Trail running in Hong Kong: the history of how it became one of our biggest sporting obsessions

Hong Kong today is a magnet for some of the world’s best trail racers, with events big and small every weekend in the cooler months. But how did the sport get started in the city? We look at the policies and people behind its explosive rise

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Trailwalker runners at the start of the 1986 race along the MacLehose Trail.

Published: 4:00am, 26 Jan 2016Updated: 3:21pm, 5 Nov 2016

Trail running has become wildly popular around the globe in the past five to eight years and Hong Kong has not been immune to the trend.

In the past five years the number of trail races held here has more than trebled. This racing season (which began in October 2015 and will run till March 2016) has at least 39 events – more than one every weekend, and sometimes as many as three or four. There are more than 6,000 listed runners in a Hong Kong Meet Up group and 3,500 followers of the Trail Running Hong Kong Facebook page, just one of the city’s many social media hubs for the sport.

This past weekend, 1,800 runners from more than 50 countries took part in the Vibram Hong Kong 100, part of the prestigious Ultra Trail World Tour. Participants included international trail running star François D’Haene, of France, the 2014 Ultra Trail World Tour men’s champion, who won the race in a new course record of nine hours and 32 minutes.

If you, like me, only started hearing about the sport in the past five years and believe it to be in its infancy in Hong Kong, you’ll be surprised to know trail running was part of Hong Kong’s design – an important release valve of sorts for a compact city dense with people.

Lee Talbot: the ‘father of Hong Kong country parks’

In the 1960s a government report identified Hongkongers’ need for extra space – a place to escape without leaving the city. David Trench, the then governor, invited American conservationist Professor Lee Talbot to visit Hong Kong and plot locations for country parks.

Over the course of a month Talbot, along with his wife, Marty, walked, sailed and flew over the region. In the 34-page report he filed, he included his vision of the parks as an important place for Hongkongers to “regain equilibrium”.