As the weather turns warmer, picnic gatherings in Hong Kong’s numerous countryside beauty spots – especially when combined with hiking, swimming and other outdoor activities – become a keenly anticipated, much-enjoyed seasonal pleasure.
For many local urbanites, however, the mere prospect of time spent outdoors in the company of bugs, beetles, butterflies, moths and other countryside inhabitants – much less wasps and mosquitoes – is deeply unwelcome. For these fussy folk, wild birds are merely pests to be loudly chased away, while snakes, lizards and other reptiles remain fearful creatures to be shrieked over and shunned. But for those who have learned to appreciate the multifaceted, readily accessible pleasures that Hong Kong’s countryside so abundantly offers, a day spent outdoors – especially with a home-made picnic enjoyed with friends and family somewhere along the way – remains a perennial pleasure.
“Few cities in the world can be so favoured as Hong Kong in the beauty of the surrounding countryside,” wrote G.S.P. Heywood in Rambles in Hong Kong (1938), his charming guide to “the other side” of the colony. “There are mountains and valleys, an intricate and always fascinating coastline, distant prospects of hilly islands which are sometimes strikingly reminiscent of the Hebrides, and foregrounds of villages and paddy fields which can belong to nowhere except China.”
Graham Heywood wrote in praise of Hong Kong’s countryside in his 1938 book Rambles in Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy Heywood family
Accessible open space was always a noted Hong Kong advantage. Heywood continued, “These pleasant places are remarkably easy of access; in half an hour by bus, car or train you can be out in the wilds; the town is out of sight, its bustle and unease are forgotten, and it seems incredible that three quarters of a million people are pursuing their businesses a few miles away beyond the hills.”
Almost 90 years later, these observations remain valid. But in Heywood’s day, few dedicated picnic facilities existed in Hong Kong. Park benches dotted along popular Peak promenades or around the Botanical Gardens on Hong Kong Island, were about the extent of available spots in which to enjoy a picnic lunch in the open air. But times have changed – and much for the better.
These days, shopping malls or other privately owned locations have carefully monetised any civic access to “public” spaces. Deliberately scarce seating – whether indoor or outdoor – is inevitably situated near a cafe or coffee shop, with a consequent requirement to purchase something in return for the right to sit for a while.
Hikers enjoy the great outdoors at Mount High West Viewing Point in Pok Fu Lam Country Park. Photo: May Tse
Unchecked commercial imperatives in recent decades, right across the world, such as entrance fees charged to national parks in some countries, have greatly reduced access to public spaces.
