The ugly and the beautiful - from the Junk Peak trail

The Junk Peak Trail (釣魚翁郊遊徑) is a trail of two views, one totally ugly and the other quite beautiful.  We started from 五塊田 in the north, and walked south towards 大廟坳.  It started with a fairly steep climb.  The steps formed by the paving stones actually put more pressure on our knees.  So we tried to walk on the side as much as possible.  Here having real hiking shoes would have helped. 

Once we got over the forest, we could see quite far in all directions.  Looking back towards the north, rustic Sai Kung was to the right in the east, and heavily populated Junk Bay to the left in the west.  Here the views diverge dramatically. 

As we walked towards the south, we could see the whole of Junk Bay to our right in the west.  Junk Bay was and is still being used as a huge landfill for our city’s garbage.  It is also being rapidly and heavily built up.  High rises are built on top of, or right next to former landfills.  Excavations carve humongous holes from, or simply obliterate whole mountains.  Active landfills are partially covered up with green tarpaulins. 

That’s the ugly side of Hong Kong that we don’t see very often.