Take a hike: Hong Kong offers guided tours of MacLehose Trail

The MacLehose Trail can be seen winding through the hilly terrain in the New Territories, Hong Kong. Photo: Discovery HK

Hiking enthusiasts, lace up your boots and head to a place where you can enjoy a bracing walk in spacious, wide open countryside: Hong Kong.

The Special Administrative Region branching out from the Chinese mainland is more known for its crowded urban cityscape, but it also has a beautiful outdoors that deserves to be explored.

From this month until March next year, the Hong Kong Tourism Board is offering Saturday and Sunday guided tours—conducted by professional hiking guides—of MacLehose Trail in the New Territories.

Photo: Kelvin Yuen/HKTB

The trail is a 100-km path in rugged countryside from Sai Kung to Tuen Mun that made National Geographic's list of the world's best hiking trails,. And while it offers beautiful views, it also offers a challenge. "The MacLehose Trail makes constant, grueling 1,000-plus-foot descents followed immediately by ascents along the fingers of ridgetops, making it more challenging than its mileage suggests," said the National Geographic.

According to the HKTB in a press release, the tour focuses on the first section of the trail. This will take hikers from the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark to the East Dam of High Island Reservoir, and finally to Long Ke beach the Sai Kung Peninsula. Bike tours are also available, as well as other hiking tours.

Photo: National Geographic

Interested tourists and hikers can register now. Tour registration: Now till March 2017  — BM, GMA News

For details and schedule about guided tours, visit the Hong Kong Tourism Board's website.