Dragon's Back

The Ridge Line

Dragon’s Back closes out Section 8 of the 50-kilometre Hong Kong Trail, tracing the spine of the Shek O Peninsula between Shek O Peak and Wan Cham Shan. The name describes the silhouette rather than any legend: seen from a distance, the ridge rises and dips like vertebrae along a dragon’s back. The high point sits at 284 metres, modest by Hong Kong hiking standards but exposed enough on both flanks to feel taller. To the west, clear sightlines run across the South China Sea toward Aberdeen and Lamma Island; to the east, the ridge drops toward the jagged coastline of Tai Tam Bay and the open water past Big Wave Bay. The trail surface mixes compacted earth, stone steps, and short boardwalk sections, maintained by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) to slow erosion on slopes that take heavy weekend foot traffic.

Recognition & Local Use

In November 2004, Time magazine’s Asia edition named Dragon’s Back the continent’s best urban hike, praising a ridge walk that stays close to the city while feeling far removed from it. The recognition turned a route long used informally by Shek O and Big Wave Bay residents into one of the territory’s most photographed trails, particularly around sunrise and sunset when the ridgeline is at its sharpest. The land falls under Shek O Country Park, and that designation has kept the peninsula largely free of the residential towers found elsewhere on Hong Kong Island — a planning trade-off between conservation and proximity to some of the most expensive real estate in the territory.

Geology & History

The rock underfoot is largely rhyolite and tuff, volcanic material laid down roughly 140 million years ago during the Jurassic period, part of the same volcanic sequence that shaped much of southeastern Hong Kong. Unlike the colonial-era coastal batteries at Stanley a few kilometres south, nothing on this ridge was built for defence; its value has always been topographic rather than strategic, a walking corridor rather than a fortified one. Before the trail was formalised for hikers, sections of the ridge served local fishing and farming communities in Shek O and Tai Tam as a practical route between the coast and the interior of the peninsula, long before anyone thought to name it after its shape.

Local Taste & Access

Reaching the trailhead means combining the MTR Island Line to Shau Kei Wan with the No. 9 Citybus, which runs to the To Tei Wan stop in about 20 minutes. Most hikers cover the roughly 8.5-kilometre traverse west to east, finishing at Tai Long Wan Village on the Big Wave Bay side. The descent drops walkers directly into a small cluster of open-fronted, dai pai dong-style stalls, where a plate of salt-and-pepper squid and a glass of iced lemon tea function as the standard reward before the minibus back to Shau Kei Wan. On a clear Sunday, the queue for that first cold drink can rival the queue at the trailhead itself — a reminder that Dragon’s Back, for all its wilderness feel, is thoroughly woven into the rhythms of the city it overlooks.