone to regroup, gather our wits, and fill up on water.
We hiked for about twenty more minutes when we were able to sigh with relief. A sign that said Big Wave Bay with an arrow was pointing down a trail. We headed down that trail for another ten minutes, and then we emerged from the forest straight into a local town.
The village looked like it was straight out of an Uncharted or a Lara Croft video game. Crowded with people, living in tin huts, selling goods and food for money to the hikers. It was a tiny hidden settlement that made you feel like a true explorer. We looked a little further and past the village was the beach. It seemed more crowded than it was because it was a smaller beach. The people were not bothersome. The population of people were mostly locals, so we were the ones who made sure to stay out of the way.
The view from the beach of the mountains and coastline were outstanding. They loomed over us like we were in a paradise. It felt like we were hiding from the city of Hong Kong and society here. The ocean water was the most refreshing of it all. I was sweaty and gross from the hike and was ready to cool off. My legs and back were encouraging me to float with the waves and give them a break. Hong Kong has this law where people are only allowed to swim in designated areas of the ocean. These areas are marked with shark nets. They prevent sharks and other large animals from getting to the people. It also allows the beaches to keep track of the people, so they do not swim out too far.
We were going to hike home as well, but it was starting to get dark. We also were all exhausted from the hike and the beating sun. We had to brainstorm what we were going to do. Since we were outside of the immediate city, a lot of the locals did not speak English, which also made this more difficult for us. Luckily, one person pointed us in a direction, and it led to a bus stop near the entrance of the village.
We were waiting at the city bus stop for a little bit until these local people approached us with their broken English. They informed us the bus no longer runs at this time, but if we wanted to get to the metro, we could take the minibus. Minibusses are harder for foreigners to navigate due to not being able to speak Cantonese. Usually, locals are the majority demographic of people to use this option of transportation. Also, these buses only take cash, and you have to tell them when to stop. Luckily the minibus we got on the man spoke some English, and we were able to pay in advance and ask him to stop at the metro station.
The bus ride alone was a shocking experience I never thought I would encounter. This bus must have been an elongated race car. It was going 80mph down the mountain, filled with travelers, on a roadway with no guardrails and a direct cliff from the road. I was bouncing around everywhere when I decided to buckle in. I look over across the aisle to my friend, and she's being thrown all over as well. I informed her there is a seatbelt if she wanted to strap in, and she grabbed that seatbelt so fast. We were laughing down the mountain because we could not believe this is what a minibus was. We were also slightly afraid for our lives. It would only take the driver to accidentally drive off the cliff for us all to be goners. When we finally pulled into the metro, I was so relieved I had survived the bus ride, and it created some laughs between my friend group because we could not believe what we had just experienced.
Dragon's Back was exhausting, and the next few days, my legs were killing me. I took a lot of Advil that week to be able to walk, but I did not regret the spectacular views and the payoff of making it to the beach. It was a great activity to do outdoors with some close friends, and we all had a great time even though we were exhausted. I suggest being not like me and plan ahead of time and be aware of the trails. If so, the hike is easy! Whenever I decide to visit Hong Kong again, I will be sure to hike this trail and redeem myself from over trekking past the beach.
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